still waiting for spring

it's almost 1st of may, and i haven't even been able to get my shovel into the ground to put down potatoes :( and since i sowed rye in last year's potato patch, i'll have the pleasure of turning up sod for a new patch after the snow thaws hahah

but as pictured, my windowsill is crowded with little green darlings<3 there are so many sunflowers because I'm trying to use up the seeds i have, and i'll be trying to plant them in various places outside to see if they can even tolerate this climate.

last year they grew up a fair bit, but eventually they met their end at the hands of the wind and slugs... hopefully this year they'll fare better :(

a new addition this year, tomatoes! all of these but one are black cherry tomatoes, one lone seedling is a green tomato :3 along with the cucumbers, they'll only be grown inside.

also got some basil again this year!<3 they're such a forgiving plant to grow haha

they're really crowded, obviously, but i'm still trying to figure out where to put all the seedlings...

anyway, i'm gonna try and keep this blog more updated this year<3

window garden

haven't had time to take pictures and update here lately since I've been doing exams, but I'm officially on summer vacation now and have more time to tinker with plants and other things<33   

I've mostly had to grow stuff on my windowsill since it's still too cold out, even in the middle of june 8''')
the wilty and sad looking things are some cuttings of our redcurrant bush that I'm trying to get to root and grow into new bushes haha

there's also some tiny chamomile sprouts and two caraway plants<3

I've got even more zucchini plants growing, since I'm anticipating that several of them will succumb to the climate or slugs... one has already had leaf damage, and the rest are looking very wilty and unhappy outside. I'll take some photos once it stops raining, despite the embarrassing state of most of the plants :'3
There's also quite a few sunflowers, cucumbers and caraway plants that are doing very well! And one tiny sprouted eggplant that I don't have very high hopes for hahaha




and this is the cucumber that I'm planning to keep inside and grow, just in case the rest of them don't do well outside :3 hopefully it'll happily climb up the branch and provide me with lots of fruit<3

my basil seems to be doing a lot better now that I transplanted it into a bigger pot and made a woolen cozy for it to warm up with haha<3
they give off such a nice scent when you brush your hand over them :9
I'll probably end up repotting them again in a while since there really is barely enough space for one plant in a pot this size... so many plants, not enough bigger pots!

also lately I've been experimenting with various pots to start seeds in, and so far I've found out that the toilet rolls and various plastic cups/buckets/trays are the most suitable :0
stuff like peat pots and egg cartons just end up molding over and despite what the packaging on peat pots says the roots DO NOT grow through them (at least not without getting extremely rootbound first...) so putting a plant in its pot into the ground isn't really a good idea 8'')

next post, I'll take pictures of all the outdoor plants since the potatoes have started peeking out, and the strawberries are getting ready to grow flowerbuds *o*

potaoes in the ground

actually I went out and put them down last saturday, but they haven't shown up above ground yet so no cute potato seedlings to show off yet...

I pretty much just put out the beetlings out for good now since i don't have space to keep them inside anymore LOL... they'll get transplanted into the ground sometime this evening so the chance of them being scorched by the heat is less than if they were planted at midday :3

ah but what's this! I planted some basil a while ago and it's only just started to peek out now that it's been so hot for a few days :9 so out it goes to enjoy the sun with the rest of the plants<33

I didn't even manage to snap any pics of the squash when it was all tiny, it grew so fast! It'll probably end up taking over half the garden this summer 8''')

and my sisters brought home more seed packets, so i've gotta be quick with planting aubergines, more squashes, cucumbers and sunflowers!

phew it looks like it's gonna end up being really crowded outside this year<3

and last but not least, i've cheated a bit and bought some strawberry plants! hopefully they'll be able to fruit this season :9

hardening off begins!

most of the sites I've read suggest to wait for warmer temperatures before hardening seedlings off, but since they're growing quite big and crowded I thought I'd give it a try and see if they can handle it anyway hehehh

so far they've been outside in somewhat snowy weather (no frost tho!) and generally been subjected to a temperature of around 3 degrees, and they're doing really well<33 and as you can see, they've got some nice shelter so they don't have it that bad :9

but sadly the seedlings in the second pair of containers aren't doing quite as well, the soil is drying out too much in the white one and the black one is too tall and gets heated too easily by the sun (as black plastic usually does)

but the containers will probably end up being useful for some other purpose in the future :3

speaking of containers, I spent a bit of time with my dad's old (and charming) drill and some windowboxes and got to work on making better drainage in them :9

and since some of the seedlings are already showing tiny tiny true leaves, they're almost ready to go out into the garden and grow<333 can't wait!

preparing to grow

this year I've decided to really get my hands dirty with all sorts of food growing, mostly just out of curiosity to see what can be grown in this climate :3

I'm used to farming potatoes in the backyard (because that's what faroese people want to grow the most and because fresh potatoes are most delicious :9) and rhubarbs have been there as long as I remember, but other than that I hardly ever see fresh (local) produce in the kitchen :'( and I love fresh tasty things! /foodie

and even tho I wanna run out and buy all of the seeds and grow tons of everything, I'm just gonna try a few things that I'm hope will be easy enough to start with LOL

basically, I'm hoping that beets will do well since things tend to grow well underground here :9 I just picked them up at the grocery store, along with the squash seeds in the left corner (which I have no hope will do anything useful, but at least it makes tasty flowers)

the upper right is just sweet basil that I'm gonna try and grow indoors, and THEN we got the ones in the foil pack which are caraway seeds from a really old semi-wild species in Iceland which I've gotten from Nordgen (fancy!)

anyway, I haven't even started that many seedlings yet even this late in the season but it's cold enough here that I've got time to sprout them at my pace :3

hopefully this is gonna be a loooooooot of beets 8) several seeds in each pot of course

and here's my low-tech setup :3 the radiator and the sun will heat the seedlings, and the plastic baggies are to created a greenhouse effect (and to keep in moisture so I don't have to water them that much lol)

and here's a few days progress on how they've grown<3333

the brown stuff in the soil is powdered cinnamon that's supposed to preven damping-off disease, ie help keep them from dying. idk how effective it is, but doesn't hurt to try :9

the latest photo really shows that they love growing towards the sun, so I need to rotate the trays once a day hahaha

anyhow, so far the ones that have been doing best are the ones in the boxes to the left which are the round root beets *q* idk if it's because the seeds might be newer, or they're just easier to grow, but the long beets haven't shown as much growth as fast at these cuties :3a

can't wait to transplant them into the garden when they've grown up a bit more<33