So ready to get my hands dirty!

On the second weekend in March, I planted most of my vegetable seeds in their little peat pots, gave them water, wished them well, and put them to bed in their little GroundWork's walk-up greenhouses out on my back porch.  A week later, most had sprouted and within 10 days all were soaking up the sunshine that was coming through the nice heavy-duty plastic that protected them from the cold on the other side.  (Remember those low temps?!)  And, I never had to water them except for the initial planting time because the plastic cover formed condensation throughout the 4 weeks the baby plants were undercover, and when I would stick my arm in there to turn them around, it was toasty warm in there!

I got the greenhouse units on sale for $25 at Tractor Supply (reg. price was $29) and Lowe's has some very similar to these, priced the same.  I was very pleasantly surprised at how well they were constructed  and how easy it was to put them together.  They have worked out very well for me.  When my real greenhouse is built, I will be able to use the shelves and pans in it, but for now I needed something portable to get my seeds started.  No more starting them on my kitchen counters, table tops, and atop my washer/dryer.  I am moving on up toward the Big Time, me!

Last weekend I was just dying to put those sweet little sprouts in their permanent places in my vegetable garden beds, but I was scared!  What if we had another frost? It could happen...it snowed on Easter this time last year here in my neck of the woods.... like Winter's last cosmic joke of the season. I just don't trust the weather these days and I already have trust issues on fronts other than the weather kind.  This year, April 15, 2014, was not only tax day, we had a frost.  What's next???  A blood moon?! Oh, wait, we got that, too!  Yikes!

But it is now Easter weekend, and I plan to get my hands dirty!  On Thursday morning before leaving for work, I unzipped the plastic door covering on the greenhouses, rolled them up neatly and held them in place with the nice Velcro at the top. This was to allow them to "harden" for a few days and nights before they go out into the scary real world with its rain, heat, sunshine, weeds, and BUGS!

Then on Friday I moved them into the full sunshine for part of the day, and again on Saturday.  They really liked it!

While I let the little plants harden, I started putting together another product that I am anxious to try out called Patio Pickers Raised Garden Kit.  It is a portable raised bed that is designed to help you do some "urban gardening" on your balcony or porch.  Now, I am not really doing any "urban gardening," but these nifty units looked like an inexpensive way for me to have raised  beds without all the fuss of building them this year.  I already have too much on my plate, as usual.  I saw them by chance at Lowe's while pricing plain, large plastic pots to plant my eggplant and squash in this year.  This product, at $29, was cheaper than two of those pots and could do more for me, so I bought 3.  They are actually kind of a cross between raised bed, hydroponic, and square foot gardening concepts, all of which I am a real fan.  How could I lose?!

The dimensions on them are about 20" x 24" x 9", and the instructions list how many plants of what types (both flower and vegetable and fruit) that you can plant in each.  I wanted to plant squash in mine and it indicated that I could plant 5 to 6 in one container.  The directions are very well done and installation is very simple. You will need to purchase 1.5 cubic feet of a good potting mix (not potting soil) that contains spagnum moss, which I found to equal 4 bags; a bag of dolomite or "garden lime" (but you need only a small amount, so buy the smallest bag you can find); and common dry granular fertilizer like you would put on your lawn, such as 13-13-13 (not time or slow release or any kind you mix with water).  There is an aeration screen, a water fill tube, and a mulch cover that are included.  They also came with 4 casters for the bottom so that, on a deck or patio or balcony, you can move them from place to place, but I didn't put them on as I was not going to be moving mine once I placed them.

Follow the directions carefully and, in no time, you will have a raised bed garden system that takes up a small amount of space, and does not waste water.  You add water as needed through the water fill tube, and with the mulch cover, what water you do use goes straight to the plants without evaporating! Also, I suspect that you will have less of a chance of powdery mildew and such, and, of course, no weeds to pull, which is my favorite part, I think!  Yay!  And you can plant just about any kind of vegetable you want in them, including peas and beans and okra!  Or how about some strawberries?!  (see update for this product here),

Now, I also wanted to share with you the way I am growing onions from regular store bought ones.  I figure that eventually I might have enough to never have to buy an onion at Kroger ever again!  Of course, I will also need a huge onion bed, because I LOVE cooking with onions.

First, you take a regular onion.  This one is a 

yellow onion that happens to have already started

sprouting out the top, but that is totally unnecessary.

Then you slice off about 1/2" of the bottom where the dried out roots

are, and you let it sit at least 24 hours to dry out on the cut side.  

I have waited up to a week to plant, but I think that it is best to plant

within 3 days.  You can plant in a pot on a windowsill if you like.

Make a depression in the soil, and plant them, inside or out, filling the

depression first with plenty of water and then press the slices into the 

wet soil.  You do not cover them with soil.  It is important to keep the

slices well watered.  Soon, you will see green tops sprouting!

When they look like these, the roots have re-hydrated and formed 

new ones and they are ready to take out of the soil and divide into

individual onion plants.

It is best to use a sharp knife and slice carefully between the green

tops, making sure there are some nice roots on each piece.  You are

then ready to plant these cuttings in your garden to grow into real

onions!  And you will have gotten at least two onions out of one!

You can do this with your shallots or green onions, also.

Here is a green onion I grew as an experiment over the last year.

It does take them a while to get big.  This one was in the garden 

since last summer, but it started out as a tiny green onion from 

Kroger for putting in my Fourth of July potato salad.  I sliced the

bottom off and planted it directly in my vegetable bed.  You could 

easily grow these on a pot in sunny window sill and have green 

onion tops all year long, and eventually a fresh onion!

I have read that you can grow celery in a similar fashion, and a friend has been able to do the same with some bok choy.  I am going to try the celery soon, maybe this week, and see what happens and will let you know how it works.  I love celery for its crunch and health benefits, but, let's face it, folks...why is it so expensive in the grocery when it is nothing but water and strings?!

This weekend I discovered that at the end of the fava bean row, right next to the little marker that says "SPINACH," there was a beet growing in the dirt under the leaves of what I had been cooking and eating as spinach during the winter!  Truth be told, the leaves didn't look like the spinach leaves in the grocery store, but I just thought it was a different variety.  The good news is that now I have even more beets to enjoy for a while!

My fava beans are blooming up a storm and have been since mid-March.  The seed packet indicated I would be harvesting them in March, but that was not the case, at least not for me, and not this crazy year! The pea flowers are so pretty....white with black spots!  Very stylish, if you ask me!  Both honey and bumble bees have been enjoying the flowers constantly.  But, after a month of blooming, there are still no signs of pods forming and I am wondering if it has to do with the weird temps.  I think it does, so now that the temps are rising as they should this time of year, I hope to be shelling some fava beans soon!

Now, some photos from the last of my winter garden.  

The Swiss Chard is so pretty with its greens and reds.  Very tasty
cooked similar to spinach.

 

Here you can see just how much the honey bees love those sassy white flowers with black spots!

Ladybugs are also a constant visitor to the fava bean plants.

And I found this sweet green fellow hiding among the leaves

Well, it has turned out to be a very good weekend for gardening, after all, here on HeartSong Farm!