Critters around the yard

I'm seeing all kinds of life in my little backyard.  Unlike my sister, I have absolutely no idea what these are!  I'm lousy at bug, bird, spider and other wildlife identification. But they're still neat to watch every now and then.

Cool spider on the wall that separates the double's back patios.  He sat there for a long time!

 

Here are a few pics through the screen of my back door. I brought some cuttings from the flowering tree inside; they smell so good!  And again, I have no idea what type of tree this is to the left of the garden.

I'm sure I'm rushing this, but I saw a single root growing on one of the rosemary starts.  I promptly stuck it in Rootone and planted it.  I doubt it will take, but I couldn't resist trying this so early.  I have seven left in the water to try later--once the root systems are better established. If I do get lucky and this keeps growing, I'll plant the others sooner rather than later.

This is the spinach I planted outside in 2 hanging baskets on 3.30.12. I planted 2 additional baskets today (4.17.12). It looks like every seed sprouted. 16 in each basket; I don't know if that's too much or not enough for the space, but I did the same amount this time. I guess I'll figure it out in a month or so :-). I'm resisting the urge to plant in the garden or in bigger containers yet.  I may check the long term forecast next week to see when we want to risk planting outside.

April 14

It's in the mid-40s today.  The plants slept outside last night.  I took them out of the greenhouse and they're drinking up the light rain showers.

I really don't know much about gardening, but I'm learning.  Last year I cut rosemary from the plants I had and brought them inside and put them in water, thinking they would keep better in the kitchen that way.  To my surprise, the stems started sprouting roots! So, since I'm having trouble getting the rosemary seeds to sprout, I bought one small rosemary plant for $3.48.  I trimmed 8 sturdy stems and put them in water with a bit of Miracle Grow in it.

Then I planted the original plant in one of my hanging baskets. I can move it into the greenhouse on cold nights, if necessary.  Hopefully, I'll have 8 additional plants to put outside when it gets warm enough to plant.  They'll probably go in planters close to the house. Not bad for $3.48!

2nd Week of April

Thought I'd try to provide my garden plan, but had to take pics instead of uploading an excel file.  PDFs don't work here, either. The first pic is one of the 4 x 4s, the second is the whole garden. Red horizontal lines (if you can see them) are where the frames are located. Blank spaces are intentional, since the adjacent plantings take up so much space.

...thought the comparison between the tomato and oregano growth was interesting, but you can barely see the oregano. My photography skills need a bit of work!  There's about 6 plants in the smaller pod; I'm scared they're going to shrivel up and die - from being a little too wet - or a little too dry - or a little too warm - or a little too cool... you get the idea.  They seem so fragile!

Tomato plant stems are getting stronger (04.10.12). Second leaves are mostly out, so you can actually tell the tomato plants from other plants. There are 3 types of tomatoes and peppers above, along with a few cabbages.

Here, I ran through everything growing and compared it to what I was supposed to have.  I replanted some tomatoes, cabbage, oregano and all of the rosemary.  None of it has ever come up yet.  :-(  I'll keep this on a heating pad that I use a few times a day, and keep it covered with the plastic dome.  A few days after each pod sprouts, I transplant to something with a bit more dirt and start to get it used to the greenhouse a little each day. This 2nd replanting is still plenty early; I'm still out 6 weeks out from the usual outside planting time. I've noticed that using these discs isn't foolproof. You have to be careful about over- or under- watering with these...just like with any other planting container.

I've been keeping the plants outside in the greenhouse as much as I can. I bring them in when the temperature dips below about 40 degrees at night.  On days like today (4.11.12), it's in the 40's and they seem to prefer being zipped up in the greenhouse on a cloudy cool day to being inside under the weak lighting I have for them.

Early April

I'm so excited!  Our plants spent their first night outside in the greenhouse.  They seem to be doing fine this morning.

I lost a few plants when I transplanted everything late last week.  I used those little round disks that puff up to plant everything originally and the plants were getting a bit spindly under the lights inside.  So I decided to transplant into bigger containers and I damaged some of the delicate roots.  But we still have time, so I re-planted those and am waiting for them to come up.  In the greenhouse, I closed off the top shelf to keep the seeds that haven't sprouted warm; opened up the bottom shelves during the day to give the baby plants some fresh air. Then just zipped up everything after the sun goes down. The temp didn't get below 50 degrees last night, but I'll bring them in tonight. The forecasted low is 36 degrees.

I should give credit to Mel Bartholomew and his Square Foot Gardening Book. The more closely we follow his instructions, the better we seem to do with the garden. He has a website at www.squarefootgardening.com. You can go there to see how to build raised bed frames and check out his specs for the frames, grid, soil, etc. He even sells kits, if you don't want to make everything from scratch, but it was really easy. My grandson did most of the work.

We're pushing the envelope a bit by using so many vertical frames, but you never know until you try!