by Kristen | Jun 18, 2014 | garden food, Little Bytes
Introducing a new variety of lettuce!!! It’s invisible! Or maybe just not there… (sigh) Certainly not for lack of trying though! You can check out my post on planting our lettuce HERE, we really did plant seeds, they just didn’t come up. We planted the pot and left it on the patio where it would get morning sun and the rain would get to it (not that I planned to forgo watering). The next day I checked on the container and it had a small hole dug into the center of the pot. I filled the hole back in, watered and left it. The next day the hole was back with a bit of other disturbance. After about a week of this I started to assume it was the squirrels or birds. After a few more days I called the Plantlady and gave up hopes of actually seeing lettuce. Shortly after coming back from our vacation the kids were outside playing with the neighbor kids and they were having great fun digging in the planter.
Sigh…
Let’s talk about this a little bit. I am not having great success with any of my spring plant projects except the pumpkins which turned out great. My herb pot isn’t that great and the lettuce was a no show. I haven’t killed anything yet but we still have a bit of growing season left so let’s hold the verdict on that one (the lettuce doesn’t count). But here’s the thing… I’m not giving up. I suppose I could get all supped up about these “failures”, declare I have a “black thumb” and vow never to grow anything again but that would be ridiculous. A few failed plantings does not a “black thumb” make. Instead, I need to keep planting and experimenting to see what I am good at growing. Besides what kind of example would I be setting for E and Little Chef? Little things make a huge impact for our little ones so I need to get back out there and try again.
So, what do you do when a plant or seeds you’ve planted don’t come up? It’s time to re-plant! I could have put more lettuce seed down but we have a plethora of pumpkin plants to find homes for so we put three in our now plant-less container.
And the coveted watering job goes to Little Chef!
I’m telling you, if you have kids or grand-kids, watering duties are a great way to get your little guys out into the garden. Of course digging is Little Chef’s preferred activity when it comes to containers of dirt but now that something is actually growing there watering is where it’s at.
So, now the pumpkins have a home to take over and the kids have a bigger target to water. We didn’t find an effective labeling technique for this batch of pumpkins so I really don’t know what type of pumpkins are in this container. It will be a lovely surprise to share with you this fall.
by Kristen | Jun 13, 2014 | Community Gardens
With summer rapidly approaching and the weather warming I thought I’d give you an update on our local community garden (if you missed our first post on this you can read it HERE). I’ve been seeing a lot of photos on Facebook and Instagram showing what folks in the Northwest are pulling out of their gardens and I’m a bit jealous. Our spring here in the Midwest was delayed due to the deep freeze we received over the winter. I’m eager to see more coming out of our gardens soon. For now let’s take a look at what’s growing right now…
Tomato and basil plants… a match made in heaven!
Lettuce
Swiss Chard
Tomatoes and basil went in first with lettuce and Swiss chard not far behind. They are doing well.
Creative use of “found things” for our beans.
The crew set up a new raised bed complete with beanpoles for beans with more beans along one of the fence lines.
Young pumpkin plants under the screen, Mother’s Day marigolds in hand painted pots.
We contributed a few of our pumpkin plants and they are hanging out happily under the screens to keep them safe from critters until they get bigger.
Raspberries
The raspberries are loving the sunshine. Hopefully we will see some fruit soon.
What do you have growing now? Have you fresh cut flowers on your table, fresh veg from your garden? Drop us a line below and let us know!
by Kristen | Jun 10, 2014 | garden food, Little Bytes
Hello friends and happy June!!! I know, I’m a little late to the June party, it just goes to show how fast the month is flying by. Now that we are about half way through June it’s time to go back and visit some of our planting projects from the spring. As you may remember Jen and I planted herb pots back in April/May (you can read about HERE and HERE).
Here is Jen’s pot…
Such a lovely pot with the flat leaf parsley reaching to the heavens with the Thai basil not far behind. It looks so delicious!
And then there is my pot… Sigh.
My kids have a book by Sandra Boynton called Red Hat, Green Hat in which a turkey insists on putting articles of clothing on in the wrong manner. The book simply says “oops”. My pot is definitely feels like an “oops” and I must say I’m a little disappointed. We just returned from a 2.5 week trip back to the Northwest and before we left we dropped the pot off at our community garden for the duration of our trip. Now before you go thinking that I’m about to blame the state of my herbs on my fellow community gardeners I’m not. They did what they could, even moving the pot to a shadier spot as it didn’t seem to be taking the sunlight very well. I’m so thankful they were able to take care of our herbs and pumpkins while we were gone. If not for them all of our plants would be gone.
After conferring with my Plantlady we agree the herbs simply need more water. Unfortunately in our work to get ready for our trip it’s likely I neglected my plant duties and forgot to water before we left not giving it a great start before we moved it to the community garden. My husband and I will transport the container back to our house this week and nurse it back to health. I’ll keep you posted on our progress.
