Gardener's Journal

We are getting down to serious gardening business with the 5-year gardener's journal.  Now we can keep track of what we plant, when, and what pokes through first.  And it has pretty photos of plants and flowers on every page.... 

Sprouts

Last year when Will and I planted our seeds, we had wooden markers with non-waterproof ink on them indicating what seeds where what in our starter pots.  The result: all the non-waterproof ink wore off and we weren't sure which plants we were actually planting.  For example, we had two similar looking plants and I knew that one was broccoli and the other was brussels sprouts.   Well, when we were preparing our Victory Garden, we were able to identify one of the plants from last year: Brussels Sprouts! 

We neglected them all winter long and we finally noticed that not only did they grow tall (we have about 4 plants), some have little nubbins of sprouts!  We are hoping that they will continue to grow and be delicious, now that we are no longer neglecting them....

Victory WILL BE Ours

This is our lower garden. Yes, our yard in DC is so large that we have an upper garden-- where most of the planting is done; the main garden, where we fight off the crab grass and play a very strangely laid out course of Croquet; and the lower garden, where nothing much happens except complaints when we have to mow that little bit of grass.

We have roses and tiger lilies on one side. The other side: the herb garden, the rhubarb, and the golden raspberry bush. In between, clover.

And so we have begun the process of starting a(nother) Victory Garden. We spent the weekend digging up the grass and putting compost and ash down on the space. We have now more than doubled our planting area. We will add more more top soil next weekend and then rototill it. We'll lay out beds and walkways once we start planting--which should be in another month.

We figure that it has only been asked to produce grass and clover for over 40 years and so we should get some good crops.

Ready for Planting! Ready for Growing!

 Ready, Set, Grow!

My Seeds are Smarter Than Your Honor Student

We planted our seeds this weekend. All of them.  8 types of tomatoes, 4 types of carrots, 4 beans, brussel sprouts, leeks, chives, sunflowers, marigolds, radishes, baby's breathe, broccoli, zucchinis, squashes,  herbs with a "h", and even eggplant-- hey, it was a free seed packet.  What you going to do? The list goes on and on....The best was how we planted them. 

Kelly gave Will for Christmas a paper pot maker. 

 You make seeding pots out of biodegradable paper-- we choose The Financial Times.  

Our seeds will be soooo smart.

 

The paper is wrapped around the top.

Then, fold the bottom around the top...

...and then smash the top into the bottom.

When you slide off the paper, you have a little pot:

Then you can fill the little pots with dirt:

And then you have pots in which you can fill whatever seeds you want to grow!

It is a bit messy, with the newsprint coming off on your hands.  

Still, endless pots for endless amount of seeds!

Wedding Site

So, in an attempt to not mix topics on the blog (riiiiight),  I have created Will's and mine very own wedding web site!  Everyone can see where we are getting married, or to where they aren't being invited as it is a very small wedding.  We hope folks understand and won't be too jealous when they see just how pretty these photos are of King John's Lodge and St. Nicholas Church.  We promise to have a reception here in ol' DC for those not coming to the UK.  Maybe that will be sufficient? And in the meantime, you can get your Brit fix by looking at the web site.  I might be hoping for too much. 

Will in the wild rose garden at King John's Lodge

In Desperate Need of Spring

Way back at the end January or beginning of February, Will and I brought two red raspberry plants and two purple grape plants to plant when the weather warmed up.  They have been sitting on a table in the kitchen patiently waiting to be put in the ground.   We spritz them with every once in a while, when we tend the orchids.  

I walked by on Thursday and noticed that all four plants are sprouting leaves!  These babies are in desperate need of spring, just like Will and me.  We are hoping to get these into the garden this weekend: raspberries in the lower garden, soon to be known as the Victory Garden; and the grapes along the fence in the upper garden.  

We are currently experiencing a minor heat wave-- a temperature of 59 currently and it is only supposed to go up!-- so we have to get out there and dig, dig, dig.  

Grape plants and grape leaves

Red Raspberries and raspberries leaves