Houston - We have Germination :)

4 days into the experiment of trying to grow all of my seedlings for this Spring's garden hydroponically, I had some tomato's sprouting!

I have to admit .... I am a garden geek! I came home from work everyday last week and eagerly went and checked my seeds, anxiously checking for some sprouts. I was rewarded on the 4th day with a few little tomato sprouts!

1st sprouts of tomato seeds 

One of the things I love about this time of the year is watching the daily changes in the small plants!

How are your seedlings doing?

A Bit of Spring Amongst the Snow....

We had another snowy weekend here in Williamsburg, I gotta say, I loved it! We walked out of the movies last night to a Winter Wonderland.

But I got a hint of Spring today, it was time to plan out the garden and spring planting schedule

Planning out my Spring garden

I live in zone 7A, so that means my Pepper and Tomato plants should be going into the ground between early May and early June according to a great interactive schedule I found online based on the USDA Hardiness Zones (http://www.thevegetablegarden.info/resources/planting-schedules/zones-7-8-planting-schedule) You can put your zip code in and it'll tell you the best planting window for your zone based on the vegetable you are planting, plus how far apart and how deep they should be. A great resource!

This year  I decided to try to start my seeds hydroponically. About 3 years ago my wonderful boyfriend gave me Aerogardens has Valentines Day gifts.  These have been wonderful! I've had a steady crop of fresh herbs thanks to them.  I've grown a few seeds as experiments before and was impressed with the results, so I'm going to give it a shot with all of my seeds this year. 

They sell a "Grow Anything" kit which is essentially just a styrofoam insert and some grow plugs. Once the seedlings get large enough I'll take the grow plugs and put them in soil and harden them off like normal.  (In this years gift a nice new cold frame) 

Pepper and Tomato Seeds resting snugly in their "grow plugs" Hope to see some sprouts in a few days

So I planted 6 Tomato varieties and 8 Pepper varieties. I'm hoping to see sprouts in a few days, if it goes anything like the previous experiments, they should start sprouting by about day 3 or 4!  I'll keep you updated with how this experiment works out :)

My make-shift Indoor Garden - Gotta make the best of the space :)

Winter Has Finally Arrived

Just when I thought we could move right into Spring, Winter surprised us here in Williamsburg today! They told us we had a 50% chance of snow flurries with no accumulation. I'd say this miscalculated a bit

About 10 min after the snow started....

So I had a few plants out in the yard still and figured I'd go check on them. The Winter has been so mild the rosemary has been thriving. I left it out tonight, hoping it'll overnight okay.  It is supposed to get back up into the 50s tomorrow

Rosemary dressed up with a little snow

Hope it will be okay through the night

I know the garlic is good in the snow, I left it out last winter during the week long freeze in Atlanta and it did fine. But I thought it looked pretty all covered in fresh snow.  

Siberian Garlic

The weather has been so mild I've been craving seedlings and new plants.... guess there is still a few more weeks until I can get the seedlings started ;)

This has to be my favorite picture from the snow today though. They sat on the window and watched the snow fall for hours

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend!

2012 - Year of Herbs

So this herb obsessed gardener was thrilled to discover that The National Garden Bureau has named 2012 the Year of Herbs  ~ we do have a Bureau for just about everything in the US don't we....ah well I approve of a Garden Bureau, in fact I wonder if they're hiring ;) ~

Every year the Garden Bureau (sorry picturing myself in a suite with a badge making housecalls to rescue plants, but I digress) names as flower, vegetable and perennial to be showcased. This year the flower is the geranium (a favorite of mine) and the perennial is Heuchera in case you were wondering

Follow the link for a beautiful slide show put together by "The Bureau" and the Herb Society of America that I wanted to share with everyone

2012 - Year of Herbs      <----- Click for slideshow


So in honor of 2012 being the Year of Herbs (and quiet frankly I'm obsessed with herbs) I'm going to "feature" one herb a month for the year. Give you what their culinary purposes are, some recipies, what they're medicinal qualities are (I will just be relaying the medicinal information from sources, I in NO WAY have any training in the use of herbs for medicinal purposes) and just other general information about growing and cultivating the herb.

