Cleaned / bleached all pots

Cleaned / bleached all pots. Rinsed off outside to remove excess soil, then soaked in tub with bleach for a while, then rinsed off and air-dried.  What a huge task. 

Hopefully this will help prevent whatever last year's problem was where everything inside became terribly stunted.

(wrote this note on Feb 16th but it was a couple of months ago when I did this task, so guesstimated Dec 20th)

In my fridge / on my table/counter right now

In my fridge / on my table/counter right now!

- tons of tomatoes, cherry and normal, some ripe, some still green
- 5.5 cups of de-husked ground cherries ready for pie
- a huge bag of swiss chard
- a huge bag of beet greens about to be made into a pasta dish
- a big bag of beets
- a sandwich bag of potatoes (puny harvest)
- several cucumbers
- a bag of celery
- a few jalapeno peppers
- one small green pepper

Still in the garden:  more chard (about half has already succumbed to the cold but some still crisp) and celery; a few more beets; maybe a few carrots but not sure if there's much root to harvest

Sowed garlic 'German White'

Decided I hadn't planted enough garlic.  So, this time bought 'German White'.  Put 8 cloves in the south tip of the west bed, and, 5 bad-looking/partly rotten? cloves on the north wall bed along the patio, the section at the west part of the patio, on the north half of it so the part right next to the neighbour's house.

First frost will probably be tonight

First frost will probably be tonight.  Harvested the almost-last Malabar spinach tonight, and some ground cherries. 

==> Edited afterward to say yes, there was a light frost that did in the Malabar spinach.  Not heavy enough to bother the chard, celery, beets, or carrots.

Marvelous malabar

Sure do love Malabar spinach.  First year trying it; it was sooooo slow to take off, but then when it did, wow!  So prolific, with huge, lush leaves.  Still harvesting it now although there's red spots on most of the leaves.  Frost called for tomorrow night so will try to bring it all in before then.

Sowed garlic ('Music')

Sowed 'Music' garlic today.  8 cloves on the window narrow bed plus around the corner to the back wall.  And, 4 cloves on the nice bed adjacent to the patio stones, running north-south.

Fall peas were small and few

Better than last year when they seemed diseased; this year just small, not a lot, and not very flavourful.  Not really worth doing, especially the cost of peat pots.

Maybe don't do fall peas next year.

Fall peas are forming

Several young pods, and flowers, have formed.

Red peppers harvested

Harvested two small red peppers from home-started plants!  Woo!

The store-bought plant has three green ones.  (Scooter ate some earlier buds.)

Black swallowtail

Found a black swallowtail caterpillar on the carrots about a week, week and a half ago.  Turned into a chrysalis within two days.  Brought inside, turned into a butterfly today.  Farewell!

Sowed carrots, beets, lettuce

In the vacated zucchini spaces, sowed:

- carrots in the space near the patio stones (where I plan to have next year's carrot bed)
- beets near the peas (just a few in among the green onions)
- bok choy and lettuce in one of the middle spaces

Zucchinis all kaput and removed

Came home from camping today to find two of the plants clearly mostly gone and the other two on their way out, all due to the borer.  So, pulled them all out.

Sowed carrots

Scatter-sowed carrots today, in the former yellow zucchini bed by the air conditioner, recently vacated due to the squash vine borer.

Transplanted peas

Transplanted the jiffy pot indoor started peas today.

Bye bye yellow zucchini (squash vine borer)

Noticed over the last several days that the yellow zucchini plant had been fading.  Stems looked chewed up.  Today I noticed the little fruits were hollow or squishy.  Pulled the plant and sure enough, borers.  Oh well, the plant served me well.

As for the other zucchini plants -- the one near the fence and the one near the compost bin seem to be doing well -- slowing down, but still producing somewhat.  The other two, in the middle, look healthy and vibrant, but nothing is happening in the fruit department lately.  We'll see if they've been struck too.

Garlic -- a nice one!

Picked another garlic today (my third one so far).  Nice!  6 hefty cloves.

Malabar spinach - eww

Ate one leaf today to see what it's like.  Eww.  So slimey.  I'll pass on this crop, thank you very much!

Harvesting update

Harvesting update reflecting where things are at these days:

Zucchini:  TONS have come in already.  Probably 30-40.  Freezer really filling up.

Tomatoes:  Just starting.  A few cherry tomatoes here and there, and one large one.

Ground cherries:  Trickling in, like the cherry tomatoes.  Finding some on the ground, empty...

