When It Rains, It Pours Laziness

Since thunder and lightning rolled in about four this morning, I knew there was going to be no fun today. So I have been watching M*A*S*H* (my favorite old show) and taking updated pictures of what has been popping up inside. Here is a small sample of what has turned my house into a greenhouse. I hope these are enough to tide you over until I can find some more interesting stuff.

These are the green tomatoes planted earlier this month. They are approximately three inches tall, how they grow up so fast. The Missouri Pink Love Apples are doing as well also. I have set these outside on sunny days to slowly adjust them to the outside elements.

The crinkle leaves are called true leaves. They resemble miniature versions of the full grown leaves.

My fast growing Brussels Sprouts are doing fine also, nearly everyone has grown (a total of 43 plants, give or take one.).

Don't they look like they want a hug. Owww! How cute it is with its little dicot arms wide open and true leaf head.

I have not mentioned every type of seed I have planted, because they will be mentioned in upcoming posts. Can you guess what these new babies are?

How about now?

No? Well they are Basil seedlings. I was suprised by these little buggers. I had them covered in plastic wrap and the wrap was fogged. I began to notice the wrap was not as tighly wound as before and low-and-behold they had sprouted, and kept sprouting.

The seeds were very small and by the time I got to the right side of the flat I just sprinkled the seeds anywhere they fell. Some of the cells towards the right are overcrowded; but, hopefully they will not smother each other out before they can be transplanted.

Here is the bottom of our driveway, what a sloppy mess.

In the foreground you can see a pond of red water. It is not a pond, it is a hole dug at the lowest part of the valley that is over twenty-five feet deep in areas and even deeper in others. When it rains the water simple flows down the field into the hole, where it stops the water from flooding the driveway that goes beside it. Where my garden is situated (you can see a corner of it to the right of the right turn) is also level with the hole and gets flooded out during heavy rainfall. Last Summer part of my corn rows were bent, like candycanes, to the right and not as straight and pretty as I had planned. The water had flowed into the irigation ditch dug down the center of the garden and pulled alot of seeds in that direction, causing the cooky shped rows.

I hope those of you with gardens do not suffer as terribly from these bouts of Spring storms. Luckily the garden is only growing weeds and will be tilled soon. Happy Spring showers and good luck finding rainbows.

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I have once again entered a post of mine into two blog hops. I am trying to be known and so far I have had a great experience. Thank you for stopping by and thank you even more for your smile inducing ramblings. This post has been enterd in the Relax & Surf Sunday over at The Life of Rylie and Bryce Too and The Farm House Blog Hop.

Fast Sprouters

I have never seen seeds germinate so fast, these plants came up only three days after planting. What are they?....

....Brussels Sprouts! They look very much like four leave clovers. There are over twenty plants. It might seem odd; but, I love Brussels. I steam mine and add a little salt and Amish butter.

I have searched allover to find Brussels Sprouts being grown, they do not seem to be very popular. Hopefully I will be able to get these in the ground soon.

South Facing Window

For many home gardeners that start their own seeds, the south facing window is the most important place in the house during the late winter and early spring. The south facing windows holds the best light for plants to thrive and provides warmth for the soil. I started a few plants about a month ago to see the germination rate of some seeds I had saved. This is how I found out that my eggplants were a loss, but I have one butternut squash out of three seeds, three cantaloupe seeds out of three, and one pink tomato out of three; the germination rates were pretty good.

It is important to test seeds, one method is: place a certain about of seeds in between a layer of moist paper towels, place the paper towels in a Ziploc. Be sure to write what and how many seeds you place in between paper towels. Store the package on top of your fridge, this is most likely the warmest and least disturbed place in your house. Check the bag in three to five days, re-moisten if the paper towels begin to dry. Once the sprouted seeds have at least visible dicot, first, leaves appear you can determine germination rate. Example: you placed ten seeds in the baggie, seven sprouted. Your germination rate is 70%, this is based on a one hundred percent scale.

The living Pink Brandywine Tomato, I collected the seeds from a tomato I bought from the Delano Mennonite Farmers Market near Athens, Tennessee. Here it is with the seed packets that will hopefully grow as strong as this one, tomorrow is planting day.

I recycled a worm tub from the fishing store in town. These are cantaloupes, also harvested from fruit from the Delano market.

 

An up and personal look at a cantaloupe wannabe. The two leaves on the right are the first leaves, dicot leaves; look for these during the first stage of sprouting.


Top middle: Butternut Squash, left: tomato, bottom middle: cutting of a Wandering Jew. The Coke bottle on the left hold a pretty mum; I love collecting old glass bottles and jars and turning them into vases and what not.

I will be back tommorw to show coverage of my 2011 planting.