Signs of Spring

Well I think spring might be coming soon...at least I hope so.  I was checking out my backyard this morning and noticed A LOT of birds today.  I think I counted 10 different species of birds today!  Which this time last year with only 2 types of seed out there I had maybe 4.  Maybe because it's sunny, mabe because it's a bit on the warmer side but then I saw this furry critter running around.  I haven't seen him all winter! 

I had noticed some tunnels in the snow yesterday but figured it was from the squirrels burrying my bird seed like I saw them doing earlier this week...but low and behold it was a Chipmunk!  He must be out sharing in the wealth of seeds and sun the same way the birds are!

Also in my tour around my backyard filling up my bird feeders I noticed this life under my soffats of the house..something is springing to life and it is most welcome!  I believe it is a Hyacinth that is poking through...the only other spring plant in that garden is a tulip and I think they are still burried in the snow.

I really hope spring is here...I think I am tired of the snow...even though it does look very pretty.  I would like to be out in my gardens.

Progressions...

So my tomatoes are progressing well and already on their first set of true leaves.  I have not moved my light the last week to hopefully stop them from being so leggy.  I also had a light mishap where my light fell on some of my tomatoes and I had some casulties and some injured.  The injured ones are fighting back and I may leave them, we'll see.

Here is a close-up of my first true leaves, at least they are growing!! :)

My peppers have finally sprouted!  I was starting to worry that maybe they soil was too wet or I didn't plant them right or whatever but they have made an appearance!  I have 3 Summer Reds sprouted and 3 Long Red Cayenne Peppers coming.  My growing is going well but my lighting situation isn't working with the varying plant growth I have.  I may have to invest in a proper growing light and still employ my fish tank...

So with all this going on I found out I can trim my leeks...maybe this won't make them look so sad.  They were also damaged in the light incident but with a little trim they may be ok!

Tomatoes

So I planted my tomatoes last weekend and I noticed some growth on Friday night...I am only blogging about it now...we are in the process of finishing a basement so the weekend was a bit hairy.  So my tomatoes are sprouting up like crazy and I think the light I have for my fish tank isn't the right ligh as I think my plants are really really leggy... I have found a new light in my house that I am trying out...if that doesn't work I may have to invest in a nicer garden set up for my other plants.  They are growing good...but we'll see.  I will have to thin them out.

Still nothing on my peppers.  I'll wait another few days and maybe try to plant another batch.  I'm wondering if the soil was way to wet when I planted...

My leeks are growing...which is a good thing but I don't think I realzied they might be leggy until my tomatoes popped up and now I can see why my leeks look a little funny.  This indoor growing thing is hard.  I will have to get a better light and space set up...then I will be good :)  At least they are sending out a second leaf...

Birding

So along with loving my garden, I love what flies into my garden as well.  I am a bit of a bird geek and love seeing what birds I can attract and what they do in my backyard.  Well my good friend told me about the Great Backyard Bird Count that is happening this weekend and I participated yesterday and today.  Today I watched for the birds in my backyard for a lot longer than I did yesterday and had a lot more species to report.  One species that I have never noticed in my backyard also came to visit and I am so excited.  I had 2 Tufted Titmice come steal some of my peanuts from one of my feeders!!  I honestly don't know if I've ever seen one in person before, nevermind in my backyard.  It was pretty exciting.

Along with the count, you can also submit some pictures of your birds that you observed this weekend and enter them into the photo contest.  I entered a picture of a downy woodpecker and one of an american goldfinch. 

While entering the numbers on the GBBC website, they had links to another website where, as a citizen scientist, can enter data on an ongoing basis for the birds observed wherever you happen to be...You can plot charts and graphs and maps and all sorts of cool stuff.  The website is called E-bird and is run through Cornell Lab of Ornithology, so of course, I am all signed up and have some sightings in already :)

More Seeds

I planted 4 more pepper plants on Saturday night but they are Red Cayenne Peppers.  I planted these in the peat pellets like my other peppers.  I also decided to plant my tomatoes.  I decided to plant my tomatoes in the plastic divided pots with jiffy soil mix.  I have 3 plastic pots of 4 sections so I planted 2 seeds per section.  I planted 8 Brandywine, 8 Lunchbox and 8 Tumbling Tom Tomatoes.  We'll see how they turn out.

My leeks are looking a bit better.  They are at least standing up straight now.  I have just been spritzing water on the top of the peat the last couple days and I have thinned out a couple of the pots with the obviously weeker leek.  There are still 2 more that I need to thin but I'm not sure which one to pull out.  I may leave it for another day or two until it becomes a bit more clear which one I should take out. 

Figs

My figs are getting bigger each day and more are sprouting out.  I now have 6 delicious figs growing on my small tree.  Hopefully they will continue to grow and allow me to eat them this time.  I will refrain from touching them as much as I can and hope for the best.  Here is a picture of just a couple of them.  You can see how big they have gotten since the first picture I posted.  I'm still not sure if they will stay green or turn purple.

Leeks and Peppers

So tonight I got home from work and checked on my leeks.  The tips of the leeks that are growing seem to have gone brown...and I'm not sure why.  Maybe they're getting too much light?  12-15hrs ... might be too much.  I'll try to turn the light on for only 10-12 hrs maybe see if that helps.  I hope they still continue to grow ok and that I haven't screwed up already !

