Yes, my green thumb is thriving . . . I was a little concerned, given my previous lack of success in the greenhouse, in the past 2 years, but this year, I think I can safely say, I've put all that behind me. And after only three weeks of use!
I started my seeds as usual, in the dining room and my little mini-greenhouse/seed propagator, and they grew. However, this time, after testing out the heater in the greenhouse and finding that it did, indeed, do the trick, I moved my biggest tomato plants out to their new home, on Mother's Day. Since then, I've had to re-pot them twice, because they've out grown their pots. To date, the tomatoes have at least 3 bunches (please excuse my incorrect tomato terminology, I'm still new at this!) of flowers growing on each plant. I have 9 plants. This was before I fed them any Miracle Grow, so it seems I'm off to a roaring start.
My other veges are growing extremely well also - some are ready to go out into the garden, if it would stop raining long enough for me to finish weeding and get my potatoes planted, before I plant anything else!! This weekend, hopefully.
I have green peppers, one red pepper plant, cucumbers, broccoli, beans, lettuce, peas and a variety of flowers (these are destined for outdoor pots) in there at the moment, and it is full!! Which is great - it's never had this many plants in it, ever! I just re-potted my 6 broccoli plants yesterday - moved them up from 4 inch pots to 6 inch (or one gallon?) pots. They were seriously root bound. I've put 3 of my lettuce plants in a window box - the other three are going in the garden, plus I have some tiny ones I started from seed myself, which will eventually replace these bigger ones.
All my beans and peas are destined for the garden - I started them early just to see how well they'd do - horticultural experiment #3, I think we'll call that one! The plan is to put a select number of tomatoes and cucumbers in the garden also, and see how they do - if the weather is nice enough for long enough for them to produce a decent crop . . . and to see if all the vege predators will leave them alone!
Aside from the weeds, which once I get ahead of them, are fairly easy to control (the problem is getting rid of them before I plant!), we have a variety of vege predators in the garden. There are the birds, which eat the raspberries - but that's okay, because I have lots - we also have chipmunks and squirrels, which eat my peas and my beans. This would actually also be okay, because again, I have lots, but they only eat half of a bean or a pea pod, and move on to eat another. So, I end up with a lot of half-eaten, and thus useless veges. Oh, and one of those little buggers (don't know which critter, because I didn't catch him in the act) actually dug up some of my potatoes last year and ate part of a couple of them!! Again, I have lots - we're still eating the potatoes I grew last year - but I still had to throw away a few, because they turned green, thanks to the digging critters!
Oh the joys of gardening in the country, eh? Haha, actually, it's a lot of fun . . . and I really don't mind sharing, I would mind even less, if they would let me catch them in the act and pose for my camera. How cool would that be??
The weather this weekend is supposed to be nice, warm and sunny, so I should be able to get all my veges planted out, and the seeds planted too. First, continued weed removal; second, building plant supports (peas and raspberries); and then planting!! As usual, I'm a week late, but it hasn't seemed to make a difference in previous years - this is my fourth year of vege gardening, so although I'm still a novice, I think I'm getting the hang of it!
Now, if only I could find some small, square straw bales, I could launch another experiment!!
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