PUMPKINS!!
This morning we discovered that our pumpkins were poking out of the dirt. These were the first of the seeds I had planted to sprout. One was barely visible, the only reason I noticed it was because both of them were pushing up the dirt. There was a little mound of dirt on top of them. I moved the dirt a little to help the seedlings poke out more. I am very excited that seedlings are sprouting from the seeds I planted. Here are some photos of the seedlings that we found this morning.
When Jack and I returned home this evening we found that the other two pumpkins are coming to the surface to sprout. They aren’t out of the dirt quite yet but they have created a mound and are trying to poke through the dirt. It’s exciting that 100% of our seeds have sprouted seedlings! Here are photos of the seedlings that we found tonight:
Also, after I posted about our corn seedlings last night I found that two more seedlings had emerged. We now have 4 corn seedlings which is again 100% of the seeds we planted. One of the new corn seedlings had a tiny water droplet on it this morning which was pretty cool. Here is a photo of the new seedling with the water droplet and the seedlings from yesterday that have sprouted up even more.
With each seedling that sprouts I get more excited about this garden adventure! I have been looking up websites about gardening, books to read and information on how to care for the plants that we are growing. I have also thought of ideas to track the progress of our garden and recipes I want to try with the veggies and such that we are growing. I even found the PERFECT method for planting our garden without ruining the back yard of the house we are going to be renting.
I went a bit spreadsheet happy and created a bunch of different spreadsheets one day last week. I have one to track the growth of our seedlings including the day that they sprout, one that tracks expenses, one that estimates harvest dates and one to keep track of our harvest weight, date, and value. Each of these is important in their own way. Without boring you too much I will give you a quick rundown. The one that tracks the growth of the seedlings and date they sprout will let us see next year which plants grew the best inside and use it for comparison next year. The harvest date spreadsheet shows the timeline of our crops by the date that we planted them. It also can be adjusted each time we plant new crops so that we know approximately when we should expect our first harvest. The spreadsheet that will keep track of our harvest will be useful in finding out if our garden was worth the time and money we put into it. We will weigh each veggie or fruit and then figure out how much it would cost to buy it at the store. Once the growing season is over we can tally up our savings because we used our own garden fresh veggies and fruits! The expenses tracking spreadsheet will have the grand total at the end of the season that we spent on our garden. If that total is more than the value of our crop then we will know to adjust our method next year so that our time and money is spent wisely.
I spent a bit of time searching the internet for websites pertaining to gardening but I didn’t find many that I actually liked. I found a few sites that had blog entries about gardening that were helpful, the best being “7 Tips for Starting Your Own Vegetable Garden.” They had tips (obviously), book and website recommendations, suggestions for getting supplies, links to past blog entries and user comments which turned out to be rather helpful. I checked out the books that were recommended on Amazon for reviews and they all seemed like they would be a good choice for someone that was looking to start gardening. I stored those titles away in my mind for later.
After watching an episode of Good Eats dedicated to melons I REALLY want to try to make melon sorbet. It doesn’t look like it would be too difficult and sounds very tasty. I have also been looking at ways to preserve veggies and fruits so that we can keep them after the growing period is over. I have found several websites that talk about canning veggies and fruits and when I go home I am going to ask my Mom and Gram about canning since they used to can things a lot. I know it is early to be thinking about what I am going to do with our harvest but I like to be prepared.
On Friday night we went out to dinner and then went to Barnes and Noble. While I was there after I checked out the knitting and crochet books for ones I had never seen before I headed to the garden section. I wanted to find out what books they had there and look at the ones that were recommended online. I saw the two most recommended books right away, The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible by Edward C. Smith and Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew, only Square Foot Gardening was now All New Square Foot Gardening. I looked through both of them and wanted to take them both home with me but I couldn’t, I had a $25 gift card (it’s a long story how I got it) and I wasn’t going to spend any of my own money on books (at least not that night). In the end after looking through them both for a bit and sitting on the floor of Barnes and Noble and getting weird looks from people I decided to go with All New Square Foot Gardening. The book promises to help you cut down the work you have to put into your garden and the space that you have to allot to a garden. This is an important factor for us to consider because we aren’t going to have our own lawn next year when we are renting and if we are allowed to set up a traditional garden I am not sure that our roommates would approve of us taking over the whole back yard. I finished the book this afternoon and I really like the idea of creating our own Square Foot Garden. In Square Foot Gardening you only need a 4 foot by 4 foot space in your back yard and you don’t have to dig up the yard you bring in your own dirt using a special formula that is given in the book (you use 1 part peat moss, 1 part of something that starts with a v and 1 part compost). You make a 6 inch tall box that is 4 foot by 4 foot and that is where you plant your garden. I know it sounds nuts but the book makes some really good points about space usage in traditional gardens and the directions that are given by seed distributors. I think that Jack and I can make this method work (the author, Mel Bartholomew, ha been using this method of gardening since the mid-late 1970’s so it has been well tested) and I also think Jess and Colin will appreciate that we don’t take up the whole back yard 
I definitely recommend All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew to anyone that wants to have a garden but doesn’t have the space or the time to care for a traditional garden. I do still want to read The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible so I am going to check out the campus library to see if they have it or possibly get it from an inter-library loan. I hope someone has it or I will have to go buy myself a copy 
Okay, I guess it’s time to go water the plants and get ready for bed. I wonder who will decide to sprout next…
Day Eight…
April 5th, 2009