Snowy Day Seed Starting

It’s that time of year! I’ve been dreaming of gardening since the last harvest of my veggies, but really started itching once I got my Baker’s Creek Seed Catalog in the mail back in January. After some planning through GrowVeg.com, today I finally got started!

Haha great day for it right? With a trip to the garden store and buying more seed starting trays, I got to work. It all started in my basement and I hadn’t cleared out the space yet … Our bar turned out to be the perfect workspace!

Today I planted Walla Walla & Red Burgundy onions, chives, and also got a few Sweet Alyssum flowers started. I plan on putting these around the kids new playset.

I’m wearing gloves out of fear of “dampening off”, something that devastated my sprouts last year. Lettuce doesn’t need to be started until March 1, but that’s only a week away so I got a handful of arugula, little gem lettuce, and butter king lettuce going. I loooove salad!!

After reading just how deep to place each seed on the seed packet, I filled a container full of water and let the seed trays soak up water from the bottom for a few minutes each. Hopefully this method of watering also helps prevent dampening off! Then I placed them on warming mats. No need for grow lights yet, those are for when the leaves actually start sprouting and the chlorophyll starts asking for those UV rays 🌱☀️

Also this year I have plans to start a kids garden, tucked behind the playset in a cheaper, more classic garden bed. Thinking this could be our “experimental” area to try new veggies and plants to see if they grow, if we even like them, etc.

Realized that I’ll need more seed trays starting March 1 so another trip is needed to the garden store. Oh darn 😝

New House, New Garden

With settling down and buying a house, I now feel the need to put down roots- literally.  After being active duty Navy for 8 years it’s a good feeing to know I’ll be around this patch of dirt for years to come!  Most (ahem, all) my gardening experience has been with pots of succulents started in San Diego and lovingly moved to Florida and now Nebraska.  I won’t count the random potted herb that only lives until I decide to make bruschetta or salsa…

Kitchen sink succulents

Overwintering succulents

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can I contain my excitement after many years I’ve looked forward to this?  NO!  That’s the main reason I started up this blog again!  Hopefully it helps you out as much as me to track the progress and decisions I’m making, and I’m sure the many missteps to come.  It’s all about learning, right?  And if it’s delicious and smells nice and gets me and my family outside eating homegrown organic food and learning about butterflies, even better.

A friend once said I “go nuclear” when learning something new.  Guilty as charged.  Here’s my butterfly & veggie garden plan (36 ft x 36 ft border):

Butterfly Garden 2017

Vegetable Garden 2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perhaps a bit large?  Too much?  Ha!  Not if you ask me so I will forge ahead!  Where to start blogging about it though- well I’m a planner.  As you can see.  I’ve used multiple online sites to help me come up with the above plans.

Butterfly garden:  I worked off the plant list from the Nebraska Pollinator Habitat Certification site so that they’re all native and extension-approved.  They suggest tons of plants but I plan on doing:

Monarch on milkweed

• Blue False Indigo
• Glory-of-the-snow
• Yucca
• Pasqueflower
• New Jersey Tea
• Buffalo flower
• Red Milkweed
• Butterfly milkweed
• Purple coneflower
• Gayfeather- Kobold
• Wild bergamot
• Bee balm
• Lemon balm
• Evening Primrose
• Anise Hyssop
• New England Aster
• Spotted Joe Pye
• Black Eyed Susan
• Sedum (4 kinds)
• Russian Sage
• Ironweed
• Goldenrod

Vegetable Garden:  This will be in a raised garden bed (more on that later).  I’m planting more heirloom varieties, things I can’t find at our local grocery store plus herbs we use frequently in our cooking.  The planner I’m using is GrowVeg and I bought seeds from the Baker Creek Seed Catalog.

On the sides of each bed I have companion beneficial flowers to assist in pollination and harboring good insects. About 50-75% of these I’ve already started in newspaper seedling pots and will post about my germination station soon!

• Arugula, Basil, Borage, Calendula, Carrot, Celery, Chamomile, Poblano pepper, Serrano Pepper, Zavory Habanero pepper, Chives, Cilantro, Persian and english hothouse cucumber, Dill, Edamame, Fennel, Ginger, Little Gem Lettuce, Butter King lettuce, Dandelion, Walla Walla onion, white onion, Red Burgundy onion, Chervil, Hamburg rooted parsley, Anaheim pepper, Shishito pepper, Potatoes (fingerling maybe), Kabocha pumpkin, summer squash, rosemary, sorrel, tansy, thyme, Tomatillo, Tomatoes: Black, Orange, Green, Yellow, Purple, Zinnia.

We’ve also started breaking ground on the backyard, here’s a preview for a future blog!