The fence is up

We built a fence with the help from family. We had never built a fence before. We borrowed a gas-powered post hole digger from a friend, which made the job much quicker. It took us most of Saturday. The weather was mild and very nice. There is even a gate into the garden. We are so lucky to have family who can pass down farm knowledge to us poor urban gardeners.

Building stuff out of Bamboo

Do You Need a Trellis, but don't want to shell out the dough? Try these cool bamboo links.


Building a Bamboo Trellis

Ten Dollars and Two Hours to Build This Trellis

Bamboo Trellis Ideas

Seedlings started 10 days ago

Great White Tomato
Prickly Caterpillar
Yellow Pear Tomato


We really wanted to try some white tomatoes and discovered Baker Creek Seeds had a wide selection of them. We also had some Yellow Pear Tomato seeds and a friend of ours told us we better plant them because they are quite tasty.

We planted the Prickly Caterpillars for the son's garden.

Seedlings Today

tomatoes and peppers

Scarlet Runner Beans

About 10 days ago we planted seven scarlet runner beans and they all germinated and are growing like crazy. We will be planting them outside tonight and training them up the ti pi! It was not a joke when they said these things grow groW GROW! These roots are insane!

Ti Pi for Son

Our son has his own garden area in our backyard. We constructed a Ti Pi out of old tree branches. Folks in our neighborhood placed them near the curb to be hauled away, so we hauled them! We dug three holes about 2 feet deep, buried the largest end of the branch and then filled the holes, braced the branches against each other, and tied them with some jute twine. We plan to weave more twine along the top half of the ti pi. This is what it looks like so far.

Mini Sunflower Greenhouses

This weekend we planted some Giant Primrose Sunflower seeds along our east fence line. We have many birds in our yard who love to visit recently watered areas looking for bugs. So, we covered our sunflower seeds with plastic cups and plastic water bottles cut in half. We wanted the seeds to remain undisturbed by the birds, and we figured this might help the seeds germinate quicker. Once the seeds have germinated and are growing well, we will remove the cups.

It's been WAY too long

We have been busy cutting sod, tilling, transplanting, and running around like chickens with our heads cut off! Since our last post we cut 432 square feet of sod out of our yard, tilled that 432 square feet, made a 35 gallon rain barrel, planted 4 rows of seeds, constructed a ti pi out of old tree branches, and bought 4 bird feeders and some perennial plants for landscaping. Whew, we are sore, sunburned, and loving it. We can't keep our son out of the yard, he wants nothing to do with the inside of the house. We are very excited and anxious to put our pepper and tomato plants in the ground this next weekend.

Thirsty Bunny Tail Grass

Grow Plants Grow

Seedling Update: Morning Glory Bush

Seedling Update: Cosmos Bright Lights Blend

Seedling update: Black-Eyed Susan Vine

Sunberry Seedlings

WE ARE SO EXCITED FOR THESE. Sunberries are poisonous when they are green and not yet ripe, so these will be fenced in and away from little hands. Their flavor is said to rival blueberries!

We have 8 successful seedlings of their way!

New Tomato Seedlings

Powers Heirloom, Rose, Nebraska Wedding (since we are in Nebraska), Taxi, and Goldie Husk Cherry


So all together, including the plants that were started at the beginning of March, we have a red cherry tomato, a small husk yellow tomato which is supposed to be sweet and citrus-like, a yellow roma, a red roma, an early yellow medium sized tomato, a large orange tomato, and 2 large red slicing tomatoes, WE ARE NUTS!

Seedling Update: Nicotiana Sensation Blend

These seedlings are fuzzy and they are part of the nightshade family, and they keep away potato beetles.

Seedling Update: Lobelia

Lobelia on March 7th and Lobelia, today, April 9th



We just planted lemon drop marigolds along the bottom of the second photo four days ago.

Seedling Updates: Morning Glory Vine, Peppers, Tomatoes

Grandpa Ott's Morning Glory Vine

We soaked the seeds overnight in a glass of water and the germination rate was 100% and they are doing great!











These Tomatoes and peppers were planted at the beginning of March. The Tomatoes are huge, we have 16 plants. The Peppers are doing well we have about 40 plants of so.

Tomato Seedling Care

The Tomato Guru

Germination of new planting in 60 hours or less

We planted a new 72 cell of seeds on the 23rd and we checked them yesterday afternoon to discover most of the Cosmos, some of Grandpa Ott's Morning Glory Vine, English Daisy, Morning Glory Bush, and White Button Daisy had all germinated.

Adventures with Rockwool part 2

We checked the root situation of the pepper and tomato seedlings yesterday and look what we found! We moved them from the cells to larger coir pots. The rockwool cubes made checking the roots easy and moving them to a larger container was a snap.

Seeds sown 3.23.09

Cosmos Bright Lights Blend
Impatiens
Onion- Flat of Italy
Onion- Ringmaster
Sunberry
Grandpa Ott's Morning Glory Vine
Kiss Me Over The Garden Gate
White Button Daisies
English Daisies
Globe Aramanth Strawberry Fields
Calendula Triangle Flashback
Morning Glory Bush Ensign Blend
Bunny Tail Grass
S.G. Basil
Nicotiana Sensation Blend

Progress of 3.7.09 planting

Pepper and Tomato Seedlings

Our New Plant Stand

So the DIY PVC plant stand idea didn't happen. Instead we opted for this shelving unit, which provides us with the option to expand later on with more lights, adjustable shelves, and lots of space! We decided to save time and money by biting the bullet and purchasing this stand for around $72. It will be more than worth it in the long run when our garden is producing beautiful flowers and tasty treats.

DIY light stand for starting seeds

We went through the trouble of driving to the store and purchasing a shelving unit which was MADE IN CHINA and defective, so now we must return it and we have decided to make our own light stand.

We found these plans and we are going to make two of these this weekend. We hope the materials are not too pricey. We have never purchased PVC before, so this will be an adventure. We will give you the total cost of the materials when we return from the store.

Before Last Frost Flower Planting List

Poppies, Verbena, and Hollyhocks, OH MY!

Green and Blue

Blue for water

Green for organic fertilizer

Another Tray on its Way

Look at the difference from one week ago! So many things have germinated.

Bunny Tail Grass- 3 days
Basil- 3 days
Calendula Triangle Flashback-3 days
Salvia Blue Victoria- 5 days
Globe Aramanth Strawberry Fields-
5 days (this one is our favorite seedling; so pretty!)
Lobelia Crystal Palace- 6 days
Pansy Swiss Giant Blend- 7 days

Still waiting on Rosemary, Forget-me-nots, Black-eyed Susan Vine, and few Pansies