Growing Challenge Update

Wow, its Monday already and time for another Garden Challenge update.

The thing I wanted most to get done this week was to start a vermiculture bin. I was on the ball and ordered my red wiggler worms last Monday and hoped to get them on Thursday or Friday. But here it is the following Monday and still no worms in the mail. I did get the bin made on Friday so everything is all set for their arrival. I guess I will be calling tomorrow to see where my worms are.

I did get a flat of lettuce seeded early in the week as well. I sowed Rocky Top Lettuce from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. These were actually seeds from lettuce I grew last season and saved. They have already sprouted and the tiny leaves are emerging from the soil. I have never grown lettuce inside before. I do hope it does well as I am looking forward to fresh salads again.

I had hoped to get more seedlings going but I didn't manage to find the time this week. I still have plenty of time though. Here in NC it is typical to set out tomatoes on April 15th so I still have 8-10 weeks before that. I shouldn't try jumping the gun too much or I will have leggy plants to deal with.

Outside of the Growing Challenge, the kids and I took our barn cat Sweet Pea to the vet's this afternoon so she could be spayed tomorrow. I missed her when out doing chores tonight as she always follows me around as I am working in the barn. She has even started coming into the chicken coop as I collect eggs so she can rub against my legs. It will be nice having her home again on Wednesday.

The chickens gave 16 eggs today.

Growing Challenge

So, I have been having grand dreams about what I want to do with the gardens this year. My biggest aspiration is to get a greenhouse up so I can get my seedlings started in it in the next months. I have been reading Eliot Coleman's book "Four-Season Harvest" and I hope to follow his basic plan for an inexpensive greenhouse. We will see how that goes.

What I did get done this weekend was to sort through the seeds I have remaining from last year as well as the seeds I managed to save myself (from some lettuces, squashes and carrots). All of these seeds are open pollinated, heirloom and/or organic.

Here is the list of seed I have:

Herbs:
Russian Tarragon
Cumin
Broad Leaf Sage
Lavender
French Summer Thyme
Common Chives
Slo-Bolt Cilantro
Siam Queen Thai Basil
Fine Verde Basil
Peppermint

Vegetables:
Purple Tomatillo
Golden Greek Pepperoncini
Mini Red Bell Sweet Pepper
Charleston Belle Sweet Pepper
Thai Little Red Chili
Homestead Tomato
Amish Paste Red Tomato
Riesentraube Red Tomato
White Currant Tomato (loved these last year!)
Gold Medal Striped Tomato
Yellow Brandywine Tomato
Catskills Brussels Sprouts
Calabrese Green Sprouting Broccoli
Snowball Cauliflower
Brunswick Cabbage
Lettuce Rocky Top Mix
Iceburg Lettuce
Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach
Five Color Silverbeet Swiss Chard
Giant Musselburgh Leek
Texas Early Grano 502 Onion
Red Creole Onion
Connecticut Field Pumpkin
Bush Buttercup
Baby Blue Hubbard
Yellow Scallop Squash
Black Beauty Summer Squash
Early Prolific Straightneck Summer Squash
Bush Sugar Baby Watermelon
Thai Bai Khuen Chai Celery
Kuroda Long 8" Carrot
Green Globe Artichoke
Mayflower Bean
Henderson's Black Valentine Bean
Chinese Green Noodle Long Bean
Lincoln Garden Pea

Flowers:
Mammoth Grey Striped Sunflower
Mexican Sunflower-Torch Sunflower
Clarke's Heavenly Blue Morning Glory
Pink Panther Pansy

Gourds:
Birdhouse Gourd
Small Spoon Gourd

This coming week my goals are to get my tomato and pepper seedlings planted. Start many of the herb seeds in pots. I have been craving fresh garden lettuces for a few months now so I also plan on sowing some lettuces in flats for growing here in the house. Something I should have been doing all winter but just never seemed to get around to it. Part of the problem I have is our home is so small (and it contains a 3yo, a 5yo and a dog) that I have no good place to put seedling flats so they will be safe and still have access to light. This is the main reason I really want a greenhouse (or I should say a hoop house as I don't intend to heat it). We will have to see how adventurous I get with the greenhouse construction in the next month.

The hens gave 15 eggs today.

The Growing Challenge

Well, I have done it. I have signed up for my first online/blog oriented challenge! I don't know what made me do it (well... it could be that I needed a distraction from yesterdays events) but I am looking forward to following along on this challenge and having the accountability that comes along with that.

So, you ask, what is this challenge? It is "The Growing Challenge" started by Melinda over at Elements of Time. The basis of her challenge is to get everyone to grow just one more thing from seed then they have in the past. The second aspect of the challenge is that each participant needs to blog at least once a week about their own efforts in gardening and/or the consumption of the outcome of that garden.

Personally, I think this will do me a world of good as far as my garden goes in 2008. I will have no problem growing one more thing then last year as I purchased many more types of seeds that never got planted last year. Plus, I hope to get the beginning of our fruit orchard in this spring.

Keep a look out for posts associated with the challenge... they will all have the label "Growing Challenge" so they should be easy to follow.

On a separate topic, I pulled my neglected sourdough starter out of the back of the refrigerator last night. It has been months since I have used it (shame on me). There was quite a thick layer of dark hooch on the top. I poured this off and collected some of the starter from the center of the crock. I washed up the sourdough crock, replaced the starter and fed it with a cup of flour and a cup of water. I gave it a stir and put it in my oven with the light on to see what it would do overnight. I was a little worried that I had killed it off by not feeding it for months.

This morning I peeked into the crock to see this:


Life! Lots of gas bubbles breaking on the foamy surface. I hadn't killed it after all! I fed it again to get it going really well. I will be making something with it tonight or tomorrow for sure!