Sunday, March 29, 2009

Sprouts!

The beans are beginning to sprout!

As you may recall, I planted my seedlings and seeds on March 22nd and 23rd. Then of course we had flooding downpours on March 25th, 26th and 27th grrrrr!

I was concerned about that much rain on the raised beds, but I am happy to report that they performed perfectly!

In the book I am following, All New Square Foot Gardeningthe author says that with his soil mix, you cannot over water, and I guess that it's true. The soil soaked up the water even after 3 (or was it 4?) days of very heavy thunderstorms - the kind that had the streets flooded and the rivers coming out of their banks - and yet, the soil stayed intact, didn't float, didn't overflow, and I assume any excess water simply ran out from the bottom of the raised beds, like it is supposed to. Even the seeds seemed to stay in place!! Excellent.

I followed the guidance of All New Square Foot Gardening by first soaking the big seeds like this green bean, only for about an hour or so, before planting them, and as suggested on page 111, I dropped two bean seeds into each of the nine planting holes per square and even more on the teeny tiny seeds. I assume this is so that you end up with at least one plant, but now the question I ponder is... what if they all take? Then I will have not 9 bean plants per square, but 18 plants! I assume I will have to thin them out and {gasp} discard them? I can't bear the thought of killing a living thing, no not even a plant {though crawly bugs found inside the house are fair game in my humble opinion.} Not sure on how I'll handle this quite yet!

I also noticed some tiny sprouts of basil poking out too, though nothing on the rosemary, oregano or thyme yet. I read in the book that carrots make take awhile when the temperatures are not consistently warm, so it might be a couple of weeks before I see anything with those. Well, that and these are some really old seeds that I wasn't sure would even take to begin with.

So the beds held up even in multiple heavy downpours. And, at least some of the seeds are beginning to sprout.

Now I need to figure out what to do about these guys...

...who seem to have taken a liking to storing their seeds in this nice, soft, welcoming soil. Did somebody forget to tell them it is SPRING????

Off to do some housework ... in between puppy naps {and feedings, entertaining, bathroom rounds yada yada} that is.

Blessed Sunday to you all. ✝

6 comments:

  1. look on the bright side. You got rain! we got snow. Right after I planted my peas. I hope they grow.

    Your little seedlings look great!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Krystal - I saw that! That's just crazy such a late season snowfall!! I hope your peas come out of it. It might take 'em some time to warm up again, but they'll probably be okay.

    Yeah, we got TONS of rain, it was the lightning that was freaky - glad it's over. I'm not complaining - because we really needed it! But then again, I don't live on the river so I'm sure that rain was a pain for some folks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. How great. You'll be havin' fresh veggies early, lucky you.
    We got a light dusin' of snow. I don't think it dropped below 32 degrees though. Hope not.
    Have a great day and didn't you know,
    There's no rest for the wicked. hee hee

    ReplyDelete
  4. I don't know about the veggies ... we'll see how it does. I have my fingers crossed but we'll see...

    Not gettin' much done - when the pup is up, he expects to be entertained. When he's sleeping I need to be quiet. It's a no-win situation LOL... I'll sure be glad when he's housebroken. That'll help 'some.'

    ReplyDelete
  5. Fresh Basil, one of my all time favorites. You are inspiring friend.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Basil and parsley come through for me most of the time in the garden - it's the other stuff, not so good... hoping for a better year with the herbs!

    C'mon ... get out and garden!

    ReplyDelete

Welcome & thanks for taking the time to comment! From time to time, comment moderation may be activated due to comment spam. I also reserve the right to edit, delete or otherwise exercise total editorial discretion over any comments left on this blog.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE
All content and images, including any not yet watermarked, are ©My New 30 2008-2017, unless noted otherwise. You are free to print articles for personal use, but please do not republish anything from this site without prior written permission. All rights reserved.
Is someone stealing your content? Click here to find out what to do.