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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

State of the Union Part II

As promised (which we 'politicians' really shouldn't do), I am back with part II of the address.

What's to Come?

I have already planted our spring onion. I bought onion sets from the local nursery; Sweet Red, White Granex, and Texas 1015. Here is a pic of some of the planted onions. They look like really skinny sprouts of weeds right now. I put some organic bone meal in the holes with them.

I also bought some seed potatoes; those are planted around Valentine's Day here. I have Yukon Gold, Purple Majestic, and Russet. I also sprouted some Red potatoes from the grocery store. I've got to get their bed ready. My soil is 7.0 ph; much too high for potatoes, so I'll mix in something....don't know yet.

I have some sweet potatoes sitting in jars of water. I am attempting to grow my own slips, those are planted early April.

I have already started my spring garden. Right now everything is sitting in my windowsill. Next week, I will move all of this to a shelf with a florescent light over it. So here is what I have planted so far:


Everything was planted either 12/29 or this weekend.

The Lettuce is Four Seasons, Little Ceasar Romaine, and Red Sails. I hope to harvest it in early spring. The tomato is Cherokee Purple and I know it is a little early for tomato, but I am giving it a head start because I will be planting other varieties, but I want to save seed from this variety. I do plan to protect it in early spring. Next to the tomato is one row of Artichoke Imperial Star which is supposed to be a one year variety...we'll see. I have some King Richard Leeks and Sum Harvest Cauliflower; along with Salad Delight Cabbage, and Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage.

I am also going to try to grow some Ventura Celery. I like celery and it is one of the EWG's dirty dozen; finding organic celery is difficult in this area, so I really hope these work. After reading more about celery and how hard it is to get started, I decided to plan some more...though its now 2-3 weeks late. I would also like to see if I can harvest some spring carrots. I know they don't like being transplanted, but our spring gets too hot too fast to start these later outdoors. So I planted them in those expanding peat pots so that I don't have to disturb the roots when I plant them outdoors.

This is my 3rd try at broccoli. I planted some last spring that never headed. This fall, I planted more and ost didn't germinate, but I did harvest my first every broccoli head and side shoots. We love broccoli, so I really hope that I get it right this time. Last year, I think I started it too late and it got to hot for head formation. As you can see above, I have already messed up the broccoli AGAIN. This time I forgot they were on top of the refrigerator and they got leggy. Soooo, I pulled all of those (that were too leggy) and started over. So maybe this counts as my 4th try.

6 comments:

  1. This sounds nothing like the State of the Union Address, you didn't promise everything would grow and be fruitful, you didn't explain away why things didn't grow and you never lied, lol.

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  3. Sustainably Modern1/25/12, 9:46 AM

    LOL; I guess I did fail on giving a proper State of the Union. No wonder I never won an election.

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  4. My broccoli produced very early with little tiny baby heads, when they do this I pick them off and trim the outer leaves so the plant can put more energy into growing taller and then producing the fruit.

    Also what are the celery and carrots wrapped in? I put mine in regular seed containers (recycled from nursery) and lay damp newspaper over them. They sprout MUCH faster this way.

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  5. Sustainably Modern1/30/12, 7:52 AM

    They are wrapped in saran wrap. They sprouted in 7-10 days sitting on a south west facing window seal with the saran wrap. The carrots were also covered with cardboard..I just removed it for the picture and have removed it now that they have sprouted.

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  6. I am not a very good vegetable grower, but I am learning. I planted broccoli this fall and am just now starting to gets florets! I'm very excited that maybe this time I'll have something to eat! All my earlier attempts never worked, so I'll give it another try next fall. Good luck with yours.

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