It’s been somewhat quiet over here the past few days because I’ve been feeling a little funky. I’m mostly blaming it on the wedding’s being over. Sometimes when I’ve been looking forward to something for a while, I get a little melancholic when it’s over. Does that happen to anybody else? Well yesterday, after a lovely, sewing session with Deb, I felt renewed, so I’m back.
I’ve actually been getting a lot done lately, which feels good. I haven’t done a garden post in a while, but things are definitely happening on that front. I finally transplanted my tomato seedlings into bigger pots a little over a week ago. They went from looking like they do above, to looking like they do below. You don’t always have to transplant seedlings into bigger pots before transplanting them into the garden, but after last year’s tomato tragedy, I decided to do everything in my power to make my tomato seedlings as strong and healthy as possible.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been repeatedly planting lettuce and arugula every two weeks or so. So I have lettuce and arugula growing in various stages. I also planted swiss chard as well, but it hasn’t sprouted up yet. I have various herbs sprouting in pots, including basil, purple basil, cilantro, and parsley. Since they sprouted, it’s about time to plant more to guarantee a continuous supply.
Unfortunately, all my garden news isn’t good. While I was so happy that the radishes are looking so beautiful and are ready to eat, they forced me to look at the rows of carrots and beets I planted on either side of them, and realize that if they haven’t sprouted yet they’re probably not going to. In the next few days, I’m planning to plant some more radish, carrot, and beet seeds, and hope that they all grow as nicely as the radishes did this time. Does any one know why those guys wouldn’t have grown? I think they’ve proven that sometimes even when I do everything right, I can still have a garden flop. Here’s hoping round two is more successful.
The radishes really are lovely. I picked and ate one on Tuesday. It might look misshapen but it’s actually the type of radish I planted called French Breakfast. It was a lot milder flavored than I expected but I think that has more to do with the weird weather than the type. I’ll know for sure when I try the other variety I planted but I think I should let them grow for a week or so more, before I eat any.
Planting cucumber, bean, and marigold seeds directly into the garden is also on the to-do list for the next week. I’m going to begin to harden off the tomato and eggplant seedlings in about two weeks, as they should all be content in their new pots until then and the temperature is still too low at night to consider planting them outside. (tomatoes flourish when the temperature is steadily above sixty-five degrees.) I have more I plan to plant, including peppers and okra, but those like really warm weather, so I’ll probably wait until more towards the end of May. May is possibly my favorite gardening month, because there is so much that happens. I’m really looking forward to all the sprouting and planting that will occur. How are my fellow gardener’s doing? Anyone else looking forward to May?
Unrelated Comment: I again used PicMonkey to edit my photos. The website has some really neat capabilities and I love the resulting photos.
Good job with the garden. Those carrots can be a problem. One year I ended up planting them right on the top and sprinkled some dirt over them. I look forward to reading more results.
So you think I may have planted them too deep? I wonder if that could be it… I’m having the opposite (non) issue with the radishes, they’re little tops pop out of dirt, which I think is weird, but they grow anyway.
That is typical for radishes. Don’t worry about it, things will turn out fine.
My tomato seedlings look like your second photo. This will be my first time attempting to grow them – hopefully it will work out!
I’m sure it’ll work out great! Make sure you harden them off though. (This has been my downfall in the past.)
I’ve already got a jungle in my green house… melons, tomatoes, basil, arugula, peas and beans. I have to get tomato cages this week to help my grown seedlings thrive and hopefully give me tomatoes. I had a few radishes actually mature, most died on me
I have garlic sprouts ready to be planted now, well as soon as I can find a good place for them to spread without worry.
Sounds like you have a lot of great things going on! I’m jealous your tomatoes are already ready for cages (and jealous you have a green house).
I bet your radishes didn’t grow too well because of the Texas heat! Radishes prefer chilly weather. 
Maybe I’ll try a fall planting of radishes, October is usually cooler here
good idea! Good Luck!
you too
xxx
Thanks for sharing your update (and I’m jealous too… I was thinking this morning of how nice it would be to have a greenhouse). Because it’s so chilly here in NJ I’m keeping my little seedlings inside right now too… I think the next few days are going to be coldish too. Bah! It’s also helpful to know that an experienced-r gardener such as yourself also has ups and downs.
I think all gardener’s have ups and downs (or at least I tell myself that). We are working with a natural process after all!
true… especially with the ups and downs of dealing with the weather. It’s not like we are trying to grow things in an environment where temperatures are in an ideal range.
exactly! Now if we had greenhouses on the other hand… we’d have lots more control and maybe be able to grow things a little better.
I understand what you are saying about wedding blues. You spend all that time for such a glorious day that when it’s over, you feel like what just happened? What now? There are so many other things to look forward to! For example, buying a house, painting rooms together, hanging up those pictures, making babies one day? So many things!!!
I’m not a vegetable grower, however I do have 100′s of flowers in the back. The only thing I know about vegetables is that tomatoes need bees.
xoxo
I was actually just attending a wedding of a very close family friend, but I’m going to pass on your message to her because I’m sure as gloomy as I felt on Monday, she was feeling it even more! Your point helped me as well, I just need to plan some more fun things to look forward to! A simple cure for the duldrums.
I love flowers! We have flowers at my house as well, but my focus as always been the edibles.
What a lot of hard work you did in transplanting your seedlings into larger pots. Your post is a good reminder that my seedlings (probably planted just a little too early for my neglectful veggie-growing style) definitely need fertilizing asap.
Glad to provide a necessary reminder! It wasn’t all that much work to transplant. My dad and I worked together so it only took about an hour!
You are off to a good start with your garden. I hope you’ll share more pictures of it as time goes on.
I definitely will… I’m usually tempted to take a picture of every single vegetable it gifts me!