Kia hora te manno
Kia whakapapa paumamu te moana
Kia tere te Karohirohi

May the calm be widespread
May the sea glisten like the greenstone
And may the glimmer of summer dance across your pathways

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Planted on March 25th

Here is the first flower pouch (I was calling them grow bags) filled with violas. Dang it was a heck of a fiddly job pushing the roots of the Violas through the slits in the bag, without doing too much damage to the plants. I am not sure if I want to attempt filling the other eleven bags or not.
The bag now has to lay flat for a week or so, until the plants settle in. I have a bunch of hen & chicks looking for a home, perhaps I will see how they do in one of these pouches.

I bought a four pack of celery and managed to gently tease the roots apart on some which were obviously planted two seeds to a hole, to end up with six healthy looking plants, plus one little wimpy plant, which may or may not make it.

Also bought a six pack of bib lettuce and ended up with eleven plants