Raised bed frame - check

Raised bed frame has been constructed! It has yet to be planted in the soil, or filled with soil. Photos coming soon.

Seedlings ahoy

My seedlings have sprung.
Last Tuesday I started romaine, green leaf, red leaf, thyme, basil, lavender, jalapenos and sweet peppers. So far, romaine, green leaf, red leaf, thyme, basil and lavender have germinated. Exciting times! I think this Johnny's Seed Starter is super.
This Sunday I started broccoli and cherry tomatoes, and I think I spotted some broccoli that had already germinated this morning!
Everyone is under the big light that we installed last year. They seem to be doing well, although I think I saw some lettuce that was suffering from "damping off". Will investigate tonight.
Anxious to see if the peppers will germinate, too, as the seeds were from 2 years ago. Doubtful, but I'm hoping.

Also, I'm hoping to get at least the wood for the raised bed this weekend. I contacted my landlord and asked her if she's going to build this year, and, naturally, she still hasn't responded. I might just go ahead and build it on that land anyway.

It's that time again.

So I've not much to report, except that I've been pouring over my newest Johnny's Seeds catalogue, and I'm trying to plan an actual garden this year. Maybe some pretty shade shrubs and flowers, and hopefully lots of veggies.
A lovely little hurricane swept through Brooklyn in September, and took out 3 trees in our backyard. Fortunately for us, 2 of the actually blocked a lot of our Southern light (I didn't actually realize until mid-summer how shady our backyard actually is).
So, this year, I'm thinking: broccoli, brussel sprouts, carrots, corn, cucumbers, arugula, kale, romaine and/or green/red leaf lettuce, peppers (green-to-red and/or jalapeno), spinach, winter squash, tomatoes, basil (all herbs will probably go in a window box like last year), catnip (our cats went fucking nuts for this last year), chives, dill, mint, oreano, rosemary, and thyme. Holy shit, that's a lot! I might trim down that list.
But, as I'm now a Zipcar member, it should be a lot easier to just pick up a car and get some soil/wood/supplies. Also, with the added experience of helping (watching?) someone build a picnic table in our backyard, I think I can actually do these raised beds. I can do it! Justin will watch from the sidelines with some disapproving murmurs.

March madness

It's been awhile.


Turnips
So, a lot of the turnips got really leggy, then fell over and died.
We acquired a giant fluorescent light right before that happened, but that did not save them. Alas, there are maybe 3-4 of them left that are soldiering on. Go turnips!

Lettuce
A few of the lettuces succumbed to the same fate as the turnips, but some have grown huge third leaves. Very good, guys. I thinned them out, and there is one little pot with 4 plants growing that all have third leaves! It would break my heart to have to further thin them out.

Basil
The basil is growing at a rapid pace! I seriously need to thin that shizz. Some of it is purple, and some of it is green. Very exciting!

Tomatoes
Lots of these little guys have sprouted. Some of them are having a tough time shedding their seed. Should I help them? I don't know.

Cucumbers
These guys are beasts! The prettiest of them all unfortunately fell over. Hopefully he'll come back.

Other things
Not much going on with the other guys. Pictures to come soon...

A flurry of activity

So much has been happening in those little trays! Practically everybody has germinated now. They live on the window in the second bedroom, hopefully getting ~12 hours of sunlight there, and then I turn a lamp on for them from 7-bedtime, which gives them another 4 or so hours of light.

I think the only seeds that have not germinated yet are the lavender.
At one point, I cut back some of the lettuce, as there were waaay too many seeds in each little pod. However, instead of shriveling up and dying, they continued to grow! I do not understand. I thought seedlings were weak and delicate. Apparently not. I should probably be updating from home, instead of work, since I could report from there. Maybe I'll update more tonight.

Lettuce Eat

The lettuce seeds have germinated and become seedlings! Praise the lord.
Their plastic covering has been removed, and they have been placed on the window sill in the second bedroom. With them go some other plant I can't quite recall.
Here are some pictures of the beauts:

Turnips























Lettuce (terrible photo):