Virgin Harvest

This book was a delight to read.  Very inspiring and got me in the mood to garden on-the-cheap using what I have in my gardening shed, garage, kitchen and around the property.  I promptly rinsed out all of my old terra cotta pots and scrubbed the grit & grime from them with a wire brush, as well as saving and rinsing food jars & large cans to use for future plant cuttings (don't I sound like a legitimate gardener?).

Another weekly read of mine is this blog.  Nici has organized a gardening challenge called Virgin Harvest and she writes about it here.  I'm going to participate.  With my track record, it could be a very short participation - but I'm going to give it a try, as that's the whole point.  Check it out, sign up and become a born-again-virgin-in-the-garden.

I took a short trip to Petaluma to visit the new Seed Bank and it was so fantastic!  Who knew I could get so excited over seeds?  They say people can't change, but I think I'm living proof that you can.  If you had told me ten years ago that I would be giddy upon entering a vegetable seed bank, I would have told you that you were certifiably C-R-A-Z-Y.  Well, here I am.

I realize that my pattern is to get excited, buy too much, bring it home, watch it sit in the container or, in this case, the seed packet and then promptly forget about it.  Well, not this time.

I promptly came home and went back to the gardening shed and opened up this spider web covered cabinet to find the above collection of miscellaneous jars.  WTF?  My very own seed bank!  How have I lived here three years and never opened this cabinet?  I felt a rush of excitement.  I have millions of poppy seeds.  Pumpkin seeds.  Tatsoi seeds?  Huh?  What is that?  I would have a lot of research to do, but it was clicking for me that part of gardening is saving seeds, recycling items that will help in the garden (such as film canisters, spice jars and tiny honey pots) and using a little creativity to keep this entire project on the cheap.  That's what our grandparents did for sure.  Surely, I can do this.  

First up.  Avocado seeds.  Two seeds that I normally would have composted were saved, rinsed and pricked with toothpicks and put in a dark, dry cabinet above my stove.  Once leaves form, they will be transplanted into a pot with drainage holes.  All of my reading helped me realize plants need light, good soil & AIR.  The air is an important component that I have really messed up on in a few of my house plants.  I have pots with no drainage.  Cute pots, but apparently that isn't going to help my plants grow.  Re-potting is on my list of things to do now.

Here is the first of my seedling plantings.  Zinnias, carrots and radishes and planted in recycled egg cartons (and these can go directly in the ground when replanting outside).  I will also plant beets and lettuce seeds directly in the ground, as directed, later this week after the rains.  I wasn't sure how much rain was coming (we're on day two) and I didn't want the seeds to mildew or get washed away, as per the instructions from the Sonoma County Master Gardener's website.  These seedlings will be transplanted to my weed-free, compost-rich gardening beds once they look developed and the chance of frost is gone.  

Potatoes are the next project.  I've been researching planting potatoes in tires here and here, as there are a lot of beneficial reasons for doing so (retaining moisture and heat, space-saving and repurposing old tires) and saving the backbreaking work of hoeing a row or two in the ground where pesky gophers can gobble them up.  For now, I've planted in terra cotta pots and will perhaps try the tire method later this summer.

Garlic.  Kitchen garlic to be exact.  You are supposed to plant garlic in the late fall, but I went ahead and popped it in a bed close to the house.  A friend offered that if you can grow it on your counter, then you can probably grow it in the garden in February.  Great.  Done.  It's coming up nicely and I'm looking forward to the beautiful purple globe-like flowers almost as much as the garlic!  I planted 24 cloves.  

March is ending on a nice note.  I have a few weed-free beds that will be planted soon with tomatoes, lettuce, beets and flowers.  The rain is going to help me rid a few other sections of my garden of weeds, as the soil will be soft and the weeds won't have a chance against me and my hoe (I just had to type that sentence). 


What are you going to grow?