Getting Ready to Plant

I stopped by the garden center last night to pick up our vegetables. Tomorrow is planting day.

It's exciting, and hard to imagine that these little plants are soon going to take over our 10 x 17 plot.  The garlic and shallots are already doing their thing.  Some carrots and beets and arugula have begun to sprout.  I'm not sure what happened to the spinach, but there's no sign of it yet. 

Ed (in the Vegetable Gardener Bible) suggests buying plants in 4 inch pots that aren’t too big and don’t have lots of roots growing out of the bottom, as that’s an indication that the plant is already stressed. I got a “fancy” eggplant, a Sweet 1000 cherry tomato, a Brandywine Heirloom tomato, some leeks, 2 parsley, 2 basil, and a dill. I really wanted to try Sweet Banana peppers, but they only had those in the smaller 6 packs, so I bought them anyway. Ed and the little, old Italian woman also shopping at the garden center said that peppers "like to hold hands," so we’ll plant two and I’ll try to find a home for the other four.

On a whim, I also bought some more seeds, because I think we’re going to have more room than I expected, and I can’t seem to control myself. We’ll be adding edamame and cilantro to the mix now, and I also got some parsnips and kale to plant later in the season when some of the early plants are done.

I also left the garden center with this stuff:

The black mold on our holly is basically excrement left behind by aphids (gross), so we have to douse the top and bottom of each leaf with the oil spray on three different occasions in attempt to evict them. Then we have to pour the systemic stuff around the roots every spring and fall until the end of time to keep them away. If you think that sounds like a lot of work, I agree.

And it was all I could do to not to buy some beautiful shade-tolerating plants that I'd never seen before- a pink and yellow columbine, a white columbine and a yellow globe flower (all from White Flower Farm). 






Yes, please.  Another time, I hope.  I know just the spot I'd put them.

P.S. I linked up to Remodelaholic to show off my teak chairs.  Check out the other projects here.