A couple of weeks ago when the snow still covered much of our yard, a bright red something caught my eye. It was a cardinal perched on the lowest branch of our evergreen tree. My heart jumped with joy as it was a definite sign that the weather was warming and spring was near. Since then I have spotted blue jays as well and most of the snow has melted away exposing our long lost lawn. It's interesting b/c everything looks so flat now. While I thought I was just seeing everything turn white, the snow had added much to the topography of the landscape. Yes, that is how much snow we had this year. Anyway, joy, joy, joy!! I went to a composting workshop held by our local landfill and brought home an
Earth Machine compost bin which I might add was distributed by the landfill for free. I've never composted before, so we shall see how that goes. It seems there is an art to composting. I also learned about
vermicomposting and for those who live in apartments and want to compost should definitely look into it. I might start one in the late fall so I can compost during the cold winter months.
We also want to have a vegetable garden this summer and I have started growing some herbs and veggies from seed. To be honest, I know nothing about growing plants from seed nor much about gardening, but I shall learn something for sure this year. Would appreciate any advices or suggestion or even pointing to excellent resources/websites.
5 comments:
how cool is that. the vermicomposting link was really interesting---something i would consider doing---and it's really cool that they provided the compositing bin for free... good luck with your herb/veggie garden too, i know nothing about gardening so i'm sorry i can't advise... but i'd love to see/hear about the results...
great idea! we don't have the space in our yard for a composter, but i had read about the box-o-worms before and was thinking it would be fun for the kids. one thing we did last year was to get a rain barrel, which collects the water from our roof. it was useful for hand watering the plants (we have an automatic drip watering system as well).
gardening is addictive. my recommendation for growing seeds indoors is to use "No Damp" solution to prevent the seedlings from damping off. otherwise they can get infected with a fungus that causes them to droop over and die. or if you don't want to use chemicals, make sure that there is good air circulation around the seedlings and you don't overwater them.
i've found cilantro is really difficult to grow, at least for me. it always seems to be rather wilty and yellow. my dreams of growing a rich green forest of cilantro to make salsa have been thwarted so far. i'm curious to see how yours will do. what kind of tomato plants are you growing?
yes, i think the kid in all of us would get a lot out of vermicomposting. i wish i had known about it sooner. worms aren't my favorite thing, but the red wigglers aren't so bad.
thanks for the "No Damp" advice. i didn't know that they were prone to fungus attacks. i also read that neem oil was also another solution for damping off. after reading a few more websites, i'm concerned that i may have buried the seeds a bit too deep. i will wait a week and if i don't see anything i will start over.
i had similar problem with cilantro. hardly any leaves and all yellow. they are difficult to grow. i shall hope for a better outcome this year. i read that cilantro is something that you have to seed every 2 wks if you are harvesting them for the leaves.
when I first saw the photo I thought "yum! looks like some sort of chocolate souffle". I guess I was hungry... Props for trying herbs from seed. If I plant anything this year it'll be from seedlings...
I have a container garden book. Here's what it says about cilantro: "Cilantro is best grown from seed (you're off to a good start!) because a maturing plant forms a significant taproot that doesn't like to be transplanted....be sure to sow cilantro in a fairly deep container to avoid this problem. ... you're probably better off starting seeds directly in the container where they will grow... When they are a few inches high, thin out the little seedlings so the ones remaining have room to grow." It also says that for a continuous harvest you'll want to make small repeated sowings every few weeks, so it sounds like any one batch won't last you long. And if a batch gets spent it says you can let it flower and harvest the coriander seeds. double duty!
Anyway, there's more in the book if you're interested... it's called "The Bountiful Container" by McGee and Stuckey. Good luck!
Thanks, lanaconqueso! Very helpful!
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