Beets:  Two so far, one of which was quite small.

Garlic:  Two so far, both quite small, only 4 cloves each.

Carrots:  One so far, just for fun.  Disappointingly not a good flavour, but edible.

Chard:  Haven't been harvesting much, but plants doing well.  Some were getting shaded by zucchini plant so they really stretched up and have long stalks.  Have now pulled back the zucchini leaves to give more sun to the chard.

Peppers:  A few jalapenos, which really aren't hot.  A few banana peppers.  Scooter harvested one very young and small green pepper.

Sowed second round of peas inside

Sowed the fall peas today, inside in jiffy pots. 48 seeds.

Harvested 1 garlic and 1 beet

Harvested 1 garlic and 1 beet today.

The garlic was just because I was curious.  Will wait longer for the others.  This one is cute, a bulb, but small.

The beet is a little small but not bad.

Good garlic storage article

Good garlic storage article:

https://www.gardenbetty.com/a-guide-to-curing-and-storing-garlic/

Peppers are a flop

Not going to grow peppers again.  Even the store-bought one on its own next to the step has lots of leaves but no flowers or peppers.

Record number of recipes made today

Made 9!! recipes today, mostly with harvest from the garden, and some with local berries.

Pesto (basil and parsley)
Zucchini soup with rice (zukes)
Zucchini soup with coconut milk (zukes)
The other zucchini soup (zukes)
Zucchini sauce with pasta (zukes)
Zucchini/carrot muffins (zukes)
Zucchini break (zukes)
Strawberry pie
Raspberry muffins

Zucchini harvest galore

With five full size zucchini plants, tons of zucchinis have come in / keep coming in.  Cooked up or gave away about 10 good sized ones this weekend.

Zinnias looking great

These zinnias are way taller than I thought they'd be, but, they're doing great.  Lots of different colours and shades, and some are poofy while others are more daisy-like.

Next year, will grow these seeds again, but will also try some that are shorter.

Ground cherry harvest started within the past few days

Ground cherry harvest started within the past few days.  Just a few here and there so far.

Sowed beets, chard, lettuce in former bok choy patch

Pulled all the bok choy because it's all full of holes.  Didn't have that problem last year, at least not to this extent.

In their place, sowed beets, chard, and a variety of lettuce, because why not.

First celery harvest

First celery harvest today, a couple of nice decent-sized stalks.

Snipped/bagged onion seed heads

Snipped off two onion seed heads and placed them in a brown paper bag, where hopefully they will finish drying up and then I can shake the remaining seeds out.  I noticed the individual seed "containers" that were already brown were empty, guess the seeds fell the ground.  Wonder if any will self-seed. 

These seed heads are from one of the onions I started last year from bought seed, which survived the winter and I let just keep growing.  Several other onions are also in flower, but not sure which were from the store-bought onion that I planted a month or two ago, so leaving those ones be.

How to grow garlic -- good post

Good article about how to grow garlic:

http://ottawacitizen.com/life/homes/gardening/gardening-think-ahead-and-plant-garlic

Pea harvest almost over

Decent pea harvest the past couple of weeks.  Almost done now, just some stragglers left. 

Harvest was snacking-volume only, not enough to store or give away.  Consider trying two pea trellises next year.

Malabar spinach starting to grow again?

The two remaining malabars (I must have pulled the other ones) near the pea trellis have suddenly started growing.  Maybe due to the heat wave the last few days?  Still only ~6" tall, but pretty sure there's new growth.  Need to pull the dying pea plants to give them sun.

Basil and parsley pesto

Harvested 2 cups of basil and 1 cup of parsley and made the most delicious pesto.

Sowed beets, lettuce, chard (and removed bok choy)

Removed the dreadful bok choy, which this year was full of holes.

Sowed beets at the back, chard in front, and scattered lettuces at the very front.

Zucchini harvest started June 24th, going well

Zucchini harvest started June 24th, going well.  So far 3 yellows, and 2 greens.  There are a total of 5!! plants this year.  The yellow has been most productive so far.

Malabars spinach a flop

Malabars spinach all a total flop.  They just stopped growing, at ~4" tall.  Don't grow again.

Bell peppers doing terribly

Bell peppers doing terribly, but so are those of many in the Edible Gardens group.  Not going to bother with peppers again in future years, never had much success with them.  Banana pepper and jalapeno pepper which I bought as transplants are doing ok, have harvested one each so far but only a few more peppers on each, might be the end of them.

