Seed Saving: Chives

I cut off the flowering heads where I could see the seeds, saved them in a paper bag to dry, then shook the bag like hell. Seeds!

Green Beans

Seed saved from last year's garden:

Seed from last year's packet:

Planted the same day and time, two feet apart. Photos taken within seconds of each other. 

Beginnings

I love Spring. If you asked me, I would tell you that Fall is my favorite season, but there is something so soothing about Spring's arrival. I know the season itself can be hot, cold, rainy, dry, unpredictable, and altogether not exactly soothing, but when the first green shoots start showing in all the dead brown, it soothes. Hearts weary from winter know the season is drawing to a close. The cold is a little easier to bear when the trees start budding and the daffodils are nodding. It soothes, knowing time marches on into greener things. And when those greener things really burst forth, in the glory of blooming magnolias and lilacs, in tender bleeding-hearts and sturdy hostas, in green leaves and greener grass, it's easy to forget the depths of winter. 

There is a little parkway in the neighborhood, maybe twenty feet long and five feet wide, that blooms each year packed full of tulips, rampant in a kaleidoscope of colors. And I know that bright flag of spring is soothing to everyone else in the neighborhood too--there is always someone crouched at the little fence, taking a photo. I have too, of course. 

It's even more splendid now, with more blooms open. 

Around the condo, the perennials we planted are doing well so far. It's a delight to walk by and see the progress the tiny ferns are making, or how many hosta leaves are sprouting from each bulb, or even the little bleeding heart begin to bloom. I just picked up the remaining plants to complete the design. Well, this year's design. I won't be able to resist adding to it each year. 

In my garden plot, the radishes had sprouted, as had the green beans and peas. I got the rest of the black beans in today, as well as the calendula and borage and thyme. I am currently waiting for the threatening line of thunderstorms to arrive in town and give the garden a much-needed drink. The city has not yet turned on the water at the garden, so I have to haul it along in my little granny-cart, or let Nature do her thing. Today was a nature kind of day. 

Peas:

Green beans:

My calendula self-sowed the hell out of itself last year. Lots of sprouts where the plants were last year. I might not need to sow as many indoors next year--there were some strong, healthy starts. My seedlings get a little leggy (and take up space). 

Time to make like a tree and leaf. 

.....

Sorry. 

Garden: 2015 Edition, The Beginning

The community gardens are now open for the year, so I gathered my seeds and trowel and headed on over. 

Actually, I brought my little granny cart because the water is never turned on at the beginning of the season, so I had to bring two containers of water. And my kneeling pad, of course. And I just brought my whole seed container along, because I was too lazy to pick out the packets first--and yet still forgot my black beans. And, for that matter, my birdhouse. 

At any rate, I still got quite a bit done. I pulled all the weeds and raked the top few inches of soil. I tilled three squares for the carrots and parsnips, really loosening the dirt so their roots would grow with less resistance. I re-twined the plot so the squares were laid out again, then pulled out my garden plan. Time to sow:

-2 squares of carrots

-1 square of parsnips/radishes

-2 squares of green beans

-1 square of black beans (2 more when I bring back my saved beans!)

-2 squares of cucumbers: 1 square each of a bush kind and double yield. Since my cukes die every year without fail, I planted four in each square, in hopes that there is safety in numbers, or that the chances are higher for them to survive. Something. 

-2 zucchini and 1 delicata squash. They are all in a row, so I am considering putting them under the plastic hoop to save them from moths/squash bugs. 

-2 squares shelling peas and 2 snow peas, with a little pea teepee. I had hoped to plant lettuce under the teepee once the peas got going, but I didn't leave room. Too greedy with the peas. 

-I also sowed a row of bunching onions that a kind fellow gardener was giving away. Wasn't planning those, but I tossed some seeds in next to the squash. 

