Thursday, May 6, 2010

Progress on Growing Things

Last Friday I realized I hadn't hardened off the things I wanted to transplant last weekend, so I gave the baby plants some outside time over the weekend, and then left them on the outside table during the day on Monday.

So, when we had a huge storm Monday afternoon and I drove past downed tree limbs on my way home Monday afternoon, I was worried that I'd find yellow cups scattered around the yard and all my hard work gone with the wind.  I even had the title of the blog post about it picked out.  From a song by the Violent Femmes, "Gone Daddy, Gone".

I never wrote that post because the little planties did just fine in the storm.  They were knocked over, but all the plants stayed in the pots, except one, and I unceremoniously shoved that one back in.


Here's what the seed starting shelves looked like this morning.  On the top shelf from left to right, green peppers, I'm plumping up pellets to start melons, zucchini and yellow squash, and lots of basil, some tarragon and some sage seeds that never came up.

I'm really, really glad I transplanted the broccoli, rabe and leeks as directed by you folks.  After last weekend, I was going to plant them this week, but this week has been crazy busy.  The extra dirt has kept the plants happy, so they'll tolerate the longer time before they get put into real dirt.  I succumbed to lust at Home Depot yesterday and bought a rosemary, a dill and some stevia, and they're now resting on the lower shelf until I decide what to do with them.  I'm excited about trying to grow stevia.  I hope it's not an annual, like dill is, and rosemary up here in the frozen north.  In Washington DC, my father has a rosemary bush on the sidewalk in front of his house that won't die.  Goes to show you what a few (hundred) miles will do.

2 comments:

  1. I love hearing about your progress. I planted dill seeds yesterday, on both sides of the four rows of corn that I planted. On Saturday, I'll plant the tomatoes. There is a shorter growing season in VT, and the plants are ready for more space to grow.

    I don't think I have ever seen stevia. How is it used?

    I planted sage about five years ago, and nothing will kill it. It keeps sprouting new sidekicks too. (Don't ask me how to use sage. Mostly, I just leave it there, next to a bush!)

    With all the time I spend reading your blog and other homesteaders' blogs, I found myself daydreaming about raising chickens, the kind that is both for meat and produces some eggs -- raise about 6 to 8, and start over every year (so I can head back to NY later in the year, where no chickens are allowed). I got that idea from a homesteading book writing about dual purpose chickens!

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  2. 25 feet does it for me with rosemary. In the herb bed I tried 3 years to keep a plant over the winter with no luck. I wound up putting it in a more sheltered place (from wind) on the south side of the house and it's been there two winters and its huge. Blooms like crazy, too.

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