Won't grow peppers next year, way too inconsistent and poor harvest.

Garlic scapes

Have harvested a few garlic scapes.  Put in salad. They're kind of bland, but perfectly edible.

Flea beetle!

Uh oh!  Flea beetle damage first noticed on one of the store-bought tomato plants, yesterday, then today on closer inspection some damage also on some of the ground cherries.  So far the two ground cherries next to the air condition are looking good.

Only reason I noticed them and knew what they were is they've been a topic on several posts on the fb group this week.

Hope they will run their course and move on without running the plants into the ground...

Next year, start zinnias earlier

Only just now starting to see a flower bud starting to form on the most developed zinnias.  Sowed on April 22nd.  Next year, try sowing ~3 weeks earlier, around April 1st.

Greens harvest (kale, bok choy, swiss chard)

Woo hoo, the greens are looking very nice and I took my first harvest today, as salad.

Self-sown bok choy already going to seed!!!!!!!!!!

Crazy!  Many of the self-sown bok choys are already going to seed!  After growing only 3 or 4 leaves!  Cleary those must have been from the fast-seeding variety last year.

The other ones, that I started inside from last year's longer lasting variety, are looking great so far.

Zucchinis finally appeared (inside)

OMG, finally two of the six inside zucchinis appeared.  Not sure what I'll do with them though, as I already bought and planted others since I thought these weren't going to do anything.

Beans sowed (two kinds, outside)

Sowed five each of the "tendergreen" from the gift pack, and of the seeds collected from last year's plants.  Pre-soaked for several hours.

Transplanted cucumbers

Transplanted all of the cucumbers today.

Carrots and beets from round 1 have been up for a few days

Carrots and beets from round 1 have been up for a few days.  Argh, sowed the carrots way too thickly again... thinning will be "fun"!

Various gardening tasks

- Transplanted 2 Malabar spinach to the edge of the pea frame
- Transplanted several basil -- 2 to planters, 2 to garden
- Transplanted 1 store-bought pepper
- Can't remember if anything else

Tuberous begonia has a flower

The one lone remaining tuberous begonias looks be-gorgeous, so healthy, and has a pink flower starting.  Has been living outside for a week or two but not yet transplanted.

Hope on the horizon, but bought some seedlings just in case

Hmmm, I dare say all, or at least many, of my sad-looking seedlings look like they're on the up.  Now that they've been in the ground a while and we've had some great sunny warm weather.  Chard, celery, kale, tomatoes, even the ground cherries may have some hope.  But, that's not  risk I'm willing to take!  So, bought 3 ground cherry seedlings at Ritchie's today.

Peppers however I'm not so sure about.  But, they're also not a staple crop, so, bought just 2 pepper seedlings.

Will need to also buy 1 normal and 1 small tomato plants.  This is because I put all my own tomatoes into the bed along the neighbour's house which may need to be torn up this summer to fix her basement leak. 

Zucchini resown; cukes all well up as of several days ago

The cucumbers all came up several days ago, looking keen

The zukes were still nowhere to be seen, so I dug around and they seem to not have done anything.  Also the soil was dry, so maybe everything dried out.  So, bought new zuke seeds and sowed them today  into the same pots, 2 new seeds per pot (and the old seeds still in there too).

Carrots and beets sowed round 2

Sowed the other half of the bed with more carrots and beets.

Onion stalwarts

Was going to toss some of the onion rejects that last fall were tossed near the compost bin.  But then decided dang it, if they can survive this long under such heartless treatment, they deserve a chance to shine.  So, expanded the prime bed a little further, to give them a spot.  Would be cool if they would go to seed this year and allow me to collect the seed to start the cycle over again.

Also tucked in with those onions, some mystery onion-sets-all-in-a-bulb which I have no idea where they came from (many of these in various parts of the garden... mysteries...).

Mystery self-sown seed

Noticed a mystery self-sown seed today, which looks like something.  I'm hoping maybe ground cherry, as it was in that general location.  So, moved it to the little mini bed next to the porch, to see what it becomes.  However, I don't think the sun reaches that spot until plants are a little taller, so we'll see if it does anything.

Transplanted almost everything

Transplanted, almost all with a trowel or two of mushroom compost:
- peppers (all look sad)
- tomatoes (some not too terrible, but definitely stunted compared to where they should be)
- rest of the ground cherries (all look sad)
- asparagus (with plenty of vermiculite added in) (these actually look pretty good, not sad like everything else)

All that's left inside now are the zinnias, Malabar spinach, and the one tuberous begonia.  Those are all looking good and healthy so far.  Plus a very sad looking pepper and tomato reject or two.

