The weather in DC is lovely today (60 degrees and sunny) so I couldn't wait to get outside this morning and start mucking around in my garden! In my excitement, I forgot to take a picture of my seedling tray with all of the seeds that sprouted - so apologies, you get to see the seedlings going in the ground instead of what they looked like in the seedling tray (but don't worry - I planted more seeds so I'll take a picture when those sprout, so you can see the little forest of sprouts!)
About a day after I posted last, almost every single seed sprouted, and I had a tray full of little green mini-plants! It was amazing! They all just came up overnight. Having a cover for the seed tray makes such a big difference - it makes it into a little greenhouse and keeps the plants warm, and recycles the water. The seeds in the mini-greenhouse sprouted about three times faster than other seeds I planted in separate containers.
It's hard to tell when seedlings are big enough to plant in the ground, because they are still so little. But I don't want to wait around for all of them to grow into legitimate plants, because I don't have enough pots (or patience) to do this. The beans, peas, sunflowers, cucumbers, and tomato sprouts were all getting too big for the seedling tray, so I thought I might as well plant them outside in the ground to see what happened.
One thing you have to do when you re-pot/plant seedlings is to put as much of the seedling as possible underground, and leave the part with leaves above ground. The part of the plant put underground will sprout roots, so this gives plants a healthy chance to establish themselves in the soil.
Picture 1: My patch of earth! This is the view from the steps in front of our house. This is my garden!
One unexpected benefit of living in a group house is that others who lived here before me seemed to have also tried their hands at gardening. There were lots of old pots lying around, as well as a watering can (score!) I am putting them all to good use. The veggies are going to grow in the ground, and I have plans to plant the herbs in the pots. That way the herbs can come inside when the weather gets cold and hopefully live through the winter in the house (who knows how that will go, but it's worth a shot!)
Picture 2: Tomato seedlings! I planted one six-seedling tray of tomato seeds... and I think every single seed came up! I re-potted all of them this morning because I have no idea how many I will lose to birds/critters/etc. If they all end up growing into plants - than any of you local folks are welcome to a tomato plant! Most little sprouts look the same, but you can just barely tell they're going to be tomato plants because they have a little teeny amount of that nice prickly fuzz that tomato plants have on the stems.
One of the things I love most about tomato plants is how they smell. They have this rich, earthy, almost tangy smell. It's also so lovely to watch the little yellow flowers sprout and then have a teeny baby green tomato appear. I can't wait!
Picture 3: Sunflowers! This is a row of sunflower sprouts. I decided to plant sunflowers in the very front of the garden (close to the fence) as a way to protect the rest of the garden from passers-by. They are going to be about six feet tall, so they will provide a barrier to people who come by and feel tempted to make a snack of the tasty veggies I am growing!
Picture 4: Purple and yellow pole beans! These are my bean plants. They really look like plants, not sprouts, unlike the others. They grew the fastest of all of my little seedlings, and sprouted some fairly impressive leaves quite early! I think they literally grew about an inch a day.
Picture 5: Peas, please! These are my pea plants. Peas are one of the most fun plants to watch growing, because they have lots of little leaves, and these curly little green tendrils that reach out and grab onto everything nearby. They are a climbing plant, so you have to plant them in or next to something they can cling to as they grow. I planted them on the right side of the garden, next to the fence, so they will hopefully grow very naturally right up the fence. I didn't realize this, but pea plants can be planted 2.5 inches apart. I planted the four that sprouted, and planted three more full seedling trays (six spots per tray) of peas, because there is a nice long fence so there's lots of space for them to climb.
That's all for today... thanks for reading, and check back soon for another update!
I love this!! It's so fun reading about your garden - I feel like I am learning a lot too! Thanks for sharing! xoxo
ReplyDeletePS Did you really mean to label this "Pants on the Ground?" cause that is kind of funny :)
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