Oh No!!

This is what I woke up to this morning, snow. I marveled at the sight for about 2 seconds until I remembered I just transplanted everything yesterday. I jumped out of bed and rushed outside to drag all of my pots in.



I just told someone the other day that we rarely get snow too. Should have kept my mouth shut. Luckily it was only a dusting. Then an hour later this happened.



I was tempted to bring the pots back outside but decided to wait a while. With such unpredictable weather I didn't want to risk it. I was right to wait too because a few hours later we got even more snow.

And to top it all off, my cat decided to dance in the pots and crush my beet root seedlings, break a few broccoli stems, and even snap a borlotto bean plant in half. Oh and he even managed to dump an entire tray of seedlings killing most of them. He's still alive but I came very close to giving him the boot out into the cold. Bad kitty!!

It's Time

The beer box seed tray held up long enough for me to transplant my seedlings and boy were they huge. Now to chuck the box into the compost bin. The bottom is already well rotted. And my beans are so big I've already had to stake them in the pots.



Top right to left: beets then broccoli
Middle: Corn
Front 3: Climbing beans

The beets and broccoli will be staying in their pots. Oh and I have to mention I got those large pots today at the discount store for 4 euro each!! Such a deal. The corn will be transplanted into the garden when the weather warms up. I put some in there already, as an experiment, so we'll see what happens. And the pots are where the beans are going to stay. I'm just going to put them up against the fence and string them up.



As you can see from this pic my back garden is going to be mostly containers. I wish I could dig up those slabs and redo the whole area but the landlord would frown upon that. Oh well, containers are just as good.

So that should do it for a while. Not going to be able to transplant or sow any more seeds for a while. I've run out of pots and room in the house so we'll give it a break and concentrate on what I've got.

What I did...

...to get my seedlings to look this amazing.



Here are a couple cheap ways to get the heat going in your seed trays.



Under the beer box is a hot water bottle and you can see the milk jug. I crushed it so it would be flat and cover a large space. Strangely enough the milk jug stays warm longer than the hot water bottle. And I know the jug works because as soon as I put a covered seed tray on it condensation instantly appeared.

Another thing I did, and I'm thinking it helped, was to sprinkle kelp powder on the plants as soon as they popped up. Seaweed is an excellent fertilizer. You can buy a small packet of it from the health food store for 1.99. And a little goes a long way.

Next step is to find a way to get my beans out of there without disturbing anything else. The box is just about ready to decompose, which is just what I was hoping for, but I still need it to hold out for a few more days. Just until I can get more pots and the weather to warm a bit.

Case O' Beer Seed Tray

Ever since I was a kid I tried finding fun uses for things we would normally just throw away. Most of the time I just made a mess and it ended up in the bin anyway. But sometimes I’d actually make something work. I’m hoping this is one of them. It’s my case o' beer seed tray and this is how I made it.

Take an empty case of beer and cut it down to the divider inside. Take the pieces you cut off and put them, glazed side inwards, inside the box to secure the divider in place. Also place one on the bottom to prevent soil from falling through the opening and the box from getting saturated and falling apart.

Then fill with potting compost and a gritty seed sowing compost for proper drainage. I chose an all-purpose potting compost for the bottom 2/3 and the grit for the top to help the seeds germinate.

After sowing all the seeds in my new beer box seed tray I watered them with tepid water and covered it with plastic wrap for a greenhouse effect. Just remember to take the plastic off as soon as you see them start to germinate. Otherwise you’ll get stringy stems that aren’t strong and will most likely succumb to cold weather. (Learned that one the hard way)

The tray is roughly 4 ½ inches (11cm) deep. I’m going to use it for beets, corn, borlotto beans, and broccoli.

Once I've repotted the seedlings from this tray I'm going to throw it into the compost bin. By that time the box should be pretty broken down and ready to rot. Just hope it holds out until they're ready to replant. If not I've got plastic pots on standby.

I’ll keep you posted on if this beer box seed tray works out and how I’ll get the seedlings out of there once they’re ready to be replanted. That should be interesting.Wish me luck!

Repotting Annuals

I had no idea repotting seedlings was so delicate. I looked at the full seed tray and thought "Now how do I get those tiny things into these bigger pots without killing them?" So I made a decision, cut the trays. I don't know if that's what you're supposed to do. Since I've never actually witnessed someone repotting seedlings I just did what I thought was right. If I'm right, yeah me! If not, please tell me what you're supposed to do.