Sowed zucchini and cucumber

Sowed 6 zukes (of which 3 will be planted) and 12 cukes.  This time, put them directly into soil, into the new bag of a different brand I bought recently.  Hopefully they won't suffer the same whatever everything else.  Put them on the heating pad although that's probably not needed.

Transplanted bok choy

Transplanted all the bok choy.  Lots of bok choy!  They look happy, so I wanted to get them into the ground before they grew enough to look sad along with most everything else.

Bok choy self-sowed appeared

Noticed some self-sowed bok choy while prepping the garden today!  That's a nice surprise.

Bok choy hardening off

It's weird with this plant failure to thrive thing -- plants look good at the start, then just completely stunt and go sad.

So, getting the bok choy ready to be transplanted.

If things get set out too soon and don't make it to weather, oh well, they won't make it suffering whatever it is they're suffering inside.

Transplanted kale, celery, chard, and parsley

Transplanted kale, celery, chard, and parsley.

They are so incredibly sad looking.  Like the end of July leftovers at Canadian Tire. 

I couldn't wait any longer, had to get them into the garden in the hopes that maybe they will find a new lease on life.

Many of the remaining indoor plants look equally pathetic.

I have a feeling there will be an expensive trip to the seedling store this spring.  Sigh!!

Almost everything indoors is stunted

What the heck.  Almost everything I've started inside this year is stunted.  Pathetic-looking.  Leaves purple, pink, pale green, yellow.  Never had this problem before.

Tomatoes.  Peppers.  Chard.  Kale.  Ground cherries.  Celery.  Maybe others, can't remember.

Could it be the Promix soil (black bag)?

So, hoping to get as much as possible transplanted outside ASAP in the hopes they will be able to bounce back.

Otherwise, will have to buy all my transplants this year after buying almost none at all last year.

:-(((((((((((((

Hardening off kale, chard, parsley, and celery

Hardening off kale, chard, parsley, and celery.  Spending the days outside, in at night.

Carrots and beets sowed

Sowed half the carrot bed, with ~3 rows of beets on the north end and the rest of the rows with carrots.

Onion sets planted (from sets collected last year)

Onion sets planted (from sets collected last year).  I think they're multiplying onions.

Zinnias potted into soil

The zinnias sprung up after only about 2 days.  Potted many into soil today, but then ran out of soil.

Ground cherries have flower buds

2 or 3 of the 5 ground cherries have flower buds already -- only 1.5" tall.  Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing!

Zinnias sowed (indoors)

Always exciting to try something new!   3 vermiculite tubs of zinnias.  Unfortunately these are the pom-pom kind, which isn't my favourite look (I prefer more daisy-style), but oh well!

Ground cherries, tomatoes, & kale potted up (some but not all)

Potted up some of the ground cherries and tomatoes (beefsteak and sweeties) into slightly larger pots.

As for the kale, potted up the 3 that were looking more pathetic than the other set of kale, which also don't look all that great.  2 of the 3 had wimpy root systems, but the stronger one had nice roots.

Carrot (1) harvested

Plucked a lovely carrot out of the ground today, from last summer/fall.  Nice and crisp.  Usually my leftovers end up mucky and not edible in spring but this one was great.

Peas in ground, finally!

The weather forecast is finally good enough to get the peas in the ground, so did that today.  They are so in need of support, which they can get started on now. 

Note to self, score the peat flats before sowing.  Scored them today, hope the roots will be ok.

Green onion sets sowed

Green onion sets sowed.  These are the sets that appeared last fall that I saved over the winter.  They look in great shape; looking forward to see if they produce.

Wildflowers sowed

Wildflowers:  scattered various home-collected seeds in wildflower bed and front bed, including the corn poppy seeds.

Lupins sowed outside

Lupins (5 seeds in each of four spots) sowed outside in the front bed, with compost, not presoaked.

(The ones I tried to germinate in baggie a few weeks ago didn't do anything.)

Basil, Bok choy, and Malabar spinach repotted into soil

Basil (x5), Bok choy (x9), and Malabar spinach (x7) repotted into soil.

Peas didn't perish!

Wow, the peas look great!  Almost as good as new.  Will keep inside a few more days... snowing today, sheesh!

Peas in peril!!!

