Season 2011 has begun

Whoa...it has been waaayyy too long since I last posted to this blog. since September 2010? Shame on me!!

Life has had its moments since then and since my work life deals with me being on the computer all day, I kinda lose the interest of going on to a computer when I get home. But, that's besides the point!

The point of this blog is to keep a log of my journey into edible gardening. This year, I am starting my plants from seed...I tried to do that last year, but a trip overseas made me donate my plants to a school's garden. And I ended up coming back and buying most of my veggies.

Why the sudden post? Well, I actually started my seeds today...actually I just finished it a few minutes ago...yippee!!! I bought a jiffy greenhouse thingy (very flimsy but I had excellent results with it last year) with 72 peat pellets. I also set up a light fixture to place lights above my seeds to give it some natural-type light. It won't offer heat, but rather just the light. I know that the seeds need more warmth than anything right now so i've kinda snuggled them onto a warm towel under the light and have the plastic cover over the seeds. they are in the garage right now. i may have to bring them into the house during the night tho...it will get too cold.

What have I started? well, of the 72 peat pellets, I have only started 24 of them. (Can you imagine planting all 72 at once?! that would be overkill...think succession planting!). I have started:

Peppers:
Jalapenos
California wonder
Kaleidescope Pepper

Note: I've had really bad problems with sprouting and growing peppers in the ground...I don't know if it's because I don't water enough, the soil is not their type or what, but I'm trying again. I'll plant them in a different spot this time.

Butternut squash (dated 2008 and 2010)
8 ball (dated 2008 and 2010)
zucchini vegetable marrow
zucchini gold rush
black zucchini

Note: I've had great success with the vegetable marrow and the black zucchini. I wasn't too diligent with the others, therefore they failed for one reason or another last season. This season, I will be (at least try harder to be) more careful with these guys and hope I get to see some on my plate this season.

Tomatoes:
Banana legs
Riesentrauben
German orange strawberry

Note: I found that I LOVE my paste tomatoes. Of the three listed above, only the banana legs are said to be a paste type, but the Riesentrauben (translated to "huge grapes") is a large grape tomato type (duh) which I also love, and the German orange strawberry (name sounds weird, doesn't it?) looked really beautiful and I wanted to try grow it myself. I actually don't have any other paste tomato seeds...I'll have to look for some. I've tried the roman candle, speckled roman, san marzano, and the roma. All great! I really loved the roman candle, however, because of its beautiful yellow color and firm flesh. I do want to grow a black tomato type...we'll see if I get my hands on one.

Golden Bantam Corn

Note: I had a blast growing these for the first time last year. I bought it as small plants and all 12 plants gave me at least 1 ear each. They were super tasty and I would pick them, shuck them and throw them directly into a pot of boiling water to par boil them (to de-ear them) or boil/steam them to eat, OR even better, just eat them straight from the garden. yummy! my son and I enjoyed the latter the best. With growing them, I also learned a lot of how they grow and develop the corn kernels. I didn't know that each silk strand was connected to a corn kernel and it's the silk that catches the pollen (that grows out of the top of the corn plants), fertilizes and becomes a plump kernel. amazing. its one of the reason why I love to plant new things!

Burgundy okra

I don't know if I like okra (I shudder at all the comments from people who complain about the slime....ewww), but I read that this plant is also very ornamental. So even if I decide that okra is not for me, at least I can enjoy the beauty of it.

Cucumbers:
Diva
Suyo TK

Last year I was lazy at watering them often, so some of them came out rather bitter. This year I will try harder (much harder) to keep them happy and productive.

Sugar baby watermelon

Two years ago, i had some success at planting this from seed. I realised that they need to be watered EVERY DAY. I'd like to eat some watermelon again, so here goes nothing!!

Ping Tung eggplant

I kinda like eggplant...but last season we had too much so I'm making sure we don't plant too much.

Sage

I missed having this in my garden last year. i didn't realize that they are perennial plants. I had them in my garden back in 2009, but i guess from not watering them often enough, it died. I'd love to use fresh sage in my cooking again.

Well, that's all the seeds I planted in my 24 peat pots. I'll plant more (different things) next week, and do a double sowing of this week's seeds in 2 weeks.