Tonight I planted 3 "Summer Red" Peppers.  I am going to grow them in a pot on my patio so I won't be growing too many plants, but I thought I'd try it out nontheless.  I planted 1 seed per peat pellet so we'll see how they do.

Continued Leek Growth

So my leeks are progressing nicely but not looking like what I thougt baby leeks would look like.  They are tall and grass-like.  I hope I'm doing this right.  Anyways, 8 out of 9 of my peat pots have sprouted at least 1 leek and a few have 2 (I planted 2 seeds just to be sure).  I will likely weed out the weaker ones at some point.  I have also adjusted the light as the tallest leek is starting to hit the light so I took out one board that I have them supported on.  I've never started seeds inside so we'll see how this goes...

More Seeds

Last week I ordered some things from Dominion Seed House and Stokes Seeds.  I haven't gotten anything from Dominion and I'm not sure if I will until end of April.  Their online receipt wasn't very clear so I'm not really sure when to expect my order.  It was basically potatoes and mushrooms so maybe they'll just ship it all out for the week that I picked (which was end of April-ish).  Yesterday, however, I got my Stokes order.  It was all neatly packed in a box with some newspaper and my packing slips and reciepts and a cute yellow card saying who packed my order.  I now have all my tomatoes as I ordered a Lunchbox variety and a Yellow Tumbling Tom variety which I will hopefully start planting this weekend.  I also ordered a small hand seeder to try out this year (particularily for my carrots) and some seaweed fertilizer as well.

Here is my order for you to have a look at.  Nothing too special today.

More Life

Well since I posted earlier that 2 leeks had sprouted, I now have to report that another 4 are coming up now too!  I am just excited they sprouted...now I just have to keep them alive!

Life!!!

So on February 2nd I planted my leeks and today I noticed first growth!  I have now turned on the light and hopefully the other ones will start to grow.  Only 2 of my leeks have sprouted so far and they moved pretty fast.  I read that the smaller the seed, the longer they take to germinate.  Well this only took 5 days, which I feel is pretty quick for seeds the size of pin heads.  I am getting more excited! Come on SPRING!!! :)

Garden Plan

So I have mapped out my small space so I know what I am planting where. I am not THAT organized to figure out what should be planted when something else comes out so I will just play it by ear and keep things relegated to the squares I've set out.  I think I'll have tonnes of veg (at least I hope I will) and I will keep it going by planting in 2 week intervals to keep a continuous supply.  We'll see how this year goes and I might try to switch things up next year and maybe I'll be more organized :) (the circles below are plants that will be done in pots of sorts).

I think I will start planting my Brandywine tomatoes next week and my peppers as well.  I have ordered some Lunchbox tomatoes and small yellow "tumbling tom" cherry tomatoes so hopefully they will get here next week and I can start them as well.  I think I'll enjoy earlier tomatoes as opposed to late ones.  Maybe I'll start the Lunchbox ones near the end of February.

Here is a picture of what my garden looks like now.  Right now I have my downspouts directed into my garden to keep excess rain away from the house.  In the summer I direct them into handy rain barrels.  It looks so cold and desolate...and only 6 more weeks of winter (so says the miserable groundhog) ... hopefully they go fast. 

Leeks Day 1

So I hydrated my little peat pellets today and realized I'm going to have to go buy more.  25 is not enough for square foot gardening.  Anyways I also set up my old fish tank and bought some bulbs for the light ballast.  Here's hopin it works out ok.  I only got 2 15watt bulbs so hopefully that is enough (I wasn't sure if my ballast could handle 25watt bulbs). Here is my setup right now:

I have planted 2 leek seeds per peat pellet to make sure I at least get 9 decent leek plants.  I am going to try to plant another 9 leeks in 2 weeks so I can harvest them at different times.  I'm not sure what I'll do with 9 leeks nevermind 18 and I have 2 plots in my garden reserved for leeks.  I'm not sure how long they will take to germinate but I shall keep you posted.  Here they are right now:

My growing has begun :) ......

First Seeds

So I went out today and bought my first batch of seeds.  I went to Ontario Seed Company today and picked up 5 packets of flower seeds, 2 packets of herb seeds, 1 packet of sugar maple seeds and 13 packets of vegetables.  Everything there was very reasonably priced and I didn't have to pay shipping and handling.  Although I will still be buying some potatoes, sweet potatoes, different tomatoes, mushrooms and pumpkins from another company..but I'll blog about those when I have them in my hands.

I have a fairly extensive seed list but I am only going to plant a few seeds from each to try out this year...and I don't have a huge amount of space to grow a huge garden.  I also cleaned out an old fish tank tonight so I can start my leeks (which have to be started 8-12 weeks before last frost in the spring).  I have to buy some grow light bulbs to put in my fish tank cover but for the small amount of seeds I need to start this winter a 10gal fish tank will be perfect...I hope.

I have already bought small peat pellets to start my seeds and I will get them soaking tonight, just so they're warm and ready and I'll likely plant tomorrow.

So my 2010 Seed List so far (from Ontario Seed Company) (OSC) is:

Sugar Snap Vine Peas, Sweetness III Carrots, Musclun Mix - a mild mix, Ruby Red and Salad Bowl Lettuce, Bull's Blood and Chioggia Beets, Brandywine Tomatoes (heirloom), Summer Red Peppers, Marketmore Cucumber, Tendergreen Bush Beans, Pencil Pod Black Wax Yellow Bush Beans, Large Musselburg Leek, Chamomile and Genovese Basil.