Tuesday, April 29, 2008

GOSH, oh GOLLY they're growing!

Here's what's new with all seeds I've planted so far:
beans (ready to transplant)
beans042908


strawberries
strawberry blossoms! ok, just one


okra
okra280408.jpg


carrots
carrots280408.jpg


zucchini
zucchinileaves280408.jpg


draping rosemary(2), mint(2), sage(1), strawberries(3), & I moved all my basil(4) here after taking this photo.
RosemaryMintetc280408.JPG

Zucchini bread, anyone?!

Oh, I forgot the tomatoes and lettuces, my Santores and Brandywines are tiny but starting to show. I'll show them next time. Lettuces & bok choy are on the bathroom window and doing well, but still tiny.

TOMORROW: Seedling Transplant Day! Poor little dears.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Uh-Oh. Who Knew?

70s knows what's coming, if she saw the above.

Surprise -- I missed my train to Cardiff. Because of the type of tickets I had purchased, to get the next train I would have to buy an entirely new ticket for 45GBP MORE!

I stayed in London.

I was angry at the train pricing system, but mostly at myself. *I really did think reservations were for the later train :( *

Then I realized that I was near one of the garden centers (centres) I'd recently read about. If only I had a clue as to where it actually was or it's name. Fortunately! I had my trusty London: A to Z (that's "ZED" for my American brethren). Off I headed in the general direction of the neighborhood where the anonymous garden center (centre) might be and after one stop at a florist shop I quickly and easily found it! (If only Banksys were as easy to find ;)

An hour plus and a righteous thunderstorm later I departed with:

* information about when and how to transfer my grandmother's and my great grandmother's camellia bushes OR propagate new ones from cuttings of their originals. *sigh*

* a terracotta-colored plastic window box for my bedroom window.

* 2 creeping rosemary plants.

* a book I've recently read of about organic gardening (in English weather and soils).

* a giant garden bag I'm going cut some drainage holes into and use as a container for some of my plantings.

* a bunch of tiny peat pots (I like them best for starting seeds)

* the latest issue of Organic Gardening magazine (the English one). It came with some cherry tomato seeds which I left on the tube for a fortunate and curious stranger to find because I already have some wonderful heirloom tomato seeds :)

* and FREE --- SEVEN packets of some snooty brand of organic vegetable seeds (see photo below, brown packets). FREE!

THEN, I headed home, dropped all that off, got the directions to a garden center (centre) closer to me where I picked up:

* waaaaaaay too many vegetable and herb seeds (see picture below) that will last me the next two years.

* some strawberry plants

* a mint plant

* a sage plant

* AND

* 3 ENORMOUS plastic terracotta colored pots to plant them all into once they sprout.

new seeds

Not showing are the plants I've already got: basil (in the bathroom for now), the strawberries, etc. (outside in the garden) and the rosemary (in the kitchen for now).

This will either be a bountiful summer or a very sad one. Right now the temperatures are predicted to be near freezing tonight. Spring is still waiting to make her debut over here. Stay tuned.

Happy Weekend!

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Birthday Surprise

It's my birthday. I'm 45 today.

IT. IS. SNOWING!!!!!

*pictures to follow*