"Getting rid of everything that doesn’t matter allows you to remember who you are. Simplicity doesn’t change who you are, it brings you back to who you are."

Monday, May 24, 2010

A Lesson in Patience



I grew up in the immediate gratifaction generation.  If I want it, I get it. 

This year, to save myself from the Febuary "blues", I decided to grow plants from seeds.  You know...the whole "peat pot, warm room and lights on all the time" thing.

Now I know I could've run down to the Home Depot and purchased all my plants (as I've always done), but I needed a distraction this year and thought "what the heck?" lets buy a bunch of seeds and see what happens. 

So with minimal out of pocket expense, SM and I made our seed selections at Walmart and went whole hog...veggies and flowers. 

First in were the pansies, violas and petunias.  I started those in Febuary in hopes of April flowers.  No such luck.  Plants but nothing else.  I went ahead and sucked it up and bought some petunias for some front door color and stuck my "from seed" plants in various places and pots around the yard.

This weekend I've got flowers from the seed started plants!  (Note to self...start flowers earlier.)



I'm proud to say that ALL of the garden is from seed.  I did NOT succumb to the $4-$6 tomatoes at Lowes.  (Can you believe it? PER PLANT!!!)  I probably saved $100.00 in tomatoes alone at that price.

This weekend, I direct sowed another patch of green beans (where the alaska peas were) and I'll sow another patch when the sugars petter out.  I am determined to discover the secret to growing bush green beans in NC.  I will not bend, I will not break.



My summer and zuchinni squashes "appear" to be producing.  I've got bees and am watching for blossom end rot but I think we're going to be sucessful with squash.



The bunnies chewed through the last of the sunflowers so I pulled up the stems and planted what was left over of my zuchinni seeds.  Now before anyone points out to me that I'm soon to swarmed by squash, I need to make you aware that it is truly one of my favorite veggies.  I've been reading alot on farmgirlfare and have disovered that grated zuchinni freezes well (for baking) and that both squashes can be blanched and frozen for winter soups.

SM and I were oddly disappointed by the loss of the sunflowers so I bought another seed pack (mammoth) and put 6 little seeds in the protected garden area. Space is precious there but we were so looking forward to seeing those great big heads.  Truly a summer image I don't want to miss.

We have a 60% chance of rain today and as the garden was due for a shot of fertilizer, I went ahead and applied "Garden-Tone organic fertilizer".

Can't fool me.  Chicken poo is chicken poo no matter how you package it. (The dogs are circling....Good thing the gardens fenced.)

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