Blooms by Pam
Friday, May 3, 2024
Potato and Onion Planting
Thursday, May 2, 2024
Planting Ranunculus
Early fall of 2023, my experience in digging them up had to be the most time consuming task that Ive ever encountered with a single flower, mostly because I wasn’t ready for them to multiply like they did.
I was excited for this, but since I decided to do this on a work night late, and didn’t finish until 11pm, it made the whole process seem like too much. I wasn’t prepared for the amount of time I would need to wash them and dry them.
This spring Ive been looking forward to planting them again, but this time I don’t think that I will be digging them and storing them. There was one corm (pictured above) that I forgot to dig up in the fall and it is now blooming a beautiful shade of red. This made me realize that if this one corm made it through the cold winter here, that I could possibly leave them to overwinter in the ground and cover them with heavy mulch. Its worth a try and would save me a lot of time.
I’m excited to think of that possibility and hope they are successful. The weather has been cold last couple weeks so I decided to plant all of my corms from the presprouts now. From the corms that I purchased last year they tripled in quantity and about half of them did not pass the presprouting test. I have no idea what colors that I have anymore as I lost track during the digging up process but this makes it a little more exciting and I am looking forward to more blooms very soon.
Thursday, April 11, 2024
Lettuce Seed Planting
It’s been awhile since the last post. With spring here things have been busy and getting the garden ready for planting. Ive got several starts growing inside now. My most recent plantings inside are my favorite lettuces. Most of them are repeats from last year with the exception of spinach and a free seed packet that was given to me with my last purchase from Baker Creek, and another one called Gourmet Baby Blend. The video is posted here if you feel like following me with the seed starting process. Hopefully I will have more to share soon as I continue getting the garden ready for spring planting. Here is a list of the lettuces that Im growing below. One additional thing that I am adding to the list to try is Spinach. It never germinated last year.
Saturday, March 30, 2024
First starts of the season 2024
I decided to start the onions inside early to get a head start.This will also be my first time growing potatoes and I plan on growing them as companions in the same garden box so hopefully they do well together.
Look at these baby snapdragons!! They are doing so well, The ones that are pictured closest to the camera are an orange bronze variety that are from seeds that I harvested in the fall. I am excited that they are growing.The seedling that are furthest away are new ones that I just purchased from Eden Brothers called Passion Red Mix. I could not resist these, they are hopefully going to be as vibrant as their photos showed.
Since my snapdragons did so well last year even in the heat of the summer, I wanted to expand on my color varieties for this year and grow much more.
Also an update on my Lisianthus that I started in January, (pictured to the left) they are doing great also. I transplanted them into cups so I can use the trays for other seed starts since I am very limited with space in my little apartment. I will keep them in these until they are ready to plant out in May.More things that I planted today were some Dahlia seeds that I collected in the fall from some plants that I grew from seeds last spring. It was my first time growing Dahlias and also collecting the seed pods so I am excited to see if they come out looking close to the last flower or if they look completely different. These flowers are so interesting, as Ive read that seeds will always be different than the mother plant depending on how they are pollinated.
Other seeds that started today are orange marigolds, some Cleome, Bells Of Ireland, Green Ammi and Dara. Pictured below
Saturday, March 23, 2024
San Marzano Tomatoes
It was fun making tomato sauce for pizza and also pasta but I still had a ton of extra, so I gave many away to my friends and coworkers,
I think that I overdid it and planted too many so I will probably only grow maybe 3 plants instead of 12 this coming spring. I had one garden bed dedicated to these and grew some cosmos and zinnia on the edges along with basil and celery.
Since I have not ever made sauces before I searched for recipes and resources online of how to do it. I was excited to also find a recipe for pizza using a cast iron skillet and it turned out perfect. I have a gluten allergy so I do not eat gluten but I made this for a friend of mine and he loved it. Because I was pressed for time, some of the remaining tomatoes I had were put into the freezer. I left the skins on and put them into ziplocs to freeze for making roasts and soups in the future. I didn’t know this could be done but someone online mentioned it so I thought it was better than letting them go to waste. I am pretty sure that the flavor changes when they are frozen, but for soups I think it should be good.