Yikes, when we got home today around noon, as the freezing rain was just starting, checked on the peas (still under the chair/table) and found them very droopy.  Whisked them inside, put some on the heat mat, let others be, watered all as they were quite dry.

It's now 8:30pm and I'm relieved to say it looks like most of the peas survived, as they have un-drooped and are looking much better.  Put them back upstairs, under lights, because the weather for the next few days is still not great.  Hopefully Tuesday or Wednesday can put them back out.

Some of the individual peas might not make it as their stem bent rather than arc-ed, but I'll let them be and see what happens.

Overall:  Phew!

Poor peas facing cold spring

Peas have been 24/7 outside last few days, still in their pots.  Been cloudy and cold, very unseasonal, and calling for snow and/or freezing rain the next few days.  Haven't plunked the peat pots into the ground yet, so have them set under the chair/table for protection.  Looking ok so far.

Basil has appeared

Basil has appeared.

Malabar spinach and bok choy have appeared

As the title says.  Wow, I only sowed the bok choy yesterday!  Will leave on the heat mat a while longer.

Sowed basil and home-collected bok choy

Sowed basil and bok choy, ~12 seeds each in vermiculite.  The bok choy are all the ones I collected from one of the longish-season-lasting plants last year.

Peas placed outside to start hardening off (but not planted yet)

Plunked all of the peas outside today to harden off.  Cold spring, but have to get this done because they're several inches tall now.  Brought them in tonight.

3 kales not looking good

3 of the kales, in adjacent connected pots, aren't looking so great these days.  Wilty. 

Asparagus moved to top shelf with old lights

Re-organized the plants/shelves now that have 6 flats of peas to make room for.

Part of this involved moving the asparagus to the top shelf, under the old Cobourg lights.  Hoping they'll be ok with this...

Lupins sowed in fridge baggie

"sowed" the lupin seeds saved from last year's plant, on moist paper towel placed in a baggie in the fridge.  Another experiment...

Peas: sowed more to fill in the gaps

All six pea flats now have germinated, although some gaps.  So, filled in the gaps today with seeds pre-soaked for a few hours.

As for the germination -- notably, the three first trays to germinate were the three on the heat mats.  After I moved them under lights, moved the other trays to the mat, and within a day or two they had also appeared.

Malabar spinach sowed

~8 seeds in vermiculite, pre-soaked for a few hours.  Have never tried Malabar spinach before.

Ground cherries are tiny, slow growing

The ground cherry plants are tiny, seem to be slow growing compared to the tomato plants.  Hope they pick up speed so they'll be ready to go out in ~6 weeks.

Peas have appeared, but only the ones on the heat mat

Some of the peas have appeared, but only the ones on the heat mat, so far.  At first I had the plastic cover on it, but removed that yesterday when noticed a bit of mold forming on the soil, which I 've removed.

Peas sowed indoors

Pisum sativum "icicle" pea bought from Aster Lane Edibles.

Jiffy pots again this year, 3 of which I found fully intact in the ground from last fall's batch and decided to re-use.  (Decided against sowing outside and trying in vain to keep away whoever has eaten past year's seeds, by trying to cover with wire mesh... way too easy for rodents to dig a little hole under the mesh.)

6 rectangle pots with 11 seeds in most of them.

As for space under lights...  3 of the 4 shelves are almost totally full.  So, for the few days once the peas sprout, will probably have to do 12 hours / 12 hours giving everyone their turn.  At least will only be short term.

Ground cherries: more have appeared, and repotted into soil

Wow!  Overnight, a bunch more ground cherries suddenly appeared.  Went ahead and repotted 4 of them.  Hopefully all set for a delicious garden candy harvest!

Garlic has appeared (outside)

Several garlics are poking up out of the ground, now that the snow is all gone from 90% of the yard.

Straw blahs

Bagged up the mass of straw I had set out in the fall.  Won't bother doing that again!

Rosemary repotted into soil

1 ground cherry repotted into soil

So tiny and vulnerable.  Come on, others.... pretty please!

Tomatoes repotted into soil

3 or 4 each of BS and Sweetie.

Ground cherry have appeared

But only 1 up so far, with another on its way.  Hope a lot more will be up soon.

Rosemary has appeared!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow!  Only 5 weeks to germination.  Finally!  But, only 2 so far :D

Tomatoes have appeared

BF and sweetie.

Ground cherry sowed

A sprinkling of ~12 seeds, bought from Telsing.

