Garlic & Onions Sprouting

I've been watering my garden every morning and watching its progress.

onions (left) garlic (right)

I planted carrots, onions and garlic a couple weeks ago and their sprouting finally. The garlic was pretty immediate, I'd say about three days after I planted I started to see the sprouts emerge. The onions finally starting the other day, but I have yet to see any carrots make their debut. I'm sure they'll come along eventually. I see where some gardeners in the area have leaves already, but I bet they planted earlier than I did.

The greens are coming along nicely. The seeds scattered a little more than I would have liked, but I think most of the seeds took. There may be a few that aren't doing so well, like the spicy mesclun mix. There are a couple of those, but not so many as the other mesclun mix had, and it was the same size packet.

The butter lettuce looks pretty good and so does the romaine. In the past I haven't had much luck with head lettuces. They always wither away. I think maybe I wasn't spacing and thinning like I should. This year, I've thinned quite a bit. Which, to me is hard. They all look so wonderful and to pull it out and toss it seems wrong, but in order for one to live, the other has to go.

Mesclun mix

So, it's for the best, but not my favorite part of planting.

Upstairs, with my seedling sprouts, I have tried to transplant the extra seedlings, instead of throw them out. It's been working pretty great and I haven't lost one yet. I noticed in most of my pepper seedlings there were two, healthy sprouts growing side by side. So, I pulled one out ever so gently, and place it in a small hole in another cup that didn't sprout. I'd water it and make sure it was snug in the soil, then leave. When I came back the next day, it was perky and seemed to have taken hold. So, I'm glad I tried that because I wasn't sure if it would work.

Here in a couple weeks, I'll update you on the progress of the garden. Soon, it will be time to plant the summer garden and this year we are changing things up a bit.  Instead of using and entire garden bed for tomatoes and peppers, we've decided to build individual beds for each tomato plant, that way we can space them out around the yard and they will get plenty of airflow and 360 degree sunlight. Last year, because we had such a problem with blight, we almost lost all of our tomato plants. One major reason it affected our plants so much was because they were crammed so closely together. We didn't want to build an entire garden bed because we don't have the space for one plot of land to be dedicated solely to tomatoes. So we had the idea to separate them out. It's going to be some extra work, but hopefully will pay off in the end.

Around the garden I'm noticing some volunteers popping up. Cilantro is all over the place. I have been pulling it, just because I plan to plant some this fall. Last year, I planted cilantro in the spring but then it took up too much space because I was trying to collect the seeds. It worked, it just took a lot longer and more room than I expected. If you want cilantro to come back every year, just find a nice plot of land, maybe 5 feet by 5 feet and plant a packet of cilantro. Harvest it as needed but leave the plants in the ground. Let it do its thing. It will continue to bolt, drop seeds and grow new plants. Then, even the next year, it will start to pop back up. Pretty much all herbs are this way. I just need a permanent spot to put them all so I can just let them go. This is when I miss living in the country on a couple acres.  My rosemary and thyme both came back this year, so I won't have to plant them again. Just more if I want more, which I think I do.

I've been finding a lot of arugula, too. I planted that last fall and didn't do anything with it really. I don't really like arugula, I planted it because Ryan likes it. But, I'm not sure this variety was what he was hoping for. I've let it continue to grow because it looks healthy and like it should taste good, but it's always been too peppery for me. Around it, you can see the butter lettuces have been doing well. and the rosemary is back in the corner, still here from last year.

Spring Planting 2016

It's finally Spring, which means it's time to plant my early garden. This year, I kind of know what to expect, so I am planting a little earlier than last year, and I'm planting more. I know last year I didn't know what I was doing, so I only did one packet of mesclun mix, but we loved it so much I did two this time. I have half a packet of spinach and half a package of butter lettuce, as well as some micro greens.

I planted around nine rows, with a couple of them only half planted because I ran out of seeds. That's OK though, I would rather not have too much.

I also only planted the north bed, leaving the south bed empty until next month when I plant carrots, garlic and a few other things. I'm switching it up this year because last Fall I realized the types of things I wanted to can and decided to try to grow those things. For example, I pickled a bunch of cucumbers, which needed garlic and dill. So, I am planning to plant garlic and dill, as well as a few cucumber plants.

I need to get some garlic and onion bulbs because I decided not to start my own seeds. I think I would have needed to start them already and I am starting some seeds this year, but I don't have much confidence in them as this is just a trial run.

The seeds I started I got at a seed exchange in Lawrence a couple weeks ago. It was great. I took some of my coriander from last year's cilantro crop and left them on the "Herbs" table. I brought my own small ziploc baggies and went around to all the different tables and got the seeds I thought I'd use. It was a pretty cool event because I got most of the seeds I need for my garden this year. If I was going to start my own tomato seeds I could have gotten those, too, but I didn't have the confidence. I will probably get those at the Topeka Farmers Market

like I did last year.

Ryan went to one of our neighbors for compost. He lives a few blocks away, and we met him at the farmers market last spring. We bought a couple gallons of compost from him last year and he told us where he lives and invited us to come by there whenever we should need compost. So, we do, and it's pretty cheap. We pay like $5 for a five-gallon bucket of charcoal-infused compost that is so rich and soft, it's so worth it. I started my seeds in it, and I mounded it up in my garden beds in rows and planted my seeds in it, too.

Whenever I use his compost, everything always grows so fast and strong, so I have confidence in that. I just hope my seeds get enough direct sunlight and warmth so they have enough energy to grow. I've been setting the container out on my porch the past couple days and that seems to help them sprout.