Seeds Planted...check!

A 3-day weekend last weekend...what to do, what to do.  Plant seeds of course!  While Husband was navigating the garage (cleaning it out), I decided to get my seeds planted and in the greenhouse.  We placed the greenhouse on the south facing wall of the house.  Should get lots of sunshine there.  So, I got all my supplies out as you can see in the photo below.  I thought I had enough trays and peat pots, but as it turned out, I had to go back to Walmart and get more stuff.  I'm going to have a monstrous vegetable and herb garden.  Not a bad thing, but I hope I have room for everything.  

Just a few of the trays...

Post sowing...soaking up some moisture.

I decided to stick with veggies I'm comfortable with.  I might throw in some fancy stuff (eggplant, artichoke, fancy tomatoes, etc.) later, but just buy the pre-sprouted variety.  I have some tomatoes, which I'm a little skeptical of.  I have never tried those from seed.  I also have peppers, squash, zucchini, beans (blue lake & regular bush), snow peas, and onions.  I would love to do some asparagus, but they seem like they are temperamental and tricky to grow.  I guess I'll look into it, but maybe just rely on the store for that.  

Herbs...I have 9 varieties!

I decided to have more herbs this year.  I have been using more during cooking and they are expensive at the grocery store.  The fresh stuff you buy in the produce department is good, but tends to go bad before I can use it.  Possibly because I forget they are in there and by the time I found them, they hardly resemble the product I originally purchased.  My plan with these, is to get a couple more half wine barrels and put the herbs on the porch.  They don't need so much direct scorching from our lovely Central Valley sun. The porch has a slatted roof, so I think there will be enough sunlight getting to them.  Maybe Husband will hook up a drip system for the barrels, so I don't forget to water them.  I had that issue last year...I would remember to water them when I went out to get some fresh herbs to cook with...I'd get out there and they'd already be dried...oops!!!!  I have basil, rosemary (yummy on my potatoes!), chives, cilantro (guacamole staple!), sage, oregano, fennel, chamomile (try to make my own tea??), and dill (pickles...duh!).  

 A few of my seeds snug as bugs in rugs in their temporary home.

I have a couple of additional trays to put in the greenhouse...it was pouring rain...gloriously...this morning, so I didn't get the rest out there.  The little greenhouse is an amazing little contraption.  Only a few minutes after putting the trays in and zipping up the door, there was condensation inside and the walls felt ridiculously warm.  

Hopefully, I can get the rest of the seeds planted and in the greenhouse tonight.  Can't wait to see the little seedlets in all their glory!  This year should be better as they are more protected from the crazy four-legged friends we have tearing around the property.  

Grapes...the next chapter...

Mother Nature...you win...I concede, but this whole "spring weather" thing is under protest!  76 degrees today?  Really?  It's February for goodness sake.  We had a smattering of rain the other day, but it wasn't enough to make my garden workable.  I'm pretty sure Husband and I are going to have to soak the garden just so we can rototill.  It looks like a huge task and I'm not really looking forward to it.  

On a more positive note, the pleasant weather this last weekend did get me motivated to get my little greenhouse put together.  It was actually super easy and I only put one piece on backwards.  I don't read directions and thankfully, there were some pictures to guide me.  I went to Walmart and picked up more peat pots.  Seed planting...begin!  Pictures to follow in my next post.  

In other news...poultry news, to be exact...the girls are pretty funny as they have become adults.  Their individual personalities come out at different times.  The two leghorns are smaller than the others, but rule the roost from above the door.  They sleep up there every night and in the morning when I go to feed the girls, they watch to see if I have food or not.  As soon as I open the lid to the trash can where I keep the chicken "crack", they walk to the edge of the ledge and jump down onto the condos and start making noise. They rally the rest of the girls when there's food coming...as if they didn't already know.  "Hey, there's that lady with the scoop...it has yummy stuff in it."

The fancy chicken (Auracana) is now a loner, as her sister was murdered in early fall.  I say murdered because I think there was some sort of conflict and some gang mentality that went down in the coop.  Can't really blame them, as both of them acted like the coop divas.  In fact, if we let the girls out to forage in the yard, Diva chicken wanders around like she owns the place.  Then when it's time to come in for the night, she get her feathers all ruffled and refuses to go in.  She'll run willy nilly all over the yard squawking and acting like Colonel Sanders is back from the dead looking for the next bucket victim.  Once we go inside, she'll roost in the tree that hangs over the coop and mock the others with her "charming" chicken voice.  Then the next morning, the crazy running starts all over again.  I managed to trick her the other day and got her back in the coop (she'd been out for almost 2 weeks!).  The others definitely don't like her though.  Too much drama.  She lays some pretty green eggs though...might be her only redeeming quality.

The best part of letting the girls out to forage is when I come home from work.  They all come running up to the car clucking away.  They must think the car is like a giant feeder!  Then they follow me to the deck and one of these days, they are going to follow me into the house.  Hope there's video of that someday!!

My girls!

Time to get some graph paper (yes, I'm old school) and map out the garden.  Again, I learned some things last year and am going to tweak the order of the veggies.  Some day, I'll get it right.  Some day...