Sprouts and Droughts.

Confession: I actually started this project a little sooner than I started blogging about it because, well, the thought of starting a blog didn't occur to me until after I already did some work.  However, not a whole lot of progress has been made so you really didn't miss out on much.  Regardless, here is a little update on what has been going on behind the scenes.

The Good News:

I have sprouts!

I hear sunflowers are incredibly easy to grow, so I'm not sure how much of a triumph this really is, but considering how my last attempt at growing sunflowers went, I'm pretty excited. (Long story short, I grew them directly into the ground (vs a pot), and nothing came of it.)  These sunflower seeds are apparently inported from Holland, so I wasn't very optimistic they would grow well here.

NOTE: If transferring sunflowers be sure to do so quickly as the roots grow quick and need a large space to thrive in.

The Bad News:

 

This might as well be my before and after photo.

Also after three weeks my poor little veggies and herbs have not produced the slightest sight of a sprout.  The funny thing is that the package on these seeds say "guaranteed to grow"--I'm still waiting.  I used the same exact method for all of the seeds so I dont know why absolutely nothing is sprouting.  The soil on my little crates are very dense and hard.  You can see I threw a bit of composting soil on top in a last attempt to save them.

I'm going to give it another week.  If I don't see anything by next Tuesday  I think I'm going to start from scratch as I don't want to waste too much time.  Suggestions?

Anywho, I have tons more to say but I want to keep these blogs somewhat short and sweet of normal length. Catch you soon, and be sure to follow me so you don't miss out on a cool thing called Companion Gardening.

And here we...go.

So about two weeks ago I started getting the soil ready for whatever the hell I'm going to plant.  Oh em gee.  Unless you want to invest in a couple hundred dollar rototiller, behold your best friends for this project:

It's not too bad, I promise.

But hey, It really wasn't that bad.  Just make sure you give yourself enough time for this project and take little steps!!! I'm really not the kind of gal that wants to work outside for 5 hours while straining my back.  Instead, I started two weeks ago (like I mentioned) and just did a little bit here and there.  What did I do you ask? Well, the soil seemed to be very dry since it hasn't been plowed (is that the right word?) in at least the five years I've been here so what I thought would be a good idea  was to dig a long row along the gate and fill the hole with some water to help drain it.  I read online that it's very important to have well-drained soil so I made sure mine was:

 

Not the greatest shots, but hopefully you can see what I mean.

I let the water sit and eventually drain in the rows and continued on a day or two later by filling the holes and raking though the dirt which i had moistened with water to make it more smooth.  Eventually I would love to plant some perennials (plants that live more than two years) in this area but for now I'm going to grow some orange sunflowers--I cannot wait!!!

Now here I did something I did something a little different.  I dug up holes where my plants would be placed and then repeated the process as before.  This soil seemed to be more moist  so I wasn't quite as concerned.   Here are the little tomato plants I'm purchased at my local hardware store:

 

My grandpa recommended "Early Girl" tomato because they have a wonderful taste, and they also bare fruit earlier than most tomatoes.  Plus, they were on sale for a buck so if this project get's abandoned/ruined it wont but quite a burden on my pocket. Alright I won't abandon it but if something happens to go wrong it's still not a burden on my wallet... 

Alright, I wont reveal all of my plans just yet....until I blog again.

Remember to follow! xx