What’s up Doc?

Well, I can tell you what’s not up, and it wouldn’t make Bugs happy.  The carrots dang it.  I’ve gotten pretty good at growing a few different things, but carrots are not one of them.  Actually, I take that back, once they’ve sprouted I do a pretty good job.  It’s the germination that’s tricky.  I think it took me three tries last year to get some sprouts, and I’ve been failing big time this year.  See?  Nothin’.

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Nada.

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Zippy.

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So with gardening, nothing beats experience.  I have read a TON of gardening books, and while I have learned a lot from them and enjoyed them immensely, I’ve learned more by doing and also by listening to veteran gardeners.  I was recently told by a gardener to try covering my seeds with vermiculite instead of soil.  Carrot seeds need to stay consistently moist to germinate.  If they dry out you get a lotta nothin’.  So guess what I went out and bought?

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Since it has rained the past two days, and the ground is really damp and it’s nice and cool for the next few days, I headed down to the garden for some quick carrot planting.

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Those seeds are so dang tiny!  I just sprinkled them in a line-ish and didn’t get too crazy trying to space or keep them perfectly straight.  Finally,  the vermiculite got spread over top.

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My little carrot corner.  Hopefully….

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I’ll let you know how this little experiment goes.  It would be awesome if I have found the trick to growing carrots at last!  Were you wondering about the broken pot?  It’s our garden toad house.  The marigolds grow up around it and keep it cool and hidden.  At least they do when the slugs don’t eat them all gone.  I have a couple left who have pulled through and more in the greenhouse that are about ready to go out and face those slimy pigs.  May the force be with them!

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Did you get to spend a lot of time in the garden over the holiday weekend?  My little Sweet Pea joined me out there and we spent hours and hours trying to get our garden caught up.  With the never-ending winter and then craziness that is our lives in the spring, we were so far behind.  We planted all but 6 of our tomatoes, all the peppers and some cucumbers.  It’s coming along nicely now.

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The nasturtiums are popping up.  I love them so much that I’ve planted a bunch more than last year.

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I can’t wait to see them blooming with the Borage in front of the tomato plants.

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The Kale is so happy it rained and cooled down.

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I thought something was making a meal of my green beans, but come to find out, we have leaf cutter bees.  The plants will not be eaten and will survive and we’ll have some much needed pollinators.  Win.  Win.

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I really, really, really hate spiders, but this garden spider was pretty cool looking and I thought my little Monster man would like to see it later.  As long as she eats some bad bugs and stays (far, far) out of my way, we’ll get along just fine.

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Grow babies GROW!  Can’t wait!!!!  🙂

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