Just for funsies, I sowed my saved seed and the packet seeds in different squares, as a mini experiment. I want to see if there is any difference between the two seeds. My hope is that the plants that did well in the garden last year are more likely to come back strongly this year, but we'll see. As a note to next year, I did not save enough seeds last year. I got about a square each, except snow peas--about a third a square. 

And as a fun little note--my chives came back! I didn't expect them to overwinter, but they did so nicely and were growing along with no help from me. I pulled two new little chive volunteers that were out of place, but left the two established plants. 

And so Garden: 2015 Edition begins. 

Ahem. I forgot to bring a trash bag, so please excuse the pulled weeds piled in the corner. 

Canopy

Greens are growing. As usual, trying to find the right amount of light so they don't bolt or just stop growing. 

My solution for the windowbox? Rigging up a canopy out of branches from the fake tree the previous owners left behind. We'll see how that works. 

Perennials

I live in a condo building in the city. It sits on a corner lot with a small front yard and small patches of grass between the sidewalk and the road. No backyard--just decks and a swath of concrete. It's a great place, but not exactly a homesteading paradise. When we first moved in, there was a bed of lava rocks all along one side of the building. We removed the rocks and added mulch, and formed a new bed on the front of the building with the leftover mulch. The mulch was certainly an improvement over the rock, but I thought we could add a little green. So I decided to learn a little about flowers. 

A very little. 

We wanted something relatively low-maintenance (no yearly plantings), so I focused my search on perennials. Since one bed was on a north-facing side, and the other was shaded by trees, I looked at shade perennials in particular. Hostas are a popular, easy choice for shade perennials, so I relied heavily on those for the design. I added some lily-of-the-valley, a flower I have seen in many of the beds in our neighborhood. Bleeding-hearts are also popular in the neighborhood, but I was concerned about blocking windows, so I found one little spot where I could tuck a bleeding-heart against a wall. I love the look of the tall, feathery astilbe blossoms, so I found a spot for them where the height wouldn't be an issue either. I also love hydrangea and lilacs and desperately wanted to fit them in the beds. Unfortunately, lilacs don't really do shade. Hydrangeas, however, do! So I planned one right against an empty spot of wall. Add a few ferns, a few bugloss plants, and a couple of dead nettles, and I had a fifty-plant perennial plan. 

I ordered the plants online and the majority arrived this week--some bare root, some in containers. I put them in the ground today, with the help of another resident.  We scooped aside the mulch, dug holes, and planted the bulbs. I am already itching to see them pop up. 

I know many back-to-the-farmers advocate growing food in any free space you've got. However, don't forget that bees need blossoms in order to eat, and flowers can help fill in any veggie-garden blossom gaps. I am not going to guilt anyone for enjoying flowers in a growing space. 

Plus, I live in the city. Anything edible I plant along a sidewalk is liable to get stolen, eaten by squirrels, or peed on by the neighborhood dogs. 

Only a few weeks away from the garden opening!

Lettuce

I really think the key to my lettuce success is starting indoors. I just can't get a strong start on my seeds when I sow outdoors--I've stubbornly tried over and over again with sad results. So this year, I went back to the indoor starts. 

In little chobani containers, I started:

Frizzy-Headed Drunken Woman

Flashy Trout's Back

Pot and Patio blend

Wild Garden blend

Heirloom blend

Wild Garden Kales

Purslane

The purslane and wild garden lettuce blend didn't do so well, but the kale started impressively. The others did pretty well. 

Since three weeks have passed, I put the seedlings out under my mini hoop cover (this whole setup is a little janky, since I rigged the cover and hoops to fit something they honestly don't fit). I am hoping to harden them off and get them in my window box in the next few days. Then I want to start another round of seeds for succession planting--every three weeks is recommended. 

I am out of Drunken and Trout seeds, so I might try letting a few of the later bolts go to seed and see if I can't collect some. I haven't tried to collect lettuce seed yet, but why not learn?

I started a few spinach and chard seeds outdoors--some in the window box under the cover, some in an uncovered container. They are just starting to show little green faces. 

Can't wait to start eating salads from my own back deck!