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.

The Fall produce is producing

On my way from the farmer's market this morning, I stopped by the plot to see how things are doing and to do a little weeding.

The first sight wasn't a pretty one.  The post for the hose reel had rotted at the ground level and fallen over.  That post will need to be replaced.

Thankfully, the lettuce bed on the other side of the bench wasn't harmed when the hose reel fell.  The lettuce is looking great.  We'll be having some salads this week, I suspect.

Similarly the two beds (each) of the daikon and kale are also growing nicely.  I think we should be able to start harvesting the kale this week.  The daikon is still a ways off despite the nice greenery.

It's been a long time since I've rock and rolled....

An entire growing season has come and gone since I've posted last.  What a shame.

Three big things occurred that led to that.

1. We had a lot of illness in the family this year.  Hobbies tend to get put on the back burner when that's the case.
2. When I felt like doing hobby stuff, I spent a fair amount of time doing woodworking instead of gardening.
3. I decided I wasn't going to track the harvests this year as I did last year.  That led to a lack of attention on the blog as well as general garden upkeep.  For much of the summer, I had a hard time getting out there more than once a week.

Some reflections

• We had a huge crop of beans this year.  I planted two crops.  That worked pretty well.  It would have done better had I trellised the 2nd crop effectively.

• Tomatoes did okay, but suffered because I didn't do a good job staking/caging them up.  The bell peppers did better this year than last.  The hot peppers didn't do much, though.
   
• We had three okra plants that survived.  Twice that would allow for more frequent picking.

• Kale was very happy.

• The cucumbers grew reasonably well.  It took a while for female flowers to appear for some reason, but we did get some good cucumbers.  They were oddly-colored, too.  Yellow/orange.  They did taste good, though. 

• For the last month of the summer growing season, I allowed beans that I wasn't able to harvest (read: they got bulbous before I could pick them) stay on the vine and dry naturally.  I've harvested a lot of green beans as well as some scarlet runners and shelled them for next year.

Where we are now

I have lettuce, daikon, and kale growing in the garden now.  The walking onions in both beds are still quite happy.  I've cleaned out a few beds to prepare for planting garlic which needs to be done this weekend.

Bean problems

Some of the beans are having problems.  There's definite discoloration in the leaves.  It's very possible that it's due to all the rain we've had lately, just as the tomatoes are suffering.  It could also be a nutrient deficiency.  I need to read about this.

I've also noticed that there's a distinct lack of flowers on both the scarlet runners and the pole beans.  It's easy to see where the flowers should be, but aren't.

I've found a lot of flowers on the ground and on the Adirondack chair.  Considering we have had a fair amount of tree limbs down in the area, my guess is that this is from the wind and rain.  There are also darker-colored flowers on the ground next to the chair indicating that this has happened on multiple occasions.

What I don't know is if this will have any long-term effect on bean development.

Plot progress - Melons, okra, cucumbers, beans

After a lot of rain last night, I decided to see how the garden stood up.

Some of the tomatoes aren't especially happy with all the water they've received lately.

We have our first baby okra.

The first melon is growing nicely and is now accompanied by a half dozen siblings.

It's too early to tell for sure, but we may also have our first baby cucumber.

I picked quite a bit of decent-sized kale and a ton of beans.

Plot Progress - new veggies, bean plantings

Another day, more watering.

Upon our return, I made it back to the plot to water and apply dust.  I was also happy to see that the garden has been growing in my absence. 

We now have baby peppers!

The baby beans have also grown quite a bit over the last few days.

I turned over the two garlic boxes and planted new beans in there.

The cucumbers have grown quite a bit over the last few days.

The best bit of news, though, is that we have a baby melon on the vine!  Extraordinary!