Garden grows...

Celery and basil

Celery

Celery

Peppers, chives, sage and thyme...plus a few assorted tomato plants

Little, itty, bitty pepper plant

Hardening off the seedlings...

Last Friday, I began the process of hardening off the tomato, pepper, and celery seedlings. This year I have had the best looking seedlings out of the last three years, but they still don't quite look like the ones from the nursery. I am hoping to get them in the ground by midweek.

Celery...

Tomatoes...

Peppers...

The peppers outside...

Tomatoes outside...

Planting Celery Seeds...

Friday afternoon I got down to the business of planting celery seeds. I have never grown celery before, but I do use a lot of it. I am planning to plant the celery in my kitchen garden which is right outside my back door. For the third year in a row I am starting my own seeds. I will also be starting pepper seeds, tomato seeds, cabbage seeds, broccoli seeds and probably watermelon seeds. When I started gardening I bought plants from the nursery. I even bought plants from Wal-Mart. I would encourage anyone who is beginning to garden to buy seedlings from a store. I have also purchased seedlings from Seed Savers Exchange, but this is quite spendy. Here is a look at how I like to start seeds.

I assembled all of my supplies: peat pellets, heat mat, tray with dome lid, warm water, seeds and a toothpick. I purchased these peat pellets at Lowe's last year. I am sure all the home and garden stores are now stocking their seed starting paraphernalia.

This heat mat was purchased from Harris Seeds. It really helps raise the temperature which is often needed for germination. My mat does not have a regulator. I just plug it in to turn it on and unplug it to turn it off.

These trays were purchased from Johnny's Select Seeds several years ago. I reuse them every year. They do need to be washed with a 10% bleach solution before they are reused just to be sure that they are not harboring any diseases.

Carolyn lined up 15 peat pellets in the tray. She loves to help me with my projects.

Then we poured a couple cups of warm tap water on them and waited for the pellets to absorb the water.

After all the water is absorbed and each pellet looks saturated, I fluff up the peat soil with a toothpick. Then we planted 3 seeds per pellet. Usually I put in 2 seeds, but I just wanted to be sure. So, we put in 3.

I covered the seeds lightly with soil, plugged in my heat mat, and now they are working on germinating. It can take celery seeds up to 3 weeks to germinate. Tomato and peppers seeds are much quicker.

Plans for the week...

My seed order came in a week or so ago. I purchased from both Johnny's and Seed Savers. I have had good success with the seeds from both places.

In my pile of seeds are:

Trophy Tomato
October Bean
Charlevoix Dark Beans
Butternut Squash
Detroit Dark Red Beets
Premium Late Flat Cabbage
Snow Fancy's Pickling Cucumbers
Negovia Carrots
Butterhead Lettuce
Yellow Onions
San Marzano Tomato
Provider Bush Beans
Jade Bush Beans
and...

Conquistador Celery. I have never planted celery before, but I sure do use a lot of it. These seeds must be started this week in order to be ready to plant outside at the end of May. This is the earliest I have planted seeds indoors.

In light of our discussion on the economy and surviving a depression, I don't think we can ignore the importance of growing some of your own food. I have been gardening on one level or another for about 15 years. This will be my third year for starting my own seeds. I learn a little bit more about it each year that I do it.

If you have never planted any vegetables before, I always recommend starting with crops that are easy to grow and that you like to eat. I discovered that there is no point in growing zucchini if I am the only one who will eat it no matter how prolific it is. Also, if you are planning on planting peppers or tomatoes, find a local nursery or garden center that has what you want and buy your transplants from them. Your first year is probably not the year to try growing your own transplants. I was not planning to take the time today to get into a lengthy discussion about gardening, but I will be writing about my progress as the season progresses. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have about the topic. I am not an expert, but I will try to answer your question to the best of my ability.

We are winding up the hockey seasons. Next week are the championship games. Then I can start sleeping in a little longer on Saturday morning. The 4-H season is just coming into full swing however. Carolyn had a great public presentation yesterday. In two weeks, Natalie has her horse bowl regional competition. We will have a couple more practices between now and then. I will try to remember to take my camera with me to these events. I forgot it yesterday.

Lastly, I am knee deep in planning next year's curriculum. My planning process begins in January and is usually completed by the end of March before the catalog prices increase.

I will keep you posted on how my seed starting activities progress this week. Also look for more discussions on preparedness.

The Kitchen Garden

Last year I was inspired to create a kitchen garden out the back door of my house. It seems that these might be the plants that do the best this year. The house is higher on the property than the large garden. These plants are getting good moisture but are not standing in water like those poor plants down on the south side of the property.

I planted cabbage for the first time this year. I did get some holes from the cabbage white butterflies larvae, but they have disappeared.

I also plant my herbs up here. The previous owners of the house had some perennials around the house, but there were no basic herbs. Now I have dill, chives, curly leaf parsley, flat-leaf parsley, sage, thyme, spearmint, peppermint, catnip, rosemary, and oregano. This picture is only one half of my flat-leaf parley.

I have about 10 sweet pepper plants planted near the house. These are the biggest pepper plants I have ever grown. They were so sad looking when I put them out in May, but they are just flourishing now. I have never had good success with growing large peppers. I hope that I get some larger sized peppers this year.

Finally, we have my most delightful surprise. I have butternut squash growing. They are the best looking squash that I did not plant. I have never had great luck with vine type plants, but I have the potential for at least 2 good looking butternut squash. When I saw these guys volunteering this past spring I asked David to leave them alone. I am so glad we did.

Hopefully the deer will leave them alone. They are nestled in among the flat-leaf parsley and behind the pepper plants.