Posts Tagged ‘seeds’

As I mentioned in my last post, by the time you read this I will be long gone – in the Caribbean for a work trip.  I may have escaped the cold nasty weather, but I left a little something behind that will be waiting for me when I return.  In preparation for the raised bed I’m going to build in my parent’s backyard in Staten Island (the site of my childhood kitchen garden) I planted some seeds that will hopefully be seedlings when I return to New York City from my trips to Guyana and Boston.  I apologize in advance for the crummy iPhone photos! The final image is of my parent’s backyard, which I’ve discussed here and here.  We once had an above ground pool (as you can see in the big patch of dead grass).  When I get back from my travels I’ll be spending a few personal

There’s been weird weather in Washington.  Two weeks ago, it was sunny and 60s.  Then came freezing temperatures (I was taking the planters in each evening).  By late last week, I thought that spring would finally arrive.  Then, on Saturday, as I was riding my bike to the office, I got caught in a hail storm that left me drenched.  By the time I got to the office, the sun was out.  Go figure! The seedlings have been doing well, nonetheless.  I’m sure they’re just going to explode with growth once the warm weather hits.  Without further adieu, I give you:  Kale, zucchini, snow peas, garlic and chives, and strawberries. I’ll be on travel for work over the next two weeks, so there will be less updates from the balcony, but there will be plenty of other content from Grown in the City until I return.

Although the dirty work is done once you have planted your seeds, it is crucial that you choose a good location for them to germinate. The two most important things that seeds need for germination is water and warmth. So, make sure to place your seeds in a location with temperatures fit for growing.

It’s been two weeks since the Grown in the City Giveaway extravaganza, and I was happy to get this photo from the winner of the free organic seeds.  We will be growing similar gardens this year, and I’m looking forward to seeing her results, given that I will be gardening on a balcony in DC, and she will be gardening in a backyard in Baltimore. The other thing I love about this photo is that she’s so organized and color-coded.  Way to go!

Congratulations to Jimmy, from the blog Jimmy Cracked-Corn for winning Grown in the City Giveaway #2 – a copy of Don’t Throw It, Grow It!: 68 windowsill plants from kitchen scraps by Deborah Peterson.  While all the responses were good, Jimmy’s was the most immediately helpful: Off the top of my head, I suppose my (current) favorite gardening resource is a spreadsheet I found online that lets you enter your average last frost date and then populates itself with the dates that you should start seeds, whether indoors under lights, in a cold frame, winter sown outdoors, or directly sown after the ground gets warm. It really takes the pressure off having one really long day of doing everything at the same time by giving you a little something to do each week instead. Let me see if I can find a link…here we go… http://www.yougrowgirl.com/2006/03/31/the-lazy-gardeners-seed-starting-chart/ Giveaway 3 is kind

Last year I had a relatively successful harvest.  I did well with the snowpeas, haricot vert, lettuce, zuchinni, and tomatoes.  I had less success with the tuscan sun peppers and the fairytale eggplant. This year, after visiting Rooting DC and seeing a presentation from the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, I decided to order some seeds from them.  For years, they’ve saved heirloom seeds in interesting varieties that will grow well in the MD-DC-VA region. This year, I decided to try some completely different varieties.  It’s always difficult to choose, because there are so many things I want to try.  I settled on the following varieties: Ground Cherries (Cossack Pineapple) – small yellow fruits that taste like pineapple.  Yum! Tomatoes (Brandywine – a classic, and Red Currant, which are smaller than cherry tomatoes) Muskmellon (Ice Cream) – these do well in small spaces Squash (Costata Romanesca) – one of their most popular varieties

This weekend I had the distinct pleasure of passing on my love of gardening to the next generation – my three year old neice in Tucson.  Before leaving, I searched the book store for the perfect gift to share with her.  I knew I wanted to get her something to do with gardening and food, but there’s not much out there for the 3-4 year old set.  I settled on the Klutz book, Good Growing: A Kid’s Guide to Green Gardening.  The book is definitely a bit too adult for 3-4 year olds, but the good part is that it comes with a kid-friendly seed starting kit.  We flipped through the book and looked at all the pictures, and I explained how food comes from the tiny seeds that were included with the kit.  “That’s really cool!” she said.  I was watching a gardener born before my eyes! We decided