X's Gardening Journey

[Xraycer]

Beautiful day here, today! Today's goal was some yard work and some gardening.
Started 12 cells of romaine lettuce seeds. Up potted the 2 tomato plants, one of the tomato suckers, 2 cucumber seedlings, 1 kale seedling, and 1 Swiss chard seedling. All of these will now residing in the mini greenhouse. Transplanted the largest basil plant into the deck planter which got new soil mix today. Utilized the new kiddie pool to mix a large batch of potting soil, and got an extension garden hose to reach the soon to be garden site.
Quite a bit of physical labor, today, but I enjoyed the productivity.

 

[oldigrow]

I've recently taken an interest in gardening. Mostly in growing veggies I regularly buy. After watch many, many YouTube videos, I figured I'll try my hand at this "hobby" and see where it goes.
The plan is fabric containers, in a section of the lawn that's kind of out of the way but get full sun all day. Perhaps about 10 plants, surrounded by a simple chicken fencing to deter the animals from the abutting woods. I figured if things go well and if interests remains, we may go with a nicer raised bed(s) in the future.
So, last week, I picked up a small potted basil and 2 small potted tomatoes, and started some seeds. Divided the basil into 4 larger containers. Also, got a 4 pack of marigold which I'd up potted.
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the marigolds will produce a ton of seeds. i grew one 10 ft row last year . now have many plants all over the lawn . picked a ton in to a trash bag and took them to the seed fair. i have 24 tomato's planted and plenty of marigolds to grow beside the toms.

 

[Xraycer]

the marigolds will produce a ton of seeds. i grew one 10 ft row last year . now have many plants all over the lawn . picked a ton in to a trash bag and took them to the seed fair. i have 24 tomato's planted and plenty of marigolds to grow beside the toms.

After reading your post, I went on YT to see how marigold seeds are collected. I'll give a go at the end of the season.

 

[Xraycer]

Got the carrot seeds and scallions into containers, today.

 

[GFTL]

Got the carrot seeds and scallions into containers, today.

Be patient with the carrots. They can take forever to germinate. Mine have been in for 12 days and still nothing.

 

[Meadowlark]

Be patient with the carrots. They can take forever to germinate. Mine have been in for 12 days and still nothing.

Agreement. Carrots are one of the more difficult for me to germinate. The "board" method really works on ground planted carrots for me.

 

[Sluggy]

Do not talk to me about carrots. I weeded the vegetable plot yesterday and pulled up some small grass shoots before I realised they were my carrot seeds sprouting.

 

[Xraycer]

Be patient with the carrots. They can take forever to germinate. Mine have been in for 12 days and still nothing.

Thanks for the heads up!

My spinach looks to be a failure. Its been nearly 2 weeks, and nothing! I'll try again, with a new batch, this weekend.

 

[Xraycer]

Do not talk to me about carrots. I weeded the vegetable plot yesterday and pulled up some small grass shoots before I realised they were my carrot seeds sprouting.

Were these from the previous season?

 

[Sluggy]

Sadly no I planted a row of seeds late last month and forgot to label the row.

 

[Xraycer]

Sadly no I planted a row of seeds late last month and forgot to label the row.

Oops!

 

[Xraycer]

Got the 2 tomatoes plants into their their 15gal grow bags along with their companion basil plants. The yellow potato has sprouted through the soil, so I buried it under a couple of inches of new soil. Transplanted 2 cucumber seedlings into a 10gal bag.
The first of the carrots took about 8 days to germinate. They are in a 5gal bucket.
Still have to transplant the kale, Swiss chard, and romaine seedlings into the raised planter and grow bags. I'll be seeding the string beans soon.
So, far, I've been unsuccessful with the spinach and cilantro seeds. Even tried a second tray of spinach. Nothing has terminated. I'm going to try a different spinach brand, and retry the cilantro with the crushing the seed method I saw on YT.
Still waiting for the overnight temp to remain in the 50's before I get everything out of the greenhouse. I’ve been very impressed by this little greenhouse. It has so far fair very well against a few days of high winds.

carrots

 

[Meadowlark]

You are off to a great start @Xraycer.

Spinach seeds can be one of those notoriously difficult to germinate. A tip that works for me is to soak the seeds 24 hours in warm water before planting and don't plant too deep, just cover. Works for me.

 

[Martin Mikulcik]

I sow spinach and cilantro the same, sprinkle the seeds on the surface and rake them in. I didn't know spinach was hard to germinate but they seem like parsnips with a higher percentage of bad seed. I might be doing it wrong. I thought beets were hard to germinate till i stopped broadcasting and started burying each seed

Cilantro usually reseeds here which is nice. Spinach bolts like in May

 

[Ruderunner]

One reason I've started beet and spinach seedlings was because I had awful propagation direct sowing. I'm not sure if it was that the soil conditions weren't right or the nesting birds near the garden eating them.

I'm going to have a bumper crop of beets this year and a pretty good spinach harvest too.

I usually don't have trouble with cilantro other than it tends to bolt before we really need it. And, I try dill every year but volunteers from the previous year always do better.

Carrots are hit and miss but when they do grow they tend to be small and round. Ok for soups and stew so we slice and freeze.