Back at Home

I'm sorry I've been so delinquent with blogging! We were on vacation last week visiting some family and I didn't have my act together enough to do a blog post mentioning that before I left. As much as I was looking forward to getting away, and as much as it was nice to see family and friends and get some rest, it's also good to be home, get back to our normal routines, and hang out with our dog again.

They Grow Up So Fast

I may have started my vegetables from seed a tad too early. I got a bit antsy for spring to come not thinking about the fact that the last frost doesn't really happen here until May. Some of the plants are still small, like my chili peppers and tomatoes, but the pole beans took off from the moment that I planted them. I put a few bamboo stakes in the container and they've grown all the way up to the top and then some. The plants are taller than me, and the beans have already started to grow!

Summer in March

It is beautiful out there right now. I'm not kidding when I say it feels like summer in March. The temperature has been in the 20s, the sun is out, and plants are growing. I'm a realistic enough Canadian to know that this won't last - in fact, the temperatures are set to dip to around 6 degrees this weekend - so I'm trying to enjoy this warm weather as much as I can while it sticks around.

Spring is Here!

Finally! Less than a week ago, there was snow on the ground, even though you could see it had started melting. That's when I took the first picture. Now, the snow is almost completely gone, though in my neck of the woods, we still get snow into April so it's probably not totally gone for good. But it was unbelievably warm yesterday, and sunny too, so I can't complain. The second picture was taken yesterday.

Hello, My Pretties!

A couple of weeks ago, I got really excited for spring to get here and decided to start some plants from seed indoors early, rather than heading to the garden centre right before planting in the spring the way we usually do. Since I never tried it before, I wasn't sure how well it would work out.

The plants did really well. It's only been two weeks, and all except a couple of pods of them have germinated. I've taken the top off of the little plastic greenhouse so that no fungus develops with all the moisture that was in there.

The zucchini and green beans have really taken off. The other plants are a bit slower to grow, especially the flowers, but they're not doing too badly. The zucchini and green beans were doing so well that I actually had to repot them, because their roots were invading the other pods.

I realized that I was out of potting soil, so I had to improvise and mixed what little potting soil I had with some Perlite and sphagnum moss. 

The zucchini were pretty tilted from leaning towards the sun. I had rotated the greenhouse, but I guess not quite enough! I used some straws and twist ties to give them some support so they'd grow straight.

I'll add more potting soil to the pots this weekend (you can see that the bean pots are still a little empty), and will probably repot the pods of the other plants that are getting bigger, like the cucumbers. I was kind of worried at first that the plants wouldn't grow, and now I'm worried they'll be too big when it's time to plant them! I'll just have to make sure that I get containers that are big enough so they don't get root bound before we can put them in the ground. We are thinking about leaving the tomatoes in big containers, because our patio gets most of the backyard's sun, so they may live in pots for the summer anyway. I can't wait to get out there and grow some delicious veggies!

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Getting Ready for Spring

I'm so sick of winter! I've been looking at all sorts of lovely pictures of flower and vegetable gardens online and getting very impatient for spring to get here. I was at Home Depot a while back and noticed that they already have all their seeds in stock, ready for spring. We usually get our vegetables and our flowers from garden centres and farmers' markets, but this year, I need something to do in the (many) weeks before spring gets here, so I decided to start some seeds indoors rather than buying the plants in the spring. Not only does it give me something to do, but it's much cheaper.

Not Just for Coffee...

Who needs fancy plant pots? Not me. I picked up this big coffee mug for $2 at the grocery store because I wanted something more interesting to use to pot the plants left over from my terrarium project. It was cheap and I think it looks cute with the little succulent in it!

House Plants in Glass

I've recently gotten on a bit of a kick putting house plants in glass containers. They're so much prettier than the boring old terra cotta pots I usually use. I like that you can layer decorative rocks or glass beads into the containers to add a bit more of a decorative touch. I'm glad I finally found a use for the fruit bowl my mom gave me that was too small to hold much of anything and went unused for years. When it comes time to re-pot other plants of mine in the spring, I'm getting rid of the terra cotta pots for sure!

Terrarium Fever

Terrariums are my new obsession. I have been reading up on plants and gardening, but have quite a ways to go before spring gets here and I can put that to good use, so I have to make do with houseplants for the time being. Terrariums are cute and very easy to put together, and you can either find the things that you need to make them either around the house or you can get them for a pretty low price. The picture above was my first attempt at terrarium making.

Here are the things you need in order to make one: