Fins and Stems

So, after buying all my seeds, setting up the seeding pots, organizing all the areas to be planted, taking stock of my garden from last year, and getting everything wetted down for proper planting I’ve done exactly 1 (one) freestyle pot for indoor/outdoor gardening.

Yeah, my motivation is astounding. My one bit of gardening this year is a strawberry pot planted with strawberry roots and seeds for chives and a purple basil. Hopefully most of it will take and I’ll be able to cull into some other planters. Until I get some seedlings in my garage I’ll hold off on getting soil (SAM’s looks like the way to go this year). I’ll also need to buy a new water hose (cheap this time since taking care of the more expensive one didn’t work) and maybe a new hose head if one of the two not in use doesn’t work. I need to see if some of the seedlings can take advantage of my one shallow planter that I still have and then hopefully I’ll have some fruit vines that lived from last year and I’ll repurpose one of my square planters (stupid "cold weather hardy heather" dying) into a fruiting planter for a vine and a couple of struggling bushes.

It keeps freezing over so I can’t transplant or thin out my over-wintered carrots and celery. I’ll be adding potatoes, rhubarb, and asparagus to my multi-year plantings.

There’s alot to do once it gets warm enough to do it and plenty to do now so I’m ready when it does.

It is just warm enough to start my seeds if I do so in my garage. The side door lets in a little natural light and the space doesn’t freeze over at night. Nice even temperature day vs night. I don’t know how well everything will do but I’m hopeful.

AFTER SEARCHING FUTILELY FOR SEEDS:

I can’t find the tomato, cucumber or pomegranate seeds I was saving… I found the pepper seeds but they’re obviously dead…

Looks like I’m back to ground zero. At least I prepared for this possible eventuality.

Last year I got laid off and spent much of the year looking for work. To save money, I actually did what I’d been thinking of doing for years:

I grew my own vegetable garden from seed.

This is no huge revealation in and of itself. Plenty of people of do it and have done it since the beginning of farming. It’s just it’s my first time doing so. The cost savings grew as the year went on, I probably saved close to $500 easy on fresh produce and made my diet much healthier. And of course, I want to make another one this year. Bigger, heathier, easier to maintain. I’m going with a raised series of planting beds this year. Also, I’m trying to heirloom my tomatoes. If I can get the seeds I salvaged from my crop this year to germinate I’ll have plants that produces fruit I know I like the taste of.

What I had last year (that actually produced):

• lettuce (variety)
• tomatoes (cherry, beefsteak, and roma)
• cucumbers (mostly burpless)
• okra
• carrot
• celery
• peppers (banana and several hots)

I also planted eggplant [fail], some pomegranates [should do less failing this year], and strawberries [if this year's crop is bad then it's also a fail].

This year, if I can swing it, I’d like to try again with the eggplant and also do potatoes and some sort of fruit… I’ve some pots that have fruit bushes starting out from last year, but they’re puny. I may also try again to start grape vines. They take a few years to take, but the payoff would be worth it to me.