Broccoli Shoots!

The broccoli shoots are up. I have about ten of them. I'm so excited! I've never grown broccoli before and these seeds are probably 7-10 years old.

 

I'm watering these and hoping for rain. Hope, hope. 

Little tiny daughter and I also planted some marigold seeds (by the sunflowers; under the play structure; on the east side of the deck) and some basil seeds (on the east side of garden 3) tonight. I realized that I desperately need basil and should've planted it much earlier.

Planting and Growing Garlic

This How to Plant and Grow Garlic video , featured on the Garlic Facebook page, has me really wanting to plant and grow garlic. No one consumes more garlic than I do; it fights cancer (not medical advice), repels insects when camping, and tastes amazing.

I planted a bunch of seeds today in garden 2: sweet peas along south perimeter; carrots along west perimeter; broccoli along north perimeter. It's going to be interesting in there. My daughter also sprinkled California poppy seeds all over the yard. Michigan's climate is clearly and significantly different from California's, but I'd be thrilled if poppies grew.

Planting in the rain

I took a chance in pouring rain - is this a brilliant idea, or are they just going to die? - and planted the rest of the fruits/veggies in mud in garden 3: one more purple cherokee tomato, giant harvard tomato, dutch tomato, 3 roma tomato plants that did not look the greatest in the store, two green bell peppers, one red pepper. It's pouring rain now.

CSA! Hooray!

We received our first CSA share (half-share, actually). In it was leaf lettuce, butter lettuce, two pounds of  asparagus, one dozen awesome eggs. I didn't know that eggs could be so delicious. I am a big fan of Rich Carpenter and Carpenter's Organic Produce so far, and I look forward to my weekly "Christmas presents."

Other checked-off items from my checklist today include:

• cultivated garden 2.
• planted zucchini.
• planted in garden 3: Royal Prince tomato; cherokee purple tomato; two early girl tomatoes; four cayenne red peppers. "Early Girl tomatoes aren't early and aren't good," said my sister. If they're in fact early, then I'll find out soon if I agree with her. I haven't had very many tomatoes that I didn't like.

Cuteness (imvho)

I:

• Planted sunflowers with kids. We're fond of hand-held cultivators. We just are.
• Trimmed the sunflower garden.
• Pruned two butterfly bushes - a lot.
• Cultivated and preened (with chemicals) the vegetable garden (garden 3) again.