Like I've said before I'm very new at this. Thankfully most of my seedlings are growing, rapidly, and surviving being outside most nights. I'm trying to toughen them up, and learn what they can tolerate at the same time. So far, no casualties.

I repotted my carrots in a wide deep pot usually used for bulb planting. My allotment is too shallow for really deep rooted vegetables so the pot is the perfect depth and width. If I haven't killed the seedlings during transplanting, I should have quite a few carrots to harvest. I'm going to plant them in succession to try and get continual harvesting. If the seedlings don't make it I'll just sow seeds directly in the pot to avoid root disturbance.

March is going to be a busy month for me. I have a tray full of seeds just waiting to be started. I'm going by what the packages say. I'm still too inexperienced to be that adventurous. I'll keep you posted.

Roses Are Red...

This Valentine's Day my husband surprised me with a few gifts and one of them was this gorgeous red rose. I had to wait a few days to take a picture because it hadn't bloomed yet. Although the bud was beautiful, I wanted to wait for the full monty. I have no idea what kind of rose this is (if you do please tell me) but I'm hoping to be able to find one to grow in my back garden. I also need a trailing kind to grow up the fencing and block out the ugly driveway on the other side.

Eventually my ugly barren back garden will be exploding with colors and life. My tulips are coming up and should be making their debut in a couple weeks. For a while I thought I planted them too deep but I guess I didn't because they look strong and healthy so far. I planted some shallots in the new bed but they aren't doing anything yet (stubborn). Still too cold and not enough sunlight. But my garlic is beginning to show signs of life in seedling pots. Fearing rot I took them out of the greenhouse because it was too cold and wet. My courgettes (zucchini) are doing amazing. I have 4 seedlings going and have already repotted one into its adult pot. It looks so tiny and alone but in no time it will be huge and trailing out of the pot (fingers crossed).

My tomato seedlings are popping up finally as well. I had all but given up hope of growing those little suckers. And I know enough to plant them as deep as the first set of leaves to ensure further rooting and a stronger stem. Saw that on tv.

So if you're a novice (like me) or a seasoned gardener share some of your tips of the trade. What are you doing this time of the year?

Homemade Plant Tags

If you know me at all you know how frugal I am. In fact, I devoted an entire blog to it. So it should come as no surprise that, whenever possible, I will make something myself instead of buying it.

This is a prime example. Clothes peg plant markers. I bought 40 clothes pegs for under 2 euro and 2 permanent markers for 2.65 (they only came as a set). And, as luck would have it, there was a can of paint under my kitchen sink from when they built my house. Bonus!

I do have to mention that I did attempt to buy tags at the garden center but they hadn't gotten them in yet. But knowing how expensive things are in Ireland I'm going to harbor a guess that I did save some money making them myself. Plus it was a fun little craft project.

Clothes Peg Plant Markers in 3 Easy Steps:

1. Either keep pegs in tact or break them apart into 2 pieces.

2. Paint the pegs with any paint you have lying around the house. Try not to paint the part that goes into the soil to avoid contamination.



3. When dry, use a permanent marker to write the name of the plant on them. My penmanship is atrocious but I'm sure yours is a lot better.



And that's it you're done. Just keep in mind it may take overnight for the paint to dry. You can clip them to the side of the pot or put them in the soil like I did here. I like clipping them because they don't get as dirty and they're easier to read. But if you're using trays like I am you'll need to make both. Have fun!

A New Direction

So I've decided to give my blog a less invasive atmosphere. From now on you'll see my gardening, cooking, and healthful recipes instead of showing you nasty brain worms.

It's all starts with the new house we moved into at the end of October 2008. I'm fortunate enough to live in a house with a private garden. Although the garden is small, I can still raise the bed, and pot up some flowers, fruits, and veg to grow to supplement us throughout the year (hopefully).

This is my first attempt at something like this so be patient with me. I've already made mistakes and I just started. Like I started seedlings in the house and nothing happened except the cat stepped on every pot. And I buried my strawberry seeds and should have kept them on the surface. At 4.29 for 15 seeds I wont be making that mistake again. Might just go buy strawberry seedlings and get over my foolish pride.

Here are some pics of what I've done so far and my brand spankin' new greenhouse. Ain't she pretty? I can't believe how warm it gets in there.