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!