Sowing Broccoli Seeds

Today Antonio and I sowed some Broccoli seeds, and a few thyme seeds as well. We are excited, as this is our first attempts at growing vegetables other than a few herbs and tomatoes.

As for the container that we seeded directly with spinach, peas and radishes and carrots, on the 15th of February, is now showing promising signs. Antonio was very happy to see the green shots sprouting up through the dirt.

Soaker Hose Irrigation System

Last weekend I laid out the soaker hose under the mulch, and a layer of compost throughout the garden bed, as well as cleaning up, and organizing the bed to prepare it for this spring planting. I know, not much different from last month, but none the less, progress is slowly being done.

Garden Journal with Harvest Spreadsheet

I have used the Harvest Spreadsheet template that a fellow gardener over at Chiot's Run was kind enough to create and share, and linked my Garden Journal to it. Here is the Garden Journal template (done in Numbers). If anyone can find ways to further improve or add on to it, let me know. I will be posting an excel version of it soon.

Dose of Organic Sulfur

Yesterday I put a quick dose of organic sulfur on my blueberry to increase the acidity of the soil. Hopefully this will help it produce more berries this year.

Wintersown Seeds

I am excited, we received our seeds from WinterSown yesterday. For those that don't know, you send them a self addressed, stamped envelope with you choice of 6 heirloom tomato varieties, and they send you some seeds, and typically they'll include some other ones as well. The idea is to keep different heirloom varieties thriving, but sending them out for people to grow, and then save seeds to send back to them in the fall. Here is what we got:

-Tumbling Tom ~ Loads of red cherries on dwarf plants are perfect for pots or hanging containers

-Celebrity ~ Tasty red fruits weigh up to a half pound, good cropper, disease resistant too

-Marglobe ~ Great flavor from yesteryear, this fine cropper deserves a spot in every garden, red 6 - 7 ounce globes

-Chico III ~ Plum-shaped paste, red fruits about three ounces, excellent cropper and disease resistant too

-Bursztyn ~ Ripens to amber-gold, wonderful flavor, about 2 - 4 ounces each

-Ace 55 ~ Globe-shaped, red fruits up to a half pound, very reliable and tasty, described as low-acid

-Homestead ~ Floridian tomato developed for hot southern climates, 

-Carolina Gold ~ Steady cropper of tasty, three to four inch, beautiful golden fruit

And they through in (on top of the two extra tomato varieties):

-Sparkler White Tip Radishes

-Blue Lake Bush Beans

Early Planting (Spinach, Peas, Carrots, Radishes)

Antonio and I got out into the garden to do some early season planting. We planted in a 9 gallon container some spinach, snap peas, carrots and radishes. Antonio really enjoyed helping out, he really got into it with me. After sowing the seeds, he went all by himself to check on the balloon flowers that we had transplanted last week, and wanted to add some compost onto them to make sure they grow well.

Our Little Homestead

It is not much, but we'll make do with what we have, and hopefully as the seasons progress these pictures will show abundant crops that we will have grown ourselves. This evening  Antonio was happily outside helping me relocate some balloon flowers to make room more some edible plants. He is already on his way to becoming a little gardener.

The Start of the Stell Homestead

This year we are going to try to grow as much food as we can here at the Stell Homestead in suburban Georgia. We have already some seeds with which we are going to start with.

Antonio is eager to put start growing seeds.

I have already planted Nasturtiums in the pot that I grow my Meyer 

Lemon in to act as living mulch, and then add to our salads.

 Our Lemon tree is doing really well, it has a lot of blooms on it, and a few lemons started. Hopefully we'll get a bunch this year, as long as little inquisitive fingers don't pluck them off, or yellow tails don't bat them away.