Planting, Planting, Planting!

April 28, 2014

This week, my (7.5yo) daughter started her garden by planting lettuce, carrots, marigolds, daisies, and wildflowers. These are seeds that were given to her but she fully intends on turning a profit from them. The two chicks that hatched about a month ago are hers as well (she took care of them pre-hatching and takes care of them now as well). She is excited that one day, she will be getting money year-round for eggs!

I planted some sunflower circles for the kids (red and yellow). I am afraid the circles may be too small but there is nothing I can do about it…it is planted now. I also transplanted one of the sunflowers that came up in my greenhouses. They want these sunflower circles so they can have a shaded ‘fort’ to go into during the summer. You may have seen sunflower circles on Pinterest.Other things planted this week:

• Beans – snaps, black, and pinto (dried beans are not expensive but organic is not available where I live and we eat beans for our main protein source so it is worth it to me to grow)
• 3 Sister’s Garden – sweet corn, runner beans, butternut squash, Boston Marrow squash, and cucumbers
• Tomatoes – Roma, Jellybean, Cherry, Rutgers, Homestead
• Peppers – California Wonder
• Zucchini
• Squash
• Cantaloupe
• Watermelon
• More sunflowers & cucumbers (sunflowers for the chickens & cucumbers for us! you can never have too many! 🙂 )

I’ll share pictures when/if they sprout 🙂 Until then, who wants to see pictures of trenches and mulch?

Some things were transplanted from the greenhouses as well:

• Sunflower (already mentioned)
• Red Romaine Lettuce
• Kale
• Cabbage
• Broccoli
• Spinach

 Kale Transplanted Red Romaine Transplanted

Spinach to the right is transplanted from greenhouses. Spinach to the left were direct seeded. This is the first time I’ve ever grown spinach in greenhouses — I thought it was pointless because they grow so well in cool temps. Not sure I’ll waste a greenhouse on spinach next year…

One last thing I did this week: I buried my runt sweet potatoes from last year (halfway in soil, like a boat, then covered with mulch) in order to grow slips. The raised bed I buried them in has been covered for a couple of weeks with clear plastic, in order to warm the soil. I covered it again in clear plastic (with hoops) to keep it super warm. I need to make sure I keep them well-watered and some slips should be ready to be planted in two to three weeks. I have always heard of people growing slips in window sills, in water, but our house is tucked in among trees. This is a blessing with our electricity bill but it makes it nearly impossible to grow anything in a window sill. I read the ‘burying the sweet potatoes like a boat’ method is the way seed companies do it so I figured it was worth a shot! I’ll keep you updated on how it goes…or doesn’t…

A couple of hours after I planted tomatoes and peppers, we had a HUGE storm come through. Amazing rain, wind, and hail. I went to check on everything afterward…wow. Peas flattened…they bounced back though 🙂

Mulch was washed everywhere! It had completely covered some of the plants that had sprouted months prior. I moved a lot of the mulch to uncover and support the small plants. The hoops covering the sweet potatoes had collapsed. When I lifted the plastic, the sweet potato box flooded and sweet potatoes floated to the top.(This picture was AFTER I uncovered the spinach plants that were buried by mulch.)

With all of that, I can only assume many of the seeds planted just previous to the storm (tomatoes, peppers, corn, squash, cucumbers, even beans) were washed away, or at the very least, moved. 😦 I’ll have to wait and see whether or not they come up in a week or two to make the final assessment though.

As far as harvests, the chickens are still producing like crazy 🙂 We were able to get rid of 7 dozen eggs on Easter Sunday (sunrise service breakfast) so that was nice. I have a feeling we’ll have to start getting creative as they summer progresses…

Check out what’s going on with everyone else’s gardens at Daphne’s Dandelions 🙂

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