Updates 5/27/21 and a Note

Note:  When you pick lettuce, you damn well better eat it right away or it gets wilty.  At least this kind of loose leaf butter lettuce goes wilty.  I had to throw out what I picked a couple days ago.  Bummer.

Updates:  I have buds on several of my zucchini plants now.  The two tomato plants I bought are getting tall and the shorter one has flowers.  The tomatoes I did from seeds are starting to get bigger.  The carrots are growing right along.  

I should probably thin the tomatoes I planted from seed, but I don't have the heart to kill those extra plants.  Silly, I know.  They need thinning to grow big and strong.  Well, for one of them to grow big.  The others would be dead.  See why I don't have the heart to do it?  I'd suck as a farmer.  And this is why we chose not to go into animal husbandry.  I'm pretty sure I could kill a rabbit if I had no other meat to eat, but since I can still get food from the store, I'm not in a position where I need alternative meat sources.  

The other day, I got a wild hair and bought an onion set.  A set is a bunch of baby onion plants.  You plug them into the ground and they grow into big plants with full-sized onions.  I'm planning on putting them in my flower gardens, here and there, to see where they'll grow best.  We'll see how that goes.  If it fails, I'll only have wasted $1.30.  

Speaking of money, I sat down and made a list of everything I've bought strictly for this garden thing.  I'm at about $55.  Not sure if the food I'll grow would've cost that much.  We'll see how this goes, too.  

It's all a learning curve this year.  

Today, we're supposed to get some particularly bad weather.  The plan is to bring everything inside - either in the sun room or in the garage.  Keep your fingers crossed it all goes well.

Updates - May 19, 2021

 Time for some updates.  

Here's a picture of the tomato seedlings:

And here's a pic of the zucchinis, carrots, and the two tomato plants I bought:

Finally, here are the lettuces:

Some of those lettuces should be ready to eat soon.  Then I'll plant more.  

The smaller of the two tomato plants I purchased already has a flower on it, but everything else is ages away from being ready to eat.  

As for the carrots, the three pots I planted of the first variety that I never did thin out are going gangbusters.  I wonder what will happen when I finally get ready to harvest.  I'm hoping for a bunch of small carrots.  We'll see.  This, after all, is a learning curve.  The carrots seeds of the second variety have seedlings already spaced for single growth.  We'll see how the two varieties/planting methods compare when it's all said and done.  

The 17 zucchini plants are getting big.  And I had an 18th plant pop up over the last day or so, I may thin that one.  Thinning plants makes me sad, though, so I might not bother.  

All in all, things are going good.  I've been pulling them back during expected bad weather and sheltering them as best I can.  Then putting them back in the sun when the weather clears.  When they get big, that might not be possible.  With them still being small, I'm happy to move them around as needed.  

Updates

Yesterday, I transplanted all the zucchini sprouts into their own, individual pots.  I ended up with 14 potted zucchini plants.  One of them had gotten large enough that I probably should've done the transplant sooner, as I ended up breaking some of its roots.  We'll see if it survives.  

And last night, I left all the zukes and the carrots out.  I think we're past all chances of freezing now.  They're sheltered under the eaves on the deck because I knew it was going to rain all night and all day today.  I don't think they're old enough to handle that much extra water.  Anyway, I went out and checked on them this morning and they all seem to be doing fine.

I had a dream last night wherein my mother was asking me if I was ever going to transplant the tomatoes.  Umm, yah.  I do plan to do that soon.  But I need more dirt.

The lettuce seeds I planted on the 22nd starting showing sprouts yesterday.  5 days from planting to sprouting.  Yay.  The new carrot seeds haven't made an appearance yet.  But they're outside now, too, so maybe that will encourage them to poke their heads up.

Part of me wants to plant some other stuff.  Spinach maybe.  I do love me some fresh spinach.  Potatoes?  Strawberries?  We'll see.  This is already a lot of work, so I may not get too far afield of what I've already done.

If you could plant anything you wanted, what would you plant?  What are some of your favorite fresh produces?  

Winter Weather Advisory

It's April 19th and we're under a freakin' Winter Weather Advisory for tomorrow afternoon.  It's not supposed to be this cold this late in the season for this far south.  Blerg.

I had hoped to start moving the plants outside.  Lucky for me, I didn't start the process yet and my entire vegetable garden is still in the garage.  It won't be warm in there, but it will remain above freezing.  

I still need to start repotting some of the plants, but that will have to wait until I have more room, which means until after the freeze is over.  

Fingers crossed the flowering plants I have in my outside gardens survive the snap.  One year we had a snap that killed all the blossoms on our redbud tree. That sucked.  This year the redbud is about done blooming, but it has loads of baby leaves.  

Mother Nature is definitely drunk.