It was a long hot summer. The gardening business was good - lots of weeds this year! But I neglected my own gardens more than I had intended.
As usual, this year is starting out with HUGE plans, or as most would call them, "Delusions of Grandeur." This year's hoop house has increased in size. It did collapse under the Christmas snowfall. I already have plans for a new, more permanent, greenhouse made up of old windows. I've got the windows, and finally have a plan. I will make sure to document my progress.
A few days ago, I took inventory of my seeds. A whopping 48 varieties - and that is just the veggies! Where ever will I put everything? New beds of course! One more project to add to the list. The ten or so flower varieties, will all be tossed into the Slope Garden with the rest of the wildflowers. Maybe this year the empty spaces will fill in.
Two new experiments are in the works. Sprouting my own sweet potato and sprouting flax seed. The sweet potato came about because buying slips just isn't in the budget and the minimum order is way more than my small household would ever need. The flax sprouts are to supplement my chickens' diet for the winter. They are much happier with more greens in their lives. (I also just discovered yesterday, to my shame, that the two girls I thought were Cochins, are in fact, Light Brahmas! Well, it just goes to show that one can never know everything about a subject! I will be breaking the news to them later today.)
Back to plantings... In order to grow my own sweet potato slips, I scoured the internet for directions. The simplest one was to suspend a store bought sweet potato in a jar of water. I took an old sweet potato, 2 small bamboo skewers, and an empty glass. I broke the skewers in half and stuck them into the top 1/3 of the potato so it would be suspended in the center of the jar. Then I filled it with water and placed the jar in a sunny spot. Within a few days, it already has two nice white roots! When there are several more, and they are about 6 inches long, I will snip them off, and put them in their own little pools, until they sprout. Then they will be ready for planting.
For sprouting the flax seed, I put perlite into two 6 inch plastic saucers (you know the kind that you put under pots?) and dampened it. I spread the flax seeds sparingly on the top, then covered them with a second saucer. I placed them in a dim warm spot. After just 12 hours, some of the seeds have already broken open. They just need to stay moist and when they have all started sprouting, they can be put in a sunny spot.
The gardening is beginning!
