Started tomato "Scotia"

Forgot I had ordered these seeds along with the peas.  The arrived today, so went ahead and started these Scotia tomatoes, in paper towel.

A ton more zinnias have sprouted

And potted into soil.

Broccoli round 2 is a flop too!!!

What the heck!  Round 2 of broccoli is also looking like a flop.  The plants are just small, wimpy, and now even floppy.  The leaves don't have the speckled/browning of round 1, but, still very unwell.

Decided today to start hardening them off now.  Maybe inside is too warm for them.  Will see if they stand a chance...

Sprinkled some grass seed

To cover up some spots.  First sprinkled some soil, then the seeds, then sprinkled more soil but didn't make attempts to thoroughly cover anything.  (didn't dig the ground at all)

Some of the zinnias have sprouted; potted them

Only a few so far.   Carefully labeling each pot as I go. 

To hopefully avoid the ground cherry's problem, I mixed in some of last year's mushroom compost, and, did the vermiculate "well" at the top too.

Ground cherries having trouble breaking through in this soil mix; tomaotes doing fine

Uh oh -- The ground cherries are having trouble breaking through.  This soil mix seems rock hard for some reason even though it has a lot of vermiculite in it, and nothing else has struggled like this yet...  e.g. The tomatoes are doing fine.

So, I put a few of the paper towel left-overs into new pots with even more vermiculate added in, and, with a little vermiculate "well" at the top.

Asparagus have started appearing, including several nice sized spears

Several days ago noticed the asparagus have started appearing.  This is the year I get to make the first harvest, and it looks like there will be some nice sized spears!

Started hardening parsley, onions, chard, and broccoli

Started hardening the parsley, onions, chard, and broccoli.  As for the broccoli maybe how warm the computer room gets is part of their problem?

Will bring them in at night and leave them out during the day. 

Sure frees up a lot of space inside.

Garden prep day

- Sowed the beets
- Twined two of the vertical areas (need to buy more twine to do the cuke one)
- Arranged/tidied the fences, including the central patch
- Raked off the beds
- Admired the growing garlic, etc.

Garlic location a-ha

Silly me thinking squirrels had planted some garlic for me in my terra cotta planter...  re-reading my blog from last fall, I did that!

I'm also the one who put the two on the north side of the compost bin!

My memory sure is the pits!

Today found a clove next to the air conditioner which is surely from me dumping out the soil a few weeks ago after one of the planters broke (having forgotten I had put garlic into it).  Put that one into the remaining terra cotta planter -- and in so doing found the third one from last fall which doesn't seem to have done anything. I should dig around next to the air conditiner for the other two bulbs. 

Started round 1 beets outside

Same spot as last year.  Entire north foot sowed today, with 2 feet of cylindrical at 16/square (oops), and 2 feet of Detroit at 9/square.

Started zinnias -- a whole bunch (in paper towels)

Talls:
- almost all are from last year's collected seeds that were collected from my 2018 plants
- the exception is the yellow, which I didn't have any last year, so these were from the 2018 plant which was from a package -- so, it will be interesting to see if the yellows will actually be yellow

Shorts:
- all shorts are from seeds collected last year from 2019 bought plants

All are nicely labelled in separate paper towels / baggies and I hope to keep track of them all throughout planting, to see if this year's flowers will be the same colour as their "parent".

Potted all tomatoes and ground cherries

Potted up:

3 x tomato Sweetie
3 x tomato tofusteak
3 x tomato "medium"

6 x ground cherry

Some of the lettuce and turnips are up

At one point, Charlie walked all over the bed, so there are little paw indentations all over.  Hopefully things will grow ok regardless.

~12 sprouted garlic cloves appeared in various places! Put some into a container

Wow, about 12 garlic cloves have sprouted up in places I didn't plant them!

- the SW area where some grew last year
- two on the north side of the compost bin
- two in the remaining ceramic pot!!

I wonder how they got there, especially the planter and compost ones.

Moved all of the ones from the SW area into other spots, namely the north bed where the rest are, and put four into a plastic container, as a test.

Left the ceramic pot and compost ones, as a test.

Started tomatoes (three kinds) in paper towels

Started these three kinds:

- Sweetie from the package
- Beefsteak from the package (from the foil pack collection)
- "medium" size tomato from seed collected in 2018

Started ground cherries (in paper towel)

Yep!

Waited almost two weeks longer this year, since last year it seemed too early and they got stunted in the containers.

Potted into soil the basil, button flower, and more parsley

As the title says.

Sowed in paper towels: basil (one kind only); purple button flower; bidens flower

Basil:  Decided this year to only grow one kind, the Genovese seeds I bought online a month or two ago.

Purple button flower:  I liked this flower last year, which I bought; these are seeds I collected last year from that plant.

Bidens (orange/yellow):  Again, collected last year from a plant I bought last year.

Sowed poppy seeds outside

In front of the fence.  West most "patch" is the dark-centered (my favourite); central "patch" is the neutral-centred; and east most "patch" is the white-centered.

Method:  Just lightly brushed off leaves/mulch etc., then sprinkled on some clean soil from yard; then sprinkled the seeds on top.  Did not cover with any soil.  Watered with water bottle "sprinkler".

These are seeds from ones collected in 2018.  Used up all of the seeds.  If none take / if I don't get to collect seeds from these, then oh well, will buy seeds next year.