Monday Garden Club

Monday again. Time for a garden update.

Most of the flowers I started last week and 3 weeks ago are growing nicely, some have actually grown so high I may need to move them to other pots to keep the covers on the other less mature seedlings.  All but the pansies.  The seeds I used were leftover from last year and after 2 rounds of failed germination, I think I'll have to buy a new package of seeds.

The peppers finally popped up !

More flowers with the exception of pansies, of course.

And the second flat of veggies.

Below on the right is cauliflower, which in the past I have had absolutely no luck with but I'm determined and again the seeds were leftover from last year so no big loss if they flop in the garden once again.

That whopper of a seedling right above the tag for Brussels sprouts is broccoli.  By mid July this little sprout will be about 2 feet across and producing the most delicious (and healthy) broccoli.

And for a reality check, I took this photo of my garden outside this morning.  Last week during Spring Break (ha!) it snowed nearly every day.  *cough* bullshit *cough*

The tulips seem to think it's time for Spring and stuck their tongues (or leaves) out at Mother Nature by popping out of the ground, reminding all of us that Spring will be here soon.

Anybody else gardening this week?  If so, grab the Monday Garden Club button on my sidebar, paste it to your blog entry and link up below.

Participating Bloggers

Typical Suburban Family

Unschooling Royalty

Wardrobe Wednesday

Can you tell what's broken at our house, again?

 The girls and I took 2 big baskets stuffed with dirty clothes to a laundry mat yesterday.  I'm sure this is the closest Binny will ever get to the front loader I've been dreaming of since my last washing machine bit the dust.  I'm shopping craigslist for now.

Garden Monday

Like always, I had good intentions of getting this posted before breakfast sunset, and now here it is almost 10pm and my house is wild with 3 giggly girls (It's Spring Break and the girls have a friend spending the night.  Ooh boy!) and my eyes are barely staying open on their own.  Anyhow, it's basement gardening time again which means we propped up the table on paint cans and strung cords all across the basement to start growing this year's veggies and flowers under the fluorescent lights.

I started a flat of veggies (tomatoes and peppers) and a flat of flowers 2 weeks ago.  Once the first two flats germinated and tiny plants started peeking out of the soil, I moved them off of the heat mats (used to speed up the germination prcocess) and started 2 more flats yesterday.

Can you believe this tiny seedling will (hopefully) grow into a 10 foot long Passion flower plant that produces Passion fruit?

These tall plants are a new (to me) variety of Lupine flower that are blue and yellow.

Above is the first flat of veggies I planted.  The back six sections are assorted varieties of tomatoes and the front two are bell peppers.  I almost gave up on the bell peppers after almost 2 weeks and no activity.  I thought maybe my seeds from last year were no good but then all of a sudden, they popped up.  I then remembered that last year the bell peppers seemed to take a long time to germinate as well, even when the seeds were brand new.

tomatoes

flat of flowers, just planted.

These are the heat mats I use, and yes, they get a little dirty under my care.

Just planted veggies. Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, cauliflower (Even though I have had no luck with cauliflower ever.  When will I learn?) and grape tomatoes.

I'm still without a reliable Linky, so at least for this week, if you have a garden update, leave your link in the comment section and I'll add it to the bottom of this post.  (I did, however make a blog button and it is free for the grabbing on my side bar ----->)  One more favor?  I have had a few new gardeners mention to me that they are planning to give veggie gardening a go this year.  Yay!  For anyone else who has participated before, or plans to this year, would you leave a comment about what hardiness zone you garden in so I can (perhaps, if I get my shit together) make a blogroll with zones noted so everyone can see what's growing in similar areas? Thank you!!! For information on hardiness zones, click here.

Participating Gardeners

Out In Them Sticks

Ice Fishing 2011

Who wants to go ice fishing?  Oh, Flash, do you want to go ice fishing?  Shadow will be there.

How about you, Binny?

For the third year in a row, we all bundled up and went ice Fishing at my in-laws' pond, with my brothers along as guides (the guys who show up with all of the equipment, set everything up and stick their hands into freezing holes in the ice to set the lines and pull out the fish).

 

The girls, with some little help from Uncle T, caught quite a few fish (way more than Uncle K) and released them all back into the pond.  

Jamaica Part 3

This is the last set of photos from our trip to Jamaica. Our 4 days there went by so quickly but they were beautiful and relaxing.
We actually only left the resort one day. We walked into town for a little sightseeing and shopping (although we bought very little compared to many others who filled their suitcases with T-shirts and trinkets with the words Jamaica and "No Problem" on them) and we did an afternoon trip to Dunn's River Falls where we formed a human chain with a family of 16 Canadians (and bunch of other vacationers) up the 600 ft waterfall.

There were also bobsled and zip line tours through the mountains we could have done, but there was plenty to do (and eat!) right at the resort, so we spent most of our time there sitting by the pool...Using the water slides...
Paddle boating in the bay...
And snorkeling. Although I freaked out a little (or a lot) when a group of guys standing on the pier watching us snorkel pointed out what they described as a 6 foot long water snake swimming in our vicinity. Minutes later (as I swam as fast as I could back to shore), a local clarified that it was only a white eel and not a water snake, as water snakes prefer shaded areas of water. Still, I had a hard time convincing myself that it was safe to go back in.









My husband, the electrician got a kick out of the outdoor lighting, screwed directly to a palm tree.
Sunrise on our last day. It was hard to say goodbye to that beautiful and WARM sunshine.
And one last Red Stripe at the airport as we were waiting for our plane.