A Week After Planting

April 13, 2015

So it's been a week and a day since we planted our first seeds: cilantro, mesclun mix and two types of spinach. We've been watering twice a day, trying to use our rain barrel water when we can. It rained a bunch the past two days so both of our barrels are nice and full.

Spinach #1 (heirloom)

What's cool is that the storms had lightning and thunder, which always provides nitrogen-rich water for plants. Never heard of that? Here's a link for more information: https://www.pick-a-pepper.com/readarticle.php?itemid=100

I've been excitedly checking the garden every day, anticipating sprouts. Most of what we've planted is sprouting, with the exception of the cilantro. That's really the only crop that I haven't seen popping up, but the seeds were bigger and had a harder shell than the others, so I bet they will take a bit longer to germinate and all that.

Spinach #2

I've also been thinking that maybe we planted the cilantro wrong. As in, we planted two rows of cilantro, and I am thinking we should have just done a patch of cilantro, so we could do other patches of different herbs, too. I guess I will just wait and see.

I found this cool idea from my website perusal at my internship. It's called an herb spiral, and it's designed for herbs of all sorts. Here's a link to learn more: http://www.littlemountainhaven.com/how-to-build-a-herb-spiral//  Maybe next year I could try one of these. I don't know where I'd put it though, so I'll keep thinking on that one.

Mesclun mix

Another potential issue is that I definitely planted the mesclun mix too close together. I'm going to end up needing to thin a lot of it out, but I knew that from the beginning when I planted them and they all stuck together and to my fingers. the sprouts are already really close together, and they've somehow spread to other rows and in between rows. I'm going to try to save as much as I can, but for now I am going to let them grow a little bit more before I pull any up.

So I guess I will continue to water and do what I'm doing. Everything seems to be going well, so far. I've seen some bugs and a squirrel or two, but nothing serious yet.