Midwest Gardening: IN the Kitchen!

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Gardening in my Kitchen

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First, I scrubbed all my trays and containers with a bit of bleach, soap and complete rinses. Normally I do this in Fall outside, but we were still dealing with our basement mess and everything from last season just got thrown into the Greenhouse.

End of February, Hubby gave me seeds and bulbs for my birthday, which is a great idea, so I prepared them for planting. I had bags of 3 kinds of Dahlias, Ixia, and Ranunculus bulbs as well as my Elephant Ears I need to start early. 

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Waste not want not---I used all the filler soil in the bulb bags and put it into my dirt pot, and then added moisture control dirt and mixed it up...this I used for the seed trays. This is perfect for seed starting.

I then started Peppers, Tomatoes, Alyssum, Chrysanthemum and  Coleus. In a few weeks, I will do couple of trays of marigolds. Hopefully by April 1 we will be able to move everything into the greenhouse. 

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I'm not working in the greenhouse, this ends up on the kitchen table as it was too cold and windy to do it on the front porch. Cold temps alternate with lovely days here, but you can't count on a nice day. 

Here I am soaking my summer bulbs in prep for planting. I soaked the Ixia and the Ranunculus for a few hours in warm water. The Dahlias were quite moist so they went directly into the pots.

oldnewgreenredo

Meanwhile, I filled my pots 2/3 full with water-saving potting soil---which is a good combination. I haven't had great luck with seed starting soil, it just isn't worth the extra price and you need to transplant into better soil later---trying to skip that step.

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I placed multiple corms in the pots, they will be easy to pull apart later as they will all be planted in large mixed pots, rather than in the ground.

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Here are my corms after soaking---they really perked up with the water.

oldnewgreenredo

I'l really interested in the IXIA as I haven't planted those before, but spikey plants are always interesting in pots.

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I used some old barbecue table cloths from last year to cover my table and the floor, makes for easy cleanup. I use a canning funnel to cut down on the mess, which works perfect with the 4" pots.

oldnewgreenredo

After the corms were placed I filled up the pots to the top. This will all settle below the rims with the first watering.

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Every dirt company now makes moisture control soil...with our last few dry summers this has been a MUST to use here in the upper Midwest. We also add peat moss to our dirt in the compost pile as well as all our vegetable, eggshells and coffee grounds from the entire winter. This will be churned up soon, and I use that in all my large planting pots for outside as well as 10-20 larger pots for peppers and tomatoes.

oldnewgreenredo

Inside, this is our set-up in the South window of the kitchen. These are old racks I used for art shows over 20 years ago---and I still use the door panels for shelves. We've definitely reused everything I had from my shows or when I had the shop. Many of those shelves are built into the garden sheds for storage.

oldnewgreenredo

My hubby doesn't read my blog and doesn't know I DISLIKE the seed starting pods.You have to first squeeze them all around to loosen the the compacted material before planting. And, then DON'T plant them directly into the garden...because they don't break down the way the directions say they do. In Fall you'll end up with a miserable plant with rotted roots all knotted up in the sack. They do start plants well, but I cut the sacks off and transplant the healthy seedlings into larger soda drive-thru glasses,  especially the peppers and tomatoes which want deep root systems. It really is easier to just start seeds in small pots with soil or in full size trays.

I planted these pods with 2 trays of peppers and also 1 tray of 10 small pots for Heirloom Brandywine Tomatoes seeds. We are cutting back on Tomatoes this year, because my canning shelves are still full. We plan on purchasing 2 cherry tomatoes and 2 early tomatoes plants. 

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The Heirloom Brandy Wine Tomatoes

should produce until frost...so we will have fresh tomatoes for the whole season. 

Purple Alyssum 

Mixed Coleus

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I also started a large tray of Purple Alyssum, Coleus, and red Chrysanthemum plants. My colors will be yellows, reds, oranges, purple and lime green in the front of the house this year! I have two packages of  Nasturtiums (lower right)  which I'll start in their long planters directly in the greenhouse in April as well as lots of Marigold seeds. 

After frost, I'll purchase lime green sweet potato vine plants....to cascade in my pots. Some of the Coleus will be lime/ or white green to use in pots with all the warm colors. 

We also have a huge Hibiscus camping out in the garage, if it lives it is orange/red and an abundance of dark green leaves. 

This is all the plants I have going at the moment. In two-three weeks I'll start some more, mostly flowers. When the greenhouse is going---I'll add packages of sunflowers, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, green onions and lettuces in small pots and planters. Planting in the garden won't happen before the second week in May---maybe later---we never really know??? with the weather calendar being so topsy turvy in the Midwest.

Next project: The MOUSE HOUSE otherwise known as the GREENHOUSE.

DO YOU HAVE BIG PLANS FOR GARDENING?

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