New seeds and a trip to the plot

A much delayed blog update.

I started some more tomato seeds from leftovers from last year.  Old Virginia.  Unfortunately, I needed to order more San Marzano so that's taken a while to show up. They finally got here this past Thursday.

After a trip to the beach (Groupon) this weekend, The Boy and I made a trip to the plot.  We turned over all the boxes as well as most of the pots out there.  I say "most" because I somehow overlooked the two right by the gate. 

We moved the cucumber/watermelon trellis to be in two boxes near the gate.  Change of pace and an attempt at limited crop rotation for the two spaces that can accommodate that thing.

We also planted some stuff!  Lettuce, radishes, kale, snow peas (2 boxes and a pot), and carrots (2 boxes).  I'm skeptical that the carrots will do anything.  I suspect it's still too early/cold for them, but they're old seed and no big loss if nothing germinates.  It's an experiment.  I typically never have my act together this early in the growing season so it'll be interesting to see what happens with the carrots.

I need to generate a new layout for the plot.  The Boy and I had to mark up a 2014 layout after checking 2013.  Really glad I started doing the layouts a few years ago.  It's fantastic to take a look at stuff and try to make sure I'm rotating everything as well as I reasonably can.

Seeds are sprouted. What now?

The bulk of my seeds have been sprouted for a week or so.  Some watermelons haven't come up yet as well as some peppers and tomatoes.  No big shock there.

I'm finding myself with a bit of a challenge, unfortunately.  We're still in the townhouse despite our perennial plan to get out "next year" (sigh!) with this being our 5th year of that plan.  I digress.

The challenge.  The Boy will be six years in a few months.  He's a very active 6 yr old and has Legos and whatnot all over his dresser where I used to put the seedlings until I was ready to transplant and put them on the grow shelves in the basement.  So there's no room in there.

Our daughter's room is kept dark since she's still taking naps.  She also is an exceptionally grabby 2 yrs old.  Far moreso than The Boy was at her age.

For now, we have the sprouts in the kitchen, but that is neither as warm as their bedrooms (which are south-facing) nor does it get all that much sunlight being on the north side of the house.  As a result, they're getting quite leggy. 

I could put them under the grow lights early, but that room in the basement just isn't as warm as elsewhere in the house.  Quite a quandary.

Back to the Blog - looking back at 2014, planning for 2015

Been a while since I posted to the blog.

My resolutions this year are to not ignore the blog and to not neglect the garden.  This year, I intend to return to what I did back in 2013; I'm going to resume weighing my produce and taking pictures as it comes in.  I find it gives me another reason to post to the blog.

So.....looking forward!  I started seeds yesterday.  Don't know what made me want to start it at this point; could be because it was another cold January day in Maryland.

Thus far, it's the same stuff as last year:

• San Marzano and Old Virginia tomatoes
• Cayenne and Carolina Wonder (bell) peppers
• Basil
• Blacktail Mountain watermelons
• Lacinato (dinosaur) kale
• Balcony Petunias
• French Marigolds

I still need to start my cucumbers.  I'll also be direct sowing sugar snap peas, lettuce, carrots, and radishes (both daikon and standard).  Wifey wants to experiment with purple carrots and potatoes this year.  Hopefully, we actually get around to it.

These containers actually have organic seed starting mix in them.  I just use the containers from year to year to save on cost.