Black Thumb Chronicles : Weekend Gardening Part 3
As per permaculture standards, I'm trying to reuse what I can and I reckon reusing the containers and left over soil counts.
Our seed collection
I don't really know how long seeds last, some of the packets have dates on them and some don't.
Some are left over from previous tries and some are from Hubby's grandfather's garden, given to us after he passed.
Even though I don't know if I'm planting them at the right time (like now!) I did it anyway. I was already there covered in dirt, figured while I was there...
Seeds from Nono's garden
I'm not sure if some of seeds were first seeded in Sicily, but I know Nono had an amazing thriving garden and for sure some of these are from those plants.
As per usual the Italian selection included tomatoes, lettuce for salads, cabbage and beans for soups. It's a pretty good selection. I can imagine harvesting produce from these plants and making dinner with it.
These are old seeds I've had laying around
Cat grass is pretty much a staple for us.
If hubby gets his tomatoes and I get my eggplants, it's only right our cat gets his cat grass.
We've tried to feed him raw food but he just won't have it. Won't have fish. Won't have kangaroo, just biscuits and grass.
The alfalfa and watercress seemed dummy proof...
It wasn't.. I killed them both.
Those wondering.. The cat grass only grew because that was Hubby's project not mine.
This set is from the time we wanted to make terrariums.
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I bought them on eBay a couple of years ago, they were cheap and I was curious.
A lot of them are ground cover seeds
Plants that just spread out and cover the ground. I thought it'd be a great replacement for grass as well as a nice touch to the terrarium.
If you zoom in you'll see the Creeping Thyme "Purple Rain". That's the one I'm most excited about.
Wether it works with my permaculture plans I don't know.
You'll also see Alyssum. This is meant to be a great garden repeller and suppressor according to one of the videos I've seen. So that was nice to find already in my collection.
And these are from the Bunnings trip
The lettuce because we can't get enough lettuce.
French Marigolds are meant to be the best ones to pair up with tomatoes. Unfortunately they didn't have it at the store, and I got the yellow marigold instead.
You can see the French variety is a bit more fancy.
One of the things I like to think I really understood from everything I've learned is that gardens need pollinators and butterflies are pollinators too.
Sure they go about it differently from bees, but they still do their bit and I'm not so scared of them.
And seriously, who doesn't like the sight of butterflies?
Planting
There's a reason why I named this series "Black Thumb Chronicles" one of them is to be very clear that I'm new and almost clueless about gardening.
With that said, I just sprinkled seeds into the trays I prepared earlier and sprinkled a bit of soil over it.
I did get to the end thinking OHH NO! HOW AM I GOING TO KNOW WHICH IS WHICH! 😱
But that's when I had a moment of genius and decided a few sacrificial clothes pegs are in order and voila!
Sadly, I didn't have enough soil to plant all my seeds in, but I did pick out the ones we wanted to try the most.
The ones that made the cut are:
- Nono's Lettuce
- Alyssum
- Creeping Thyme "Purple Rain"
- Nono's Pomodoro
- French Marigold
- Lettuce
- Bee and Butterfly Mix
In tomorrow's Black Thumb Chronicles post I'll show you how the garden looks after 5 days!
And Yes there's been progress and loss as well.
Stay tuned!!
🌻 Arly
PS. Who's been following the BTChronicles and getting inspired to plant a food forest? Come on... I know you want to.. Imagine if we all had food forests. ❤
Black Thumb Chronicles so far..
Weekend Gardening Part 2
https://steemit.com/garden/@bearone/black-thumb-chronicles-weekend-gardening-part-2
Weekend Gardening Part 1 https://steemit.com/garden/@bearone/black-thumb-chronicles-weekend-gardening-part-1
Permaculture, Food Forests & Tree Guilds
https://steemit.com/garden/@bearone/black-thumb-chronicles-permaculture-food-forests-and-tree-guilds
Hello Lasagna Bag Garden
https://steemit.com/garden/@bearone/black-thumb-chronicles-hello-lasagna-bag-garden
Companion and Lasagna Gardening
https://steemit.com/garden/@bearone/black-thumb-chronicles-companion-and-lasagna-gardening
Reclaiming our views
https://steemit.com/homesteading/@bearone/homesteading-reclaiming-our-views
Garden is coming together nicely. How do handle pests, grubs and caterpillars and the like?
