Seeds this Spring - Beans

Okay Kids, Mama always told us to eat our beans. So I am listing to mama (I can hear my mom saying 'Finally!'). I love me some bean so Here are some of the varieties that have bought this year that I have never tried before. I have never grown a pole bean, only the bush beans, Here is what I got.

I always love have teepees in the yard. I have some beautiful metal vintage ones. I want these to grow up those. Last year I had the cucumbers growing up them but the cucumbers went crazy and overtook everything. So not this year. 

Beans should be planted in the ground in Zone 5 in May 3-24th

Of course I will also do some bush beans. like this one

Update: 4/30/14

So here is me planting the beans. I soak my beans overnight so that they sprout faster. As you can tell while I was sowing my seeds i had an ice cream craving! Geez was that good! I will show you in another post how to make the newspaper pots. They will save you so much money and are so easy to make.

 
Sow the seeds 1/2" deep and I always start my seeds on a heat mat. makes things go soo fast.

How 2's: lilies

Hey kids. How about those lilies. Yep I am a gardener, and you can tell. You all know that mostly I do the veggies, but who can resist the look... and the smell of lilies! Specifically Oriental lilies! Although their show is short, to really do put out ( flowers I mean, gosh get your mind out of the gutter!). I have decided to add some more to my collection. So come on, lets see what I got today.

When it is too wet or cold to do anything outside, I feed my addiction with going to a independent garden center. They have all sorts of unique things there. Look at the treasure trove I got there!


Among the things I bought are lilies. Aren't they pretty!

So the pictures on the bottom are what I bought and the ones on top are how I did it.

You can plant lilies in the fall or in the spring. I think you normally have a better show when you plant them in the fall, but...oops, what can I say.

• Once I got them home I soaked my Lily bulbs in a bucket of water. Don't bother taking them out of the plastic bag (as I did), just stick the whole thing in there.
• After a day of soaking place your lilies should look like this. See how they are rearing to go, they already have shoots on them 

• Plant- depending on how big the lily is, they should be planted between 6-4 inches deep. I dug 6 inches and then placed 2 inches of homemade compost (bottom left), doesn't that compost look good enough to eat, not really though. A little tip is to plant deep, the stem will form roots all the way through the soil which will give you a stronger plant in the end. So plant her deep and watch'er grow!
• Put the bulbs in and cover with more compost! Viola we are done...Now we will have to wait till July-August before I can update this!

Planted: 4/9/14

DIY - Celery Pinterest

Okay, so how many of you have a Pinterest account? Now if you do, be honest with yourself. How many times have you gone on Pinterest, spent hours looking at DIYs, getting off and doing nothing. Yet, you feel SO creative... and you have done nothing! Well I know I fall prey to this. So I actually did something with all of my pins. Have you seen the Grow Your Own Celery pin yet. You guessed it, I did it, and you know what?, it worked!

My celery grew! Celery is one of those plants that I have no interest in growing from seed (it just seems so hard). This was the perfect alternative. Celery loves warm weather, so this method also gives it a head start. Plant your celery in loose soil, as that it doesn't like to get its roots boggy.

Anyways, this pin worked for me, its time for me to get back on Pinterest and feed my addiction. Catch ya on the flip side! 

What's in the Garden

Hey kids, boy the weather has been nice here. So warm and sunny that put some of my tropicals outside for the day soak up the rays. I need to give you guys an update of my citrus trees, because my dwarf clementine has bloomed and is setting fruit!

So instead of studying for exams (like I should have been doing), I ventured outside to plant what really needed to be planted. 

Here's the run down of what I got down...

• Adirondack Blue Seed Potatoes
• White onions
• Red onions
• Peas
• Radishes
• Beets
• Lilies 

I wish I had gotten more done, but hey, that is at least something! Till next time, garden Hard!

Seeds this Spring - Radishes

Okay Kids, lets talk about some radishes, some like them plain, some like them with a lil salt, I like mine right out of the garden with a little bit of dirt still on them.

Here are a couple of raishes that I am planting. I didn't realize that you could plant these so early. I always have a problem with flea beetles eating the fleaves. Maybe if I planted them early on I wouldn't have this big of a problem. 

Here are the two radishes that I will be growing. French Breakfast and Champion.

In my zone, Zone 5, you can plant in the ground between Feb 28 - Mar 22.


Update 4/6/14
   I planted my radishes, and of course the squirrels came around and dug into the freshly turned dirt. Hopefully the didn't completely ruin where I placed my radish seeds...WHY SQUIRRELS...WHY!?!?!?!?

Update 4/15/14
   They are up, and it snowed urgh

Seeds this Spring - Beets

Okay, so its spring and we are all getting ready for what we will be doing in the garden. This means that we are all getting our seeds. I know that I am. I ended up buying my seeds and then noticed later that one seed company in particular had a great value to the seeds. So lets take a look shall we. Lets look at the beets that I bought.

For zone 5, you want to start seeding your beets outside April 12- May 5.

Here is what I bought

I got these 3 because I wanted a unique blend of beets. I bought Chioggia, Bulls Blood, and Golden. What I noticed was the gram size of the seed packets according to the brand. 

Livingston Seed Co. seems to be the brand to get. They have 4 times as much seed as Lake Valley Seed brand, 4 grams as compared to 1 gram. Plus here is the kicker, Libingston Seed Co. costs less, $0.70 less! Wowzer! Look and compare 

Tell me what you think. I know for sure, that Livingston Seed Co. is the way to go. Not to mention, they they were heirlooms.

Seed this Spring- Peas

Okay Kids, lets talk about peas. Everyone loves peas, unless you are a 7 yr old. So I am behind in my planting, I am going to contribute it to the extremely cold weather. But hopefully you have started your peas. I am going to sow mine this week.

Here is what I have. I bought 3 packs so that I can have plenty of seeds. 

In my Zone, Zone 5, you should be planting peas around March 15 - April 5.

I always believe in soaking my seeds before planting them. It increases the germination rate and speed!