I finally got my tomatoes to blossom indoors!
Now for some pollination. I may have missed the boat on a few flowers which have already closed, but I have hopefully pollinated the rest. My pollinator of choice: a spoon. Lots of people use a tooth pick or similar point structure. I prefer a spoon so I can see and catch the pollen and make sure it sticks to the stamens to transfer it! 🙂
Happy pollinating!
Maybe next year I will just put my seed starting shelf right in my green house. Never mind that I will have to shovel feet of snow to get to it!!!
Thanks for stopping by!
~Sara
Hi everyone!
I have an updated picture of the Alyssum that I planted <>. These are some slow growing plants!!! I think I need to do some research to make sure they are getting everything they need to grow.
I will keep you updated, thanks for stopping by!
Sara
Here in Minnesota it is very apparent to all of us natives that it is most definitely SPRING! However, we have gotten snow at this time of year still. In fact, if it doesn’t snow before May1st it will be the first time in 120 years that we did not see a trace of the white stuff between St. Patrick’s day and May 1st!
We did have some hail in the thunder storm that came through a few nights ago. Nothing accumulated, so I’m thinking that did not count. 🙂
According to my planting schedule you can plant the first section any time now. I put mine in about a week or so ago. In the first week of May you can go ahead and try planting the next section titled, “Early Spring.”
The last section needs to be planted after the last frost date. For the part of Minnesota that I am from that date is May 20th.
Here is a picture of my outdoor garden coming up! I have peas along the back, onions in the first section, and 3 rows of radishes after that.
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Thanks for stopping by!
~Sara
So, I have discovered a few things about potting soil, and seed starting soil etc… that I want to share with you!
Seed starting soil:
- Already has fertilizer in it! Unless your soil is over 6+ months old do NOT use a fertilizer when you water!
- Seed starting mix has a lot of Peat Moss in it, which can throw off the Ph of your soil a bit if you don’t transplant right away. I have found in particular that it is deficient in Calcium. I remedied mine by adding a 50/50 solution of milk and water to one watering. I will also add some egg shells to the top of the soil next time I have some. This can also save tomatoes from blossom-end rot.
Potting Soil
- Not only does potting soil generally come with fertilizer already in it, you can get different kinds of fertilizer, and different kinds of mixes. Read the package well so that you understand exactly what you are getting!
- Testing the Ph of your soil in this case is also important. Simply by being on the shelf in that plastic package for too long can throw off the Ph.
Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes and not end up burning your plants or having them wilt due to being calcium deficient!
Thanks for stopping by!
So, the indoor garden plants are getting very big now!
The tomato plants now have a regular support cage around them and are about 2+ feet tall. I am wondering when they will flower!
The Cilantro continues to be prolific and I use it often in salads, breads and salsa.
The Basil is also getting rather tall. One plant in particular is about a foot tall and towers above the rest of the Basil forest. I am wondering if my pruning is causing this growth? It sure is delicious though! I love to just run my hand over it and smell the sweet Basil smell. MMMmmmm…
Here is a picture of the new set-up now that I have my seed flats started for spring planting.
Thanks for stopping by!
I finally got my outdoor seeds started!
I live in Minnesota so my first day of safe frost-free planting is May 20th this year according to my handy Farmer’s Almanac. There are seeds that you can start outside before that, but not many. I like to transplant plants to the garden for a lot of veggies.
Carrots, tomatoes, and several others can take 75+ days to harvest. With only 3.5 solid months of growing season I need to maximize my garden time, and that means starting from plants, not seeds, for anything that has a growing time of 60 days or more. (You don’t want your first harvest to come during your frost! What fun would it be to not eat anything out of your garden for months?)
Here is a picture of the seed flats I have started:
I have press-and-seal wrap over the trays to preserve moisture and warmth which will start the seeds faster. I have 2 kinds of trays: small egg-crate style, and large potter style. I use the large pots for things that need to get pretty big before transplant like carrots and tomatoes. I use the small egg crate style for flowers and smaller veggies, and things that can go in the garden sooner size-wise as well as colder-tolerant.
So here’s what I have started:
- Yellow Onions
- Long Carrots
- Jalapenos
- Bell Peppers
- Broccoli
- Beef Steak, Roma, and Salad Tomatoes
- Petunias (regular ones :))
These I will sow right in the garden:
- Beans
- Peas
- Short Carrots
- Cilantro
- Basil
- Radishes
- Zucchini
- Cosmos
- Morning Glories
These are either fast growers, or cold weather tolerant and do well going right in as seed.
Thanks for stopping by!
So, as most of you know, I started some Alyssum seeds a few weeks ago. I have a picture in that post of when the seeds emerged. Here is the latest pic. About a week after they emerged. They don’t have 2nd leaves yet, but in a few days I bet they will.
here is a picture of the 2 Sunshine Petunias that I got to germinate. I honestly don’t think there were any other seeds in the packet, but oh well! If these live I will be shocked!
So, the only mature cilantro plant I have seen has been staked and had a huge stem and was almost 24″ tall. I had started some seeds a few weeks back thinking that I would have to stake them at some point. I did try to stake them. They unstaked themselves within about 48 hours.
So, here is my note: Cilantro is crazy, it wants to be crazy, it is happy to be crazy. 🙂 I have let mine grow into a huge mess and it is just as happy as can be. I could be controlling and really stake them well and make them grow taller etc… but I like the tender leaves and stems better anyway!!
Here is a picture of my crazy cilantro. This is after the harvest I took to put on the tomato platter I made! You can hardly tell I took anything at all.
Here is a short tour of my current indoor garden setup.
[flashvideo file=”https://sarasgardenmarket.com/videos/indoorg_tour_large.flv” /]
I started some annual flower seeds indoors this week. My daughter, Maddie, helped me plant them. The seeds were so darn small I wasn’t even convinced that we had planted anything at all! But the baby Alyssum is up!
These seedlings are so small and delicate that I am not at all convinced they will live, but if they do we will have some nice ground cover and some for our containers too.
The other half of the flat that you see here has “Sunshine” Petunias in it…maybe… The seeds were so small they just looked like a bunch of sawdust really. I’ll give them another week and if no one comes up I have some regular Petunias I will be starting in there.
Thanks for stopping by!
Sara M