Back to Jen’s pot. We will be posting some yummy recipes to use with our home grown herbs so stay tuned. In the meantime drop us a line and let us know what your favorite herb uses are. Do you dry yours or use them fresh? What’s your favorite dish? We’d love to hear from you!
by Kristen | Jun 6, 2014 | garden travel
We found out a few months ago that the college my husband attends has a community garden! Due to the transient nature of the college the garden goes through cycles of tended and not. It just so happens that a few friends of ours were interested in tending the garden during their time at the college and invited us to join in the fun. There are numerous garden opportunities in the Chicago area and I’m excited to be a part of one that’s just down the block from us.
We started back in early May prepping the beds.
Our plan is to reclaim both large beds that flank the fence line on both sides, install a new raised bed for pole beans and fix up the existing raised bed. Currently we have tomato and basil starts ready to go in along with our pumpkin starts I wrote about a few days ago. Of the three families that are involved none of us claim to be “experts”. I’m excited to see what we are able to accomplish in the community garden this year.
What have you got growing so far?
by Kristen | Jun 3, 2014 | Plantswoman Design
This past Easter the Plantswoman, aka G-ma, sent E and Little Chef (my 5 and 3 yr old) some pumpkin seeds in their Easter baskets. Seeing as it was warming up outside but not quite warm enough to plant directly into the ground we started the seeds inside. Little Chef and I planted his seeds on a warmish afternoon while E was in school.
Susan sent a few different varieties and marked the seeds with a marker making it very easy to tell which ones were which.
Once the seeds were in the soil, however, it wasn’t so easy to see. I attempted to label them with file labels and toothpicks but soon figured out that system was a little too cumbersome. Once the pumpkins arrive I’m confident it will be pretty easy to see which ones are which.
We picked up the seedling container from the local hardware store in their garden section. Little Chef enjoyed planting his seeds and the seedling container was a great way to contain the mess. Once the seeds were all planted we put the container on the window ledge of the south facing windows in our dining room. In about a week and a half we had green!
In a few more days we had quite the shock of green coming out all over the place and let me tell you my kids were so excited! Watering the seedlings is a treasured job in our house right now.
Did you notice the one really tall shoot in the back of that last photo? He was the first shoot to escape. When we planted our pumpkins I didn’t really help Little Chef put the seeds into the potting soil. I just let him plant them and moved on to the next thing for the day (I did try to help him but got the requisite “I do it momma” and let him be). When I noticed the first shoot of green pop out I started worrying about the other seeds. Why weren’t they popping out too? I waited a few more days and checked them again, there wasn’t any green but I did notice the little pods were taking on a new shape. I picked one up to take a closer look there were lovely white roots shooting out of the bottom. Something was growing in there but I couldn’t see it yet. A quick call and photos to my Plant-lady confirmed the seeds were growing upside down. Susan assured me they would find their way out and said if I wanted to help them out a little I could. So I cut the edges of the little pods to let the seedlings find their way a little easier. With in a day or two the rest of the little guys came out to say hello. We planted E’s seeds about a week later than Little Chef’s but they came forth like gangbusters and were ready to go out into the garden before long.
We have so enjoyed growing these pumpkins from seed. I highly recommend popping some seeds into Easter baskets or any gift given in the spring-time. It’s such a wonderful way to be a part of the earth’s awakening.
by Kristen | May 30, 2014 | gardening
This time of year folks want to get out into their gardens and do work. Rightly so! But here’s the deal, as Susan would say, don’t go out and “weed” with your pruners. There are very few things in your yard right now that would take kindly to pruning. While we commend your “get out and do” spirit take a moment to review THIS article from the Arbor Day Foundation before taking your pruners out into the garden.
by Kristen | May 28, 2014 | plants, Plantswoman Design
Last week I had the opportunity to wander through Susan’s garden to grab some photos for our recent blog posts. As I walked along the pathways taking pictures I found myself drawn in by the detail of each different plant with their leaves still dripping with dew. I don’t know if this happens to you but I was so focused I stopped paying much attention to what was around me. Standing up after photographing a beautiful spirea ‘golden flame’ I spotted what looked like a dark, wet, dirty animal out of the corner of my eye and about jumped out of my skin. It wasn’t an animal though… It was Susan’s massive gunnera manicata and it was coming back to life.
We’ve posted photos of this gunnera before and even now in it’s new fresh from spring state it is enormous and lush. I hope you enjoy these photos that I took after my heart rate returned to normal and I could enjoy the greatness that is the gunnera manicata. And tell me if the massive rhizomes (clumping) at the base of the leaves doesn’t look like a giant coming up from the ground!
by Kristen | May 24, 2014 | gardening
If you planted anything from seeds early this spring it’s time to start moving them outside to their permanent homes. Before you send those tender sprouts out into the garden take some time to harden them off. To learn more about the process of hardening off your seedlings take a look HERE and HERE or click below.
Growing Gardens: Hardening Off Plant Starts
Hardening Off Your Seedlings
by Kristen | May 23, 2014 | gardening
Depending on your area it may be time to get out and prune your evergreen shrubs (please note we said shrubs not trees). Take a look at this article from the Royal Horticulture Society for some timely tips before you head out.
Pruning Evergreen Shrubs