SO excited for this one!  These things are like candy -- better than candy!  Hope to have several plants.  Last year's singleton (bought as a transplant) had a meager harvest likely due to being totally shaded out from being put in a bad location.

Tomatoes sowed (Sweetie and Beefsteak)

5 of each but only planning to plant 1 of each.

(Chose a different cherry tomato this year, Sweetie, because Tiny Tim was a Gigantic disappointment last year with such a puny harvest.  The Tiny Tim I had bought at the store the year before gave much better harvest.)

Swiss chard repotted into soil

12 plants total.  Some are still seed-bound and several don't look at that healthy yet.  May call for a second sowing, will decide in a week or so after I see how this batch is looking.

Peppers repotted into soil

2 of the collected seeds peppers
+ 4 of the bought seeds peppers
repotted into soil today.

Peppers have appeared (the collected seeds)

3 peppers from the seeds I collected last year have appeared.

Peppers have appeared (the bought seeds)

3 of the bought peppers have appeared.  No sign yet from the seeds I saved from one of last year's plants.

Sowed chard

3 joined pots in vermiculite, each with 4 seeds.

Chard is one of my all-time favourite things to have in the garden!

==> continual harvest all season long, from earliest spring, through hottest summer, to last days of fall

==> easy to grow, targeted by few insects (so far all I've had to deal with are slugs, easy to rehome them)

==> takes up hardly any space, nice and compact

==> versatile in the kitchen:  raw as salad, add to stir-fries, great in soups

==> easy to freeze, don't even have to blanch

Hoping for another great long harvest of chard this year.

Rosemary nowhere to be seen

The rosemary sowed on Feb 18th is still nowhere to be seen.  I guess it's true what they say!

Kale repotted into soil

6 pots, with 2 kale sproutlings each.  Will thin later.

Celery -- more appeared, and, repotted all into soil

Many more of the celery sprouts appeared a few days ago.

Transplanted 8 of them, into 4 pots -- will thin to 1 per pot later.

Will be a total of 8 celery at the end of the day, if they all make it.

Asparagus sending up new shoots

Several of the asparagus now have second shoots coming up.  Very cute.

Tuberous begonia has appeared!

The bigger of the two tubers has appeared!

Kale has appeared!

Wow, that was fast!  Sowed Sunday, appeared Tuesday.  And actually they may have appeared yesterday, as they were a surprise this evening and already a cm or two high.

Kale sowed

Sowed 14 kale seeds in a tub of used vermiculite.

Peppers sowed

Sowed 9 of the seeds I saved last year as a test,
and
sowed 9 of the other seeds.

All in two tubs of re-used vermiculite...  which in itself will also be a test.

Celery has appeared!

Celery has appeared!  Only 4 or 5 so far though.  Hoping more will come along soon.

That's 11 days for germination.

Didn't keep good stats last year to compare with no heat mat.

Parsley has appeared!

Two parslettes have appeared.  Removed tub from heat mat and put it under lights.

Asparagus repotted into soil

14(!) asparagus sproutlings repotted into their own soil tubs.  That's 14/16 seeds that sprouted, assuming the other two don't pop up in the coming days.  Pretty darn good!

Asparagus has appeared!

Yay!  Both asparagus tubs each have 2 sproutlings discovered today.  Removed them from the heat mat and put them under lights.  Will wait a little longer before repotting; hopefully the other sproutlings will follow shortly.

Celery sowed

Sowed celery by sprinkling the tiny seeds in a vermiculite tub.  They'll benefit from the new heated seed mat from the get-go.

Heated seed-starting mat

Bought a heated seed-starting mat today.  Hoping this will help the asparaguys get going, no sign of them yet.  Has been on for a few hours and the tubs seem nice and toasty now.

Sowed parsley and rosemary

Sowed parsley and rosemary today, in vermiculite tubs. 

Asparagus seeds started

First indoor sowing (begonias don't count)!

I miss having asparagus in my garden.  So, sowed 2 x 8 seeds, in vermiculite tubs the old fashioned way.  Put them in clear salad "mini greenhouses".  Now the longgggggggg wait to first harvest begins.  Seed was free from Telsing.

Wakey wakey, tuberous begonias!

Potted the two tuberous begonias today, in damp soil.  One was very light weight and hollow-feeling, not sure if it's a goner or what.  The other (with a dried stem poking up) was nice and hefty.

This is 3 weeks earlier than last year, because last year it felt like I gave them a late start.