showeredwithgrace

Week Five:

 

We skipped posting about our table top root garden last week as it wasn't progressing much.  This week the progress is worth mentioning.  See our red carrot?  Finally, it is sprouting noticeable greens.  The question . . . what do we do with these now?

Peeking in more garden pots . . .

cilantro

 

lemon thyme

 

sugar peas

 

Things that depress me:

1.  War

2.  Our table-top root garden

Week Three:  And Then There Were Four

 

Progress:  excruciatingly slow

And what's with our red carrot . . . .   It's low self-esteem I think (because the parsnip thief chose the parsnip instead of it). 

Hoping for greater developments next week.

Bugs on our tomato plants.

 

After mass this morning we discovered tiny black bugs all over our tomato plants in our greenhouse.  We gave them the recommended dose of soapy water spray.  Hope it helps.

Ate the first strawberry of the season off our strawberry plant today ~ still warm from the sun . . . (forgot to take pictures).

'And Then There Were Four' . . .

Week Two: 

 

Definitely seeing more leaves and the roots on our beets have really taken off.  Sweet potato is finally sprouting ~ but what happened to our red carrot?  It looks like it's gone dormant or something ??  Hhhmmm.

The beet though . . .  now that's exciting.

What's wrong with this picture ?

 

We shall call it 'The Case of the Missing Parsnip' or 'Peter Rabbit goes Abroad'.  Regardless . . . somebody absconded with our parsnip.  As far as our table top winter root garden goes it shall heretofore be known by the title ' And Then There Were Four'.

Week One:  We are beginning to see evidence of sprouting in our root vegetables.  In two of our jars the water became cloudy and the vegetables have not yet produced sprouts (sweet potato and parsnip) so today we changed the water out of those two.  And since it is rainy today we placed them all out in the rain to fill up with rain water.

 

 

 

 

For our bird friends ~ a nest-warming gift.

We are getting delicate little roots branching out in our table top root vegetable garden.  Very exciting.

 

Our table top winter root garden.  Parsnip, rhutabaga, red carrot, beet, sweet potato.

The small heater in the greenhouse ($19 at home depot) has made all the difference.  Six this morning internal temperature inside greenhouse 70 F.

Internal temperature in the greenhouse yesterday afternoon:  100 F

Internal temperature at 8 this morning:  30 F

I think I'll get a warming light to place inside it at night.

I recently purchased a copy of this book recommended by Nina.  Thanks Nina!  I've been perusing through these types of books from the library in the pursuit of creating Rose Red's magical garden lately (always a challenge in our desert climate) but haven't seen this one yet.  I look forward to its arrival! 

We planted radish seeds last Friday when we were at our Desert Botanical Gardens.  The very next day they began sprouting!  A week later this is what they look like. 

April is blooming.

It appears our Swiss Chard is the early riser of the bunch.

With any luck we will see some more sprouts over the coming week!  We are soooo hoping!

We are trying our hand at growing things again.  Today we spent the day planting seeds ~ a relaxing activity on a cloudy Sunday afternoon.  Everyone got in on the activity.  So far we have planted carrots, scallions, beets, tomatoes, sugar peas, swiss chard, parsley, basil, thyme, oregano and cilantro.  The possibilities are so exciting!

We are protecting and nuturing our tiny seedlings by starting them out in our portable greenhouse ~ my new toy.

Happy Valentine's Day to me!

And St. Francis of Assisi presides ~ making sure all goes grows well.

What could grow in this  .  .  .   soil ?  you might ask.

but in the foothills of suburbia my father is farming ~

or is it gardening ?

Baby saguaro cacti from seed !  These saguaros are 15 years old.

This is one of his film canisters filled with saguaro cactus seeds ~ and yes, there really are 6000 seeds in there ~ he counted.

Rose Red's Garden has turned out to be a pathetic endeavor.  It is no wonder she has lost all interest in the thing.  You wouldn't know by the look of our garden that spring here has been absolutely glorious and sunny!

I should probably mention that these plants are kept in a covered patio ~ but it does get adequate sun (I think).  We planted these by seed I'm sure it was the last week in February ?!  They seem rather unmotivated if you ask me.  The pot in the left picture is sugar snap peas and and the pots on the right are stock and cosmos.

Apparently cosmos are easy to grow ~ and I do think  As Cozy as Spring knows a thing or two about plants as her plants are always gorgeous, growing and healthy!  Our cosmos though are not!

pathetic.

We lost our Johnny Jump-ups ~ the desert sun was just too much for them.

We found sprouts in our johnny jump ups today!

Things are popping up over here in Rose Red's little garden!

our Sugar Snap Peas and Sweet Alyssum.  .  .  . 

and in her window box .  .  .  our Stock and our Cosmos are peeping up their little heads but our Johnny Jump Ups are  still sleeping.

We have sprouts!  At least we have a few sprouts in our large pot.

These are Sweet Alyssum

And this is our first Sugar Snap Pea sprout!

Rose Red's poor little window box was attacked by the birds ~ hopefully there are still some seeds in there .  .  .  .

We planted seeds today for Rose Red's little window box.