Update on Seed Sproutings

We are now up to eight different types of seeds that have sprouted and, not surprisingly, multiples of most.

What has Sprouted # Sprouted
Tigerella Tomato 1
Falltime Leek 2
Red Acre Cabbage 4
Genovese Sweet Basil 2
Cilantro 3
Zinnia 3
Scented Nicotiana 3
Coleus 3

Now if we could just get the weather to cooperate. We had a brief sojourn into summer this last weekend with Saturday temps officially hitting 78. We're usually a few degrees warmer than that in Brooklyn mainly due to urban heating from all the concrete. But this morning it was back down into the 30s with daytime highs only expected to be in the low 50s at best with continuing showers. That is not going to dry out my yard and it may require me to somehow add some artificial heat to my seed bin. It has been two weeks and almost half of my seeds have not popped up.

Finally Going To Warm Up

First, we were teased by balmy, mild weather in February. Then came weeks and weeks of cold, dreary, wet weather. My yard is still sodden, but relief is on the way. We may even hit 70 F for the first time this year today. I asked my significant other, A, to be sure to get fresh limes today because we have a tradition of having margaritas on the first 70 degree day. I make mine simple and strong: 3 parts high quality tequila, one part Cointreau (though this year I am trying a different orange liqueur) and some fresh squeezed lime juice shaken and poured over ice, no salt.

And it is about time for some warmer weather. My seeds more than just weak sunlight peeking through rain clouds. I did find one more new sprout this morning: a small green tendril in a bin of scented nicotiana. With the forecast for 75 F tomorrow, maybe I'll get lots of sprouting this weekend.

More Sprouts

I now have 4 Red Cabbage sprouts and 2 Zinnia Sprouts. If I could figure out a way to get power to my seed bin location, I'd put a heating pad under it. But our bathroom is electrical outlet deficient, especially in the far part of the room where I have the seeds. I climbed up into the attic on Sunday to see if I could decipher the wiring. I think I know which bundled wire leads to that part of the room, but the wires were a total, chaotic mess. If I do try to get power to that room it will involve completely rearranging all of the wiring for that circuit up in the attic. That was just too much for me to take on at this time of the year. So I punted, went downstairs, poured myself a beer and watched some bicycle racing.

Oh well, the yard is far too soggy for it to be ready to receive seedlings anytime soon.

A New Beginning

I've published on another blog in previous years but stopped blogging there over a year ago. I got the itch to blog again, but this time I'm limiting it to the subject of gardening in which I will document our progress of a complete redo of our garden/yard starting with this post.


Last Sunday,March 30, I planted 50 pods of a seed starting bin with various vegetables and flower seeds and placed the bin in front of our south facing bathroom window. I found that I lost the clear plastic covers to my old seed bins, so I went over to a local neighborhood establishment, Everybody's Garden Center, to get a new bin. With this many pods, I needed to put down on paper what seeds went into each bin:




Since that's a little fuzzy, here's a list of what was planted and how many bins planted:

Tigerella Tomato - 2
Sunrise Orange Sweet Pepper - 2
Falltime Leeks - 5
Red Acre Cabbage - 6
Genovese Sweet Basil - 4
Cilantro - 4
Evening Stock (evening flower) - 3
Evening Primrose - 3
Pumpkin-on-a-stick - 3
Zinnia - 5
Dragon Fruit - 2
Scented Nicotiana - 3
light pink Columbine - 2
red/orange Oriental Poppy - 2
Coleus (variety) - 4

And here is the seed bin:



I get good sun exposure, but it unfortunately is the coldest room in the house and there is big time leaks to the outside. Nevertheless, this morning we had our first seedling push upwards, one of the zinnias. If you look closely at the middle right of the picture, you can see this seedling opping up through the soil. This afternoon a second zinnia pushed through the seed starting mixture of soil I bought at Portland Nursery.

As for the yard. It has been two years since I did anything of consequence in it because we thought it might be torn up in a construction project that never occurred due mainly to the Great Credit Crunch of '07-'08. So it is almost like starting with a blank slate. Here is a shot of the yard from our back porch facing NE I took it this afternoon between downpours:



And from the street facing SSW:



I'm going to tear out most of the grass and put in many beds. I'm also going to tear out all of the grass in our parking strip:


Toward the far telephone pole, I'm planning to take advantage of the full sun and put in some popcorn.

For seeds, I'm using mostly seeds from Seeds of Change. Don't bother trying to order seeds from them online. I never did get their website ordering system to work even on a straight up windows system and ended up just using their toll free number. The rest of the plants and veggies will most likely come from our favorite garden store in Portland, Portland Nursery. As can be seen above in the view of the yard from the street, I have a large pile of debris to get rid of. I'm planning to run most of it through a chipper, but I have to get the chipper over to my house from my parents' place. To do that, I'll need to get the use of my brother-in-law's truck. I'm in a busy part of the year for me, so that may not happen for a few weeks. No problem this year, though, because we're continuing to have soggy, cool weather. I couldn't turn soil if I wanted to right now.