Also you have a weird cat lol, doesn't like raw meat? That's got to be a first.
Thanks Simon! In theory the marigold and the basil and chives will control the pests.
I have seen holes in my eggplant leaves lately but I never see anything around.
I also have a lot of lizards in my yard and I'm hoping they're doing their bit. I've also got the wild birds who come over every now and then.
I'm mostly relying on nature right now 😁
Yes he is weird. When we got him I was working at a pet food company and tried to give him the best stuff and he wouldn't have it.
It's alive!!!!(with Dr. Frankenstein's background song) Ha! I would love the next articles to be already green-thumb. I'm sure they will germinate and thrive well(with all your research and enthusiasm). Yes, it is a subtle experience to cook from your own grown plants. I had a similar feeling, and yes, similar because I stole vegetables from the University not grow them personally. LOL! College days. I had to survive.
Seeds can last for a very long time in a suitable environment. I know tomatoes can last for more than 10 years. Oh and terrariums! I had one before but with cacti. I have dreamt of making one with different plants but I don't have the available resources. Terrariums look good in glass containers.
I'm excited to see they spout a leaf. :)
LUIGIIII!!! OII!!!! Hindi nag germinate yung iba 😱😭😱😭😱😭😱 Do I just wait?
Haha I'm sure the veggies were for public consumption ;) Pero dream ko din yan, to build public food forests ❤ It'll be better food and could help so many people out.
I've got all the glass containers for it pero wala plants haha. I haven't figured out how to get it to take off l.
Tips?
Yes, you have to wait. Is the waiting game excruciating? HAHA. I think they were for research.
For tips, I would prefer indoor-loving plants with varying colors to accentuate the terrarium. HEHE
thumbs up for your gardening article mam@bearone...:)
thank you so much @reginecruz
Some cats are just weird. One of my cats used to visit our neighbour regularly. We fed all our cats raw (there was a stint of biscuits when they were quite young but we stopped that after a while), and the neighbour fed the part-time cat biscuits. The only brand of cat biscuits that cat would accept was Friskies Senior, he wouldn't touch anything else apparently XD
Good idea with the sacrificial pegs, I think I would have opted for the surprise later on down the track and that is why I'm not allowed to do anything at all in the garden XD
Good luck with all the seeds that you're not sure about :D
Hahahah yep mine likes Friskies Indoor best. Won't eat anything else, not even the expensive kibble.
When you say raw do u go to petbarn or something.?It's been a while but 6 years ago BARF, Vets All Natural are two of the best. If you just want raw food without the supplements, go the kangaroo meat for the pets, best meat for animals. Look for Diced roo. If it says Paringa Pet Foods on the packet somewhere, buy it. They have to jump through hoops to be able to produce it all and the owners were very hands on. Aussie owned as well.
Yeh I would have stuffed myself up if I went with the lucky dip scenario 😁 Just as well you don't do the gardening!
We get roo and steak "cubes" (not sure I'd class them as cubes but but I'm pedantic and they are definitely chunks of meat) that has "Victory Pet Meats" with some crossed racing flags on it (it just occurred to me I could take a photo but that would require me opening the freezer again XD) and diced lamb (which the dogs go nuts for) that just comes in a clear plastic vacuum sealed bag with a sticky label with the typed word "LAMB" on it. My partner does all the shopping and grabs them from some pet supply place.
They get bones twice a week (I'm a bit unhappy with the quality of the "dog bones" my partner has been picking up, there are some good ones in the bag but I've had to specifically tell him to filter out the ones that have no meat on them). When I have cats again they'll be getting chicken necks (and I'll possibly give those to the Cav as well, be easier to manage for him).
They should be getting offal more regularly but I'm struggling with getting the partner to remember to pick up extra for them.
They also get the ocasional egg in summer as we tend to have a lot then :)
LoL yeh I only help out in the garden when we're doing something major that will either go quicker with multiple people or requires multiple people to accomplish. Other than that I might go and grab something from out there to use in cooking but even then whoever's in the kitchen (once more the partner, who is better at all this domestic shenanigans which is why I'm desperately trying to earn enough so he can retire) normally sends a child to forage XD
I wish I had a green thumb
Me too. I'm forcing mine to turn from Black to Green 😁