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I started with a whole new approach today. I am a bad scientist because I changed a few different things instead of just one at a time. What can I say. I am impatient!

The first different thing I tried was I went back to my “seed starter” tray that I got from one of those silly kits a couple of years ago. I did this for a couple of reasons. First, Aaron at Tyrant Farms suggested that my soil wasn’t deep enough in the pots I was using, so I might have been unintentionally creating a shadow for the little greenies. My friend Monika also mentioned that she often starts off with a plastic covering to hold in heat and moisture. Given that Georgia O’Keefe has been wandering around in my abode looking for things to paint, moisture is probably something I should help my plants maintain.

My tray is set up in rows of three, so I put a sticker on one end and kept track of what I was planting on a chart. There are lots of other ones I want to try (and thanks to Grow Journey I get a new packet every month) so I figure I will try those once I either give up on what I have or (more optimistically) once I can transfer sprouts to bigger pots. You’re probably wondering what made the first cut. Well…

Everlasting Spinach

Iko Iko Pepper

Japanese Black Trifele Tomato

Amish Paste Tomato

Cosmic Purple Carrot

Romanesco Cauliflower

Aunt Molly’s Ground Cherry

Rhubarb Chard

German Winter Thyme (this will be try #4 for this)

Evergreen Bunching Scallions

Purple Long Eggplant

Astro Arugula

Butterfly Spinach

Vit Mache Greens (the story behind this is really cool)

Russian Frills Kale

Hon Tsai Tsai Sprouting Broccoli

Garden Chives

Large Leaf Basil

This is, of course, a lot, and I will have to buy many more pots if they all succeed. However, that would be a problem I would love to have.

So, what are you up to? Planning your garden? Planting your garden? Let me know how it’s going!

A couple of weeks ago I tried to get three different seeds started. As of today, none of them have taken off. Nothing green at all. Yeah, I’m kind of bummed. All of this snow on the ground (we got about a food) is making me lust after green things. But it’s important to note that although this is disappointing, it doesn’t shake my resolve whatsoever. The fact is, I have learned one pretty important thing over my years of attempted gardening, and that is that failure tends to happen an awful lot. Gardening is not just a matter of placing seeds in dirt and crossing your fingers. It’s an art, and each seed, each plant, requires you to use a different set of tools to make it thrive.

I think this facet of gardening is what turns a lot of people off. It’s bad enough that you have to wait for something to happen in this era of instant gratification. The idea that a lot of the stuff you plant will just simply never come to anything does not sound like a great motivation to even bother trying. There are farmers, farmers’ markets, and worst case scenario, you can just get your damned carrots at the grocery store. Pulling them out of the dirt doesn’t mean THAT much.

All of that is part of what makes me love gardening so much. Sure, a lot of things may not work out. Last summer was one of my worst gardening summers ever. One plant grew a bunch of tomatoes but they all had rust on them. My other tomato plants got tons of flowers but never grew fruit. My peppers…I can’t even explain what they did. And my zucchini plant grew one little zucchini and that was it. However, I have had successful efforts, and those make all of the tries worth it. Deciding that you want some basil with your pasta and just walking outside to cut some is intensely rewarding for me. Knowing that you helped make that basil happen makes it all the better. Every failure that you get in gardening reminds you that anything that goes right is truly miraculous.

Gardening is a risky business, as is anything that has to do with life. It might not work. Your lettuce might bolt, you might get weird destructive bugs, the weather might be too dry or too wet, too hot or too cold. But all of these risks apply to any kind of relationship with living organisms. People continue to have kids even though so much can go wrong. But so much can go right. People adopt dogs and cats and rabbits and gerbils, knowing from the start that these animals will live in our hearts but won’t be alive as long as we would like them to live. But we care for them anyway, even with all of the risks inherent in that venture.

Failures do not turn me off from gardening. They are chances to learn, chances to do better. My friends at Tyrant Farms told me that I need to put more soil in the pots I’m using, so I am going to try that. Another friend suggested maybe I start the seeds in more of a starter kit versus the actual pot. I’m thinking I might go that route. There are lots of other things to try. Maybe my location for the plants isn’t great. Maybe I watered too much or too little. But I know that eventually I will be successful, and that food will taste so extra good because I will know what it took to make it grow.

If you are thinking gardening isn’t for you just because you don’t have that magical green thumb, don’t hold yourself back. Give it a try. And then give it another try. Have fun with it. I’ll bet you catch the gardening bug!

 

Hi there!

Last week I began my growing adventures, but I sort of didn’t get around to actually getting things started till about Wednesday, so…I don’t have much to report. I am anxiously awaiting the sprouting of spinach, kale, and thyme.

In the interim, I have started a Pinterest board tied to this project. Mainly I am looking for container ideas, as in different things you can make containers from. There are some pretty cool ideas. In the past I have been one of those people who runs to Lowe’s the first time it hits 60º and I try to buy all the things. This year we hit 70 around Christmas so I am already confused, but that’s beside the point. This year I definitely want to have a plan ready so I use everything I have and don’t buy anything needlessly. After all, that IS kind of the point. Breaking down what I want will also help me budget better.

The duh factor on this is like wow, right?

Anyway, if you see any neat pictures or articles about container gardening let me know so I can add them to the board. Maybe some of the ideas will help you out as well.

Stay tuned!

Here in southeast Ohio, winter has arrived. Wait, no, there it goes. It’s here. Nope, there it goes. Well, it’s supposed to be here, anyway. I have always thought it was virtually impossible to grow edible items during this time of the year, even when the weather hasn’t been completely psychotic. Shows what I know! As it turns out, there are lots of plants that can flourish in super cold environments. This begs the question, should I be working on my gardening as we speak?

If I had my own land…

Ah, the constant lament that spurred this project on. If I had my own land I would have a fall/winter garden that would already (hopefully) be colorful and edible and otherwise charming. I have extremely limited outdoor space, however, so I have to be extremely picky about what I plant in the actual ground. This has its pros and cons. The con of course is no land! Duh! But the benefit is that I pretty much have to use containers, and those can start indoors and then move outside if the plant can handle changes in temperatures.

Should I be starting my gardening now? Yes. Well, kind of.

So what’s the plan, Stan?

Thanks to the awesome people at GrowJourney (by Tyrant Farms) I essentially have a cheat sheet of epic proportions for any seeds I get from them. Here is the online guide for just one of my seed packets:

Kind of insane, right?

So, I have chosen three different types of seeds that I am going to try to start on over the next week. Now the thyme up above is technically a spring/summer plant, but since I’m starting it indoors where the temperature hovers in the 60s, I think it will be ok.

The other two plants are intended to be fall/winter plants, so once they get big I might move them outside. We are definitely not having a typical winter so it’s impossible to say when the last frost will hit.

We will see how this goes. I haven’t had a whole lot of luck starting plants from seeds over the last year, but I am going to diligently read everything like a good little monkey and see if that helps my results. I will also try to see if there are different locations in my apartment that might yield different/better results.

What three plants am I trying?

In addition to German Winter Thyme, I am going to be taking a shot at kale (Russian Frills) and Spinach (everlasting). All three come from seeds I got from the GrowJourney folks. If these start off well I might add more as the “winter” progresses. If they don’t I might hold off a little on new plants and try different approaches with these.

We’ll see where I am a week from now. Stay tuned!

The first challenge I am having is thinking about what I actually want to try to grow. It’s easy to think of plants and foods that I love, but it may not be practical to grow those, or they might look pretty but may not be foods I would actually eat a lot. With the goal of trying to at a minimum cut my grocery expenses in half over the summer, I have to think carefully about what I actually will eat, and then go backwards from there to figure out what I should grow.

To get me to this first objective, I am gathering some recipes that I don’t think will get old any time soon. Here is what I have come up with so far. Do you have any suggestions?

“Paleo Tacos” – A different kind of take on your favorite food, the gist here is that you put all of your fillings into a cup of lettuce instead of into a shell. I could grow the lettuce and tomato of course, and I could work in growing pinto beans perhaps so that I could make my own refried beans instead of buying the can. Olives would probably have to be purchased but that’s ok.

Farfalle with Cauliflower and Bread Crumbs: This recipe sounds pretty amazing. I would grow the cauliflower and maybe sometimes replace the pasta with zoodles. Speaking of…

Zoodles: I got big time into making zoodles (zucchini noodles) last year, to the point where I actually got pretty sick of them. However, this makes growing my own zucchini a major goal. Zoodles are surprisingly tasty, but I need to learn how to dry them out a little.

Polenta with Chard and Mushrooms: I make this recipe quite a lot. I am not sure about growing mushrooms but I would certainly love to grow the chard.

I of course won’t bore you with any salad “recipes” but of course spinach, carrots, and cherry tomatoes would be good.

So far, then, it looks like my growing goals would include:

Spinach

Lettuce

Lots of tomatoes

Zucchini

Carrots

Herbs – I love having fresh herbs, especially mint, basil, garlic, and rosemary.

Chard

Pinto Beans (?)

Green beans in the summer are always great as well, especially with fresh corn on the cob (which will have to come from somewhere else)

So what do you think so far? Any suggestions? Any additions? I’d love to hear from you!

For a long time now, I have had the intense desire to have a small farm. This sentiment was only increased after reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a book about a family that did their best to only eat their own home-grown food for a year. Although the woman obviously had some clear advantages over me (she had her 250 closest friends over for her birthday dinner), it really inspired me.

Ok, she had one other advantage. She had her own land. I’ve been a renter my entire adult life, and that is probably not going to change any time soon. But does that mean that I can’t try to grow my own food?

I have been doing some experimenting over the last few years but not in a really dedicated way. Over the next year, however, I am going to be striving to get to a place where I can cut my grocery bills at least in half over the summer and fall, if not more. Even though I have dabbled in gardening, I am a novice. Very much so. So I will be learning a lot as I work on this, and I hope that maybe you can learn along with me as I go.

Let’s see how far we renters can go in becoming self-sufficient!