Strawberry orphans in need of a new home.

March 23, 2009 at 8:19 pm (Frugal Gardening, growing lettuce indoors, Starting Seeds)
Tags: , , ,

I got the strawberries today.  They didn’t short-change me.  In fact, I got a few extras.  Now I have to figure out where to put them.  I’ve got the strawberry pot I found last year, but that only takes care of six plants.  I’m leaning toward homemade grow bags made out of black garbage bags.  That’s quick and easy.  Or I have a tiered raised bed that I haven’t used yet.  Or both because there’s so many.  Gotta put my thinking cap on because I need to get it done within the next couple days.

The grow bag appeals to me because I like to plant in unusual ways.  When I thinned the lettuce I started from seed …

03-23-09_Lettuce started on 3-17-09

I put the thinnings in here…

03-23-09_Lettuce transplanted on 3-17-09

I got about 32 transplants in typing paper paper pots.  I tore the paper in half the short way, rolled the paper, left the bottom open, put dirt in the cylinder and stuck the cylinders in the inverted top portion of a two-piece cake cover (another Free Cycle find).  Last year I did the same thing and had some nice sized transplants. 

Happy Gardening!!!

8 Comments

All is not lost with the lettuce

January 15, 2009 at 2:52 pm (growing lettuce indoors)

Nah.  The lettuce is toast.  It never recovered from the last cutting…or maybe I didn’t recover.  The leaves were so pretty and I enjoyed just looking at them.  Once the pretty leaves were gone, I totally neglected the rest of the lettuce.  The Plant Protective Services people would have thrown me in jail if they knew.

I guess the gardening gods felt sorry for me because here’s what I found last night, just in time for Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day.

 01-15-09_Bachelor Button

This bachelor button popped up in the tray with the lettuce I transplanted and brought in the house.  And because I try to embrace a live and let live attitude I let it grow.  The stem is zig-zaggy because I kept pulling it under the lights, but we have a bloom and even a few more buds on the plant.  YEAH!!!

01-15-09_Bachelor Button (2)

Happy Gardening!!!

10 Comments

Bugs in the Basement

December 22, 2008 at 5:32 pm (Container Gardening, Garden Pests, growing lettuce indoors)
Tags: ,

The lettuce is growing fine in the basement.  The only problem is that gnats and/or white flies have found the leaves.

12-22-08_Lettuce With Bugs on Leaves 

I’m going to have to figure out a non-pesticide way to get rid of them.  The little buggers really had a population explosion over this last week.

Last time I picked the lettuce I got two gallon bags full. This time I got one.

12-22-08_Lettuce Picked Today

We’ll see how long it takes until the next picking.  I gave the plants a pretty good leaf cropping.

12-22-08_Lettuce After Picking

It’s probably a good idea to start a new batch of seeds because technically these are about three or four months old already.

Tomato seeds are resilient little things.  Here’s a volunteer, and I can’t figure out where it came from because I used bagged container mix in these planters. 

12-22-08_Volunteer Tomatoe

Everybody’s talking about the weather.  We had a minus 30 wind chill yesterday and another snow storm is predicted for tomorrow.   I REALLY DISLIKE WINTER.  I guess the only upside is we’ll have a white Christmas.

Anyway..

Happy Gardening!!!

13 Comments

Lots of Leafy Lettuce. I’m a Lucky Lady.

December 12, 2008 at 11:33 am (growing herbs, growing lettuce indoors, growing mint, growing parsley, growing rosemary, growing sage, Overwintering)
Tags: , , , , , ,

I just love seeing things grow, that’s why I haven’t picked any leaves off the lettuce I transplanted and brought in the house back in late October.

Here is one of the three trays I planted.  I gave one to my mother-in-law.

12-11-08 (15) 

Some of the leaves have gotten pretty big.

12-11-08 (13)

12-11-08 (9)

This was a lettuce mix I got at Jewel Foods and there are a few different varieties.  There’s the one above, which seems to be the fastest grower and these…

12-11-08 (8)

12-11-08 (16)

12-11-08 (10)

12-11-08 (11) 

12-11-08 (12)

I’m also, as an experiment, trying to over-winter the herbs.

parsley…12-11-08 (4)

sage…12-11-08 (3)

rosemary…12-12-08_Rosemary

and thyme…thyme

Nah.  I didn’t really grow thyme, but it would have been musical.  Remember that Simon & Garfunkle song?

“Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme”

I did grow  parsley, sage, rosemary and chives, though, and that has a musical ring to it.

The sage and the parsley look a little droopy, and you can see I haven’t even properly potted two of them.  My goal is to keep the roots going even if the top growth suffers.  I want to see if they’ll perk up when they get back outside in the ground. 

I took cuttings from the rosemary and sage (they’re too sad looking for pictures right now).  If they root I’ll post pics later.

I even broke down and bought a package of that expensive pre-packaged organic mint from Jewel Foods because I learned of the joy of Mojitos.

11-24-08_organic mint Mojito

My Mojito didn’t look quite as pretty as the photo, but it tasted pretty good.

**caution – excessive consumption of Mojitos can lead to prolonged feelings of euphoria.

Just as another experiment, I’m trying to root some of the stems.

12-11-08_rooting mint

In the summer I’ll just use some of the runners from my neighbor’s yard that find their way onto my side of the fence.  Free plants…always a good thing.

Happy Gardening!!!

10 Comments

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.