The pictures to the left show the small cherry tomatoes that I love to grow and do so well for me. I do not use these to make sauce but I love to eat them direct out of the garden as a quick snack or cut them up for use on my salads.
If you would like to try making pizza with a cast iron skillet here is a link below to a simple basic description of how it’s done and you can add anything you like. I found that there are lots of recipes online to make this type of pizza but I believe they all use the same basic instructions that you will find in the link below and you can add whatever veggies and topping that you want to, I think the main thing is heating up the pan to a specific temperature and amount of time cooking. The instructions here are by Lodge. CAST IRON PIZZA
I think that there is also instructions on their website to make pizza dough if you need one. I currently buy my pizza dough in the produce section at Trader Joes premade and freeze it until I want to use them.
If you are looking for tomato’s seeds, there are a few sellers that I like to purchase from. I get a lot of my seeds from Baker Creek because they have a ton or rare varieties and fun selection, but these San Marzanos were purchased from a rack possibly Lowe’s garden center. I cannot remember but they are from Ferry Morse and they worked well for me.
I am also sharing the new tomatoes below that I am going to try out this coming spring.
Saturday, March 16, 2024
Setting Up Grow Lights
I set mine up in my kitchen in an area that I am not using very much, but you can set them up in a spare room or a garage if you live in a climate that doesn’t freeze.
I prefer to use metal shelving because it’s sturdy and easy to clean and provides great air circulation. It also has wheels on the bottom so you can move it around easily. The lights that I purchased here have a nice feature where they connect in a series. I also recommend a timer. It made my life so much easier not having to turn them on and off.
The first year that I started my plants indoors was so much fun. Once they were big enough to start hardening off I transport them to their permanent location and set them up outside for a part of the day and bring them inside at night for a 2 days, then after that they stay out all day and all night out of direct sunlight and kept them well watered. Day 4 or 5 I plant them in their permanent spots in the garden. I know that I could probably extend the process but I get very impatient when it comes to getting things planted outside.
When delivering them to the garden and transporting them in my vehicle, I use large clear plastic tubs that allow sunlight to shine through and recycle old cardboard boxes to keep them contained. They are also great for keeping them outdoors for those few days which protects them from the wind and other elements. It gets very windy in our climate here and you will see lots of seed pods from the tres that landed in the cups and all over the ground while I was hardening them off that year.
I do use paper cups sometimes as I feel it allows my plants to get a little bigger and easier to handle than the tiny seed trays, plus when setting them outside to harden off I think they get dried up too quickly in tiny black trays. I like that I can also write on each of the cups as well. Since I live in a tiny apartment I don’t have room for a lot of large containers so the cups work very well for me.
Saturday, March 2, 2024
A Snow Day with Luna
It is currently early spring and the weather is kind of funny right now. We have had some sunny days and in the 40s and then lots of snow and the temperature drops into the 20s and below. I enjoyed the day with Luna, we played in the snow. She really loves the cold and the snow. It was so cute, I would throw the ball for her, she would run to chase it and get all excited and then she would drop the ball somewhere and try and find it, sniffing it out because she would lose sight of it when falling under the snow. I am really enjoying her and she is teaching me a lot about trust. I have had some bad experiences with dogs when I was a little girl and into my adulthood and trusting large dogs has been a challenge for me. Today she was there for me and sensed that I was having a hard day, showered me with love and dog kisses. It’s amazing how she knew that I needed to relax and calmed me. I don’t think she realizes how big she is though. She likes to try and cuddle with me and puts her huge paws on me and pushes. She needs to be reminded that I need a little personal space and she can sit next to me instead. She is completely adorable and loves the attention.
Potato and Onion Planting
Over the years of gardening I have always been curious about other crops that I could grow. I typically tend to stick with the easier famili...
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I never imagined that I could create a cutting garden like this and it would bring such a feeling of beauty and peace to our lives. When I b...
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I have been so busy with the garden this summer that I haven’t posted since May, but I am going to fill in the gaps the best that I can. As ...
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For the new spring garden I have been collecting some new varieties of flower seeds and vegetables to try. Varieties that I have never grow...