I'll start January with one of my favorites, and one that is still growing in my yard right now, Rosemary! I'd love suggestions for other months, are their any herbs that are your favorite or you would be interested in learning about??

Well until next time - enjoy the slide show!

A few herbs at the Colonial Gardens
in Colonial Williamsburg taken New Years Day

It feels more like Spring than January! Garlic Planting?!?!

 2012! I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year!!

The weather here in Southern VA has been so strange, I finished picking the habanero's and jalapeno's off my plants only 3 weeks ago.  So I have been cautious about putting the garlic into the ground.

I put some into containers in late October and they're already growing well

Siberian Garlic planted from stock I harvested this year

One New Years Eve it was 65 degrees (felt so wrong!) so I figured it was time to clear out the Summer garden and get some garlic in the ground before it was way too late (I am already a little behind the curve on this one I know)

I figured I'd share a photo collage of the garlic planting.

Because garlic will not be ready for harvest well after I want to get Spring planting done, I devoted the far left corner of my plot to this endeavor.  I decided 3 rows of 6 cloves each (2" apart) was a good start. Plus I have 9 cloves growing in plots














I went a little crazy ordering Garlic varieties this year (who can blame a girl, there are so many good ones out there)

Here is what I ended up planting in the garden

Row 1
    Cloves 1-4: Ajo Roja
    Clove 5-6:  Xian Turban

Row 2
     Cloves 1-3: Spanish Roja
     Cloves 4-6: Persian Start

Row 3:
      Cloves 1-2: Burgundy
      Cloves 3-4: Chesnok Red
      Cloves 5-6: Susanville

I also planted in pots:  Siberian (home grown stock), Oregon Blue and Red Toch

Preparing the cloves

After preparing the cloves (I LOVE the color of some of these cloves, they're just gorgeous!) I placed them in pre-made holes. I am hopeful, but I have never grown garlic in the ground before.....  Everything I planted this spring in the plot grew very very well. So I'm hoping for the same with my garlic 

Ajo Roja getting ready to be tucked in for a long winters nap

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the seed catalogs are so delightful!

Is it me or does it seem like they came earlier this year? I think I remember getting them in the cold dole-drums of January last year.  I’ll be honest though, the weather here in Southern Virginia hasn’t been too terribly frightful, in fact…I picked my last 5 habanero peppers last Friday before pruning the plant back and covering it up for the winter, “hoping” with fingers crossed it’ll over winter (anyone out there ever over wintered a habanero plant before, this was just such a great producer I’d love to keep it around)

I digress…

I think for a gardener, nothing is a better present than sitting down with a cup of tea and flipping through the seed catalogs just dreaming of what you’ll plant next year…

I’m going to try and get my act together this winter and go into spring with a plan…a bona fide, grow from seed, propagate from cuttings, plan! 

So what about you? Are you already receiving your catalogs? Are they earmarked, and tagged with post-its yet?

Are there any new seeds you’ve decided to try this year?

I'll be spending some time during the next few days off going through these and marking them up... here are the ones I have so far. Any I'm missing you'd recommend?? 

I hope you all have a wonderful Holiday Season!! 

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange: I love the illustrations in this one.
I'd love to frame some of the artwork

High Mowing Organic Seeds: This is a new one for me this year!

Seed Savers Exchange:  The first Seed Catalog I ever got and probably still my favorite

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds: The pictures in this one are
 just amazing

Missing Gardener has been found....

Well color me embarrassed.  I have no clue how it got from July to December but it did....  I'm so sorry I have been MIA....

Well I'm starting my 2012 New Years resolution early. I will be back to updating this blog on a regular basis. Check back later this week for a brand new post...I promise.

I hope you all had a WONDERFUL harvest season and are having a magical Holiday Season!

See you soon!