It's been a super-productive week! I can't wait to share everything that I've been working on. My craft area is complete (for now), and so is Isabel's room. I also painted the kid's bathroom with leftover paint from painting Isabel's room. So, once I clean up the bathroom stuff that is all over her room, I will take some pictures and share them! (Is anyone actually reading this that wants to see???) I even freed up some a lot of space in a our living room and got rid of my old craft desk. (The one I said I would never get rid of...well sorry, old desk, I found something bigger and better than you!)
I'm a little late in starting my seeds indoors, but I was having the hardest time deciding what to veggies to plant. I did decide to just buy plants for most of the veggies (instead of seeds). Even though the selection of plants isn't nearly as big you would find in seeds, unless you go to a nursery...where the prices are a lot higher.
I bought seeds for two out of the six veggies that we are going to plant. And, despite the fact that I really dislike WalMart, I couldn't resist their prices. I found organic soil there for significantly cheaper than Home Depot or anywhere else that I have checked. The price of the soil, and my hesitation in purchasing it, was main reason that I have been procrastinating the next step of our veggie garden. It would cost at least $40 JUST IN SOIL, for my (almost) 4'x4' veggie planter. The soil was $2 per bag at WalMart, couldn't beat that! I ended up only buying 6 bags, which cost me about $17 with tax. We might need a little more, bu I could always go back. The organic seeds were also a lot cheaper...$1.48, compared to $2.99 at Home Depot.
Remember what my planting area looked like just after we made the planter?
Toys, junk, weeds, mint, rocks, cables...YUCK.
Well, I got on my hands and knees and cleaned the area up...with my little helper of course! The only thing that needs to go still, are the cables. Those are from the previous owners of the condo who had Direct TV (we don't). I love how you can see my pretty strawberry plants in the background here!
One of the many things I discovered while digging, was that the soil down there was actually usable! I will still have to mix store-bought soil, but not as much as I thought I would (hence the reason I only bought 6 bags of soil, compared to the 8-10 that I thought I would need).
I dug up all the roots of anything that used to be planted there (mainly mint, and some other bright orange, thick roots that I have no idea what they were), took out every rock I could find (rocks will mess up the carrots), and found a bunch of other gunk too...like rusty random pieces of chicken wire. I didn't have a big shovel, we I just used my little hand one.
As far as veggie choices, I finally decided on carrots, yellow crooked neck squash, zucchini, sweet banana peppers, butter lettuce, and sweet (rainbow colored!) peppers. These won't all fit in my planter, but by the time that the rainbow peppers are ready to be planted, I'll hopefully have another planter or something else to pot them in. Maybe another half wine barrel?
I also purchased some plants at WalMart...yellow crooked neck squash, and sweet banana peppers. Only $1.48. The same price as the seeds, only they are not "organic". I will be growing them organic in my garden, so they will be as close as to real organic as possible.
Isabel and I made these cool newspaper starter pots, and sowed the Sweet Pepper seeds.
Tomorrow we will plant the carrot seeds (which can go directly into the soil), and the other plants I bought. The carrots are also a rainbow mix! Technically the package says "Kaleidoscope Mix", but telling Isabel that we are planting rainbow carrots sounds a lot more fun. The mix includes 20% of each, Atomic Red, Bambino, Cosmic Purple, Solar Yellow, and Lunar White. 75 days until harvest. That sounds like such a long time!
I'm really enjoying gardening. Gives me a fun activity to do at home...plus, Isabel loves helping.
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