More Sprouts

More of the herb and flower seeds have started to sprout. So far not a single tomato or pepper seed has sprouted. Many of them are seeds I saved from last year but some were purchased this year. Since none of the purchased seeds are sprouting yet either, I am not going to be concerned. I will give them another 7-10 days before I try a second round of planting.

Here is a list of what has sprouted as of Monday, Feb. 15:

Basil
Chives
Garlic Chives
Cilantro
Sage
Dill
Nasturtium
Lime Zinnia
Lobelia
Petunia
Bells of Ireland
Sweet William
Hollyhock
Jewel Nasturtium
Poppy
Sweet Pea
Gloriosa Daisy
Moss Rose
Forget-Me-Not
Cosmos
Lupine
Centaurea

Gardens & Snow

Snow is not something I normally have to think about when planning for the garden. Every now and then Mother Nature throws you a curve ball. Some of the flowers in the yard had already started to sprout and bloom.

We also have medium-sized heads of cabbage that collected snow among the leaves.

As best as I can tell the snow did no damage to either of these. I was also relieved to find that the greenhouse stayed nice and warm. All of the plants and sprouting seeds were protected from the snow. The one inch of white stuff ended up just being a blip on the gardening calendar.

Sprouting Seeds

Between Feb 5 and Feb 7 some of the seeds started to sprout. The basil, lime zinnias, sweet William, poppy, and cosmos seeds were the first to sprout. Hopefully as the weather warms more of the seeds will start to pop-up. Here are a couple of pictures. (I apologize for the poor quality.)

Flowers

I mentioned before that I love growing flowers and consider them an important part of my garden. I have several flower beds scattered around the yard and could never afford to purchase as many plants as I would need. Seeds are much more affordable, and I love being surprised by the colors of flowers from mixed packs of seeds. Here is my flower list for this year:

Nasturtium
Bee Balm
Lime Zinnia
Baby's Breath
Lobelia
Petunia
Bells of Ireland
Blue Fescue Grass (not technically a flower but will border a flower bed)
Sweet William
Hollyhock
Poppy
Sweet Peas
Gloriosa Daisy
Shasta Daisy
Moss Rose
Forget-Me-Not
Cosmos
Lupine
Centaurea

I may need to pick up a pack or two of seeds for hanging basket flowers. I will wait to see how well these sprout.

That is everything I have planted so far. Now comes the hard part - waiting for everything to sprout. All of the seeds were planted by January 29 so I hope to see a few sprouts by the first of next week. Even without sprouting seeds I have a few garden related items to share next week so stop back by!

Herbs

I love having fresh herbs on hand. I have some that survived the very cold weather from the beginning of January. Those are oregano, rosemary, marjoram, and lavender. Here is a list of what I have started to add back to the garden this spring:

Catnip
Curly Parsley
Flat Lear Parsley
Basil
Chives
Garlic Chives
Cilantro
Tarragon
Sage
Lemon Basil
Oregano
Dill
Ammi Visnaga

The catnip is for my two little nipheads, Lucy and Paris. I am not sure if JJ likes it yet or not. The girls love it so I am growing extra this year. The oregano is a test. The seeds are about 9 years old. I am just curious if they will sprout. The ammi visnaga is related to the parsley family. I am growing it more as a floral though. It attracts good bugs that feed on the bad ones according to the seed catalog. I am all for natural ways to handle pests in the garden.

Vegetables

Here is a list of my round one of vegetable seed planting. I have several more that I will plant in March. These are slower growing plants that need the extra time in the greenhouse.

Roma tomatoes
Jelly Bean tomatoes
Yellow Pear Cherry tomatoes
Celebrity tomatoes
Heirloom tomatoes

Purple eggplant

Banana pepper
Bell pepper
Orange Wonder pepper
Pimiento pepper
Jalapeno pepper
Cayenne pepper
Relleno pepper
Sonora pepper
Random hot pepper for a mix of seeds

Odd & end seeds: Kumquats and Acorns

I had planned to start some Japanese eggplant, but I cannot find the seeds I saved from last year. We like that better than the purple eggplant for eating. The purple ones are for my homemade spaghetti sauce. Tomorrow's list is herbs.

My Little Greenhouse

First up I will share a picture of my greenhouse. It is nothing fancy. My husband, Warren, built it with materials we already had on hand so it was free. The plastic is not actual greenhouse plastic. A local nursery suggested this particular plastic to us. It is almost the same thickness, but most importantly it is cheaper. We can recover the greenhouse multiple times with this for the same price of once with the official greenhouse plastic.

Inside is a shelving unit that he picked up somewhere. I try not to complain about the treasures he drags home as they seem to come in handy at some point. I ended up with 72 trays of seeds started.

To keep everything straight, I numbered each tray and then wrote in my gardening notebook what was in each one. It is hard to see the numbers in this picture, but they show up well in person. I do love the trays and am so happy that I purchased them. They seem a bit thicker than the ones I used to get from buying flowers. I hope to get two or three years use out of them.

The opposite side from the shelves has the flowers I was saving from the cold. They look pitiful right now, but I hope at least a few will sprout out as the temperatures rise.

Money Matters

I have yet to find a completely free garden. I am sure there are plenty of resourceful people out there who garden for pennies, but I am not one of them. I never kept a complete total of how much I spend each year until now. The totals below are for vegetable and flower gardening. I like flowers. Even though I cannot eat them (except for a few), they make me smile and brighten the entire yard.

Here are the spending totals so far this year:

Seeds/bulbs/plants: $52.17
Peat moss: $17.36
Plastic trays: $16.29

Freebies: Fertilizer (AKA: horse manure), Newspaper, Ashes (from fireplace) and Potting Soil (from local tree farm)

The peat moss, horse manure, ashes, and newspaper went into improving an existing planting bed and starting a new one. The plastic trays were purchased to start all of my seeds. These are the six hole type you get when you buy plants. I have not bought anything like that in a few years. The ones I had been reusing have disintegrated. I ordered more than I needed for this year to get the best price. I will reuse these until they too disintegrate.

Total spending thus far: $85.82

Over the next few days I will share some pictures from my greenhouse and a list of what I have already planted.