So I planted seeds and put them on the warming mat last Sunday, and today I have lots of germination! I planted a few seeds per pod, which will be thinned later. The tomatoes have gone nuts, the coleus is up, and I see little curled peppers getting ready to pop!
While I didn't do much in the last week besides obsessively check my seedlings, yesterday I dethatched my postage stamp front yard. I killed off the whole lawn in the fall, as it was overrun with weeds (thank you neighbors!), and while we're still a couple months off from reseeding, it'll need some attention between now and then! So I pulled the rake horizontally over the whole thing and filled my green waste trash can. Next week, when I have another trash can to fill, I'll continue collecting leftover thatch, and pull the rake vertically and call it a day! Once it warms up a bit, I'll seed with a shade/sun mix, starter fertilizer, and cover with some topper!
I also need to weed my front planters and put down a new layer of mulch to keep them at bay.
Last year was my first year gardening, though it's something I've wanted to do for some time! My dad helped me build two 3x6' raised beds and two 2x3' raised beds.
Last year, I had the following:
3x6' #1
- Tomato SuperSweet 100: very successful, but lack of pruning let it grow into the Stupice
- Tomato Stupice: somewhat successful, didn't like the taste of these
- Carrot Scarlet Nantes: not successful, planted too close to tomatoes so shaded out
- Lettuce Parris Cos: very successful, though bolted when it got hot
- Cucumber Burpless Beauty: very successful
3x6' #2
- Zucchini: very successful, produced far more than I could eat and pulled it fairly early
- Sweet Pepper Jupiter: not successful during normal season, but continued to produce fruits well into December
- English lavender
- Corn Silver Queen Hybrid: easy grow, but not pollinated appropriately so no ears for eating
2x3 #1
- Strawberries Sequoia: moderately successful, though fruits became misshapen later in the season. I learned late about runners, so runners were finally clipped in mid-December, and daughter plants transplanted into coir pots for later planting in containers.
2x3' #2
- Broccoli Sun King: very successful until the cabbage worms discovered them in August
I also had a salad table that I attempted to plant, but nothing ever germinated. I suspect because I wasn't consistent enough in watering and it was too hot by the time I planted.
The English Lavender was transplanted into a pot, and all other plants were pulled by December 30.
Today I also started my seeds indoors, my first time using a heat mat and sowing inside. I planted coleus (3) for my front planter, tomato SuperSweet 100 (5), tomato Sweet Aroma (4), hot pepper Jalapeno early (4), and sweet pepper Jupiter (4). I may end up planting a few broccoli and a few more coleus in a separate seed starting platter depending on how the first set germinates. All beds got topped off with compost/topsoil/potting soil mixture and worked into existing soil, with beautiful beds full and ready to go today January 21. I also built a bean trellis and two small raised beds (5' long x 1' wide x 6" tall) for either side of the bean trellis. I planted a new impatiens in one of my porch pots, and raked up all the straggler leaves that the gingko tree out front finally let go of. One of these days I'll clean my gutters out too, but today was not that day!
This year, my plant list looks like it'll be:
- Tomato SuperSweet 100
- Tomato Sweet Aroma
- Hot pepper Jalapeno early
- Sweet pepper Jupiter
- Carrot Yaya hybrid
- Carrot Short n Sweet
- Bean Fortex
- Lettuce White Paris, Buttercrunch, Black Seeded Simpson, and Little Caesar
- Broccoli Marathon Hybrid
I have a variety of bulbs coming up in back along the fence, a few in a pot in the front yard, and plan to seed with wildflower seeds over the bulbs and on the side of my front yard that abuts the neighbor's lawn (and by lawn I mean overgrown weed patch). I'm excited to get working out in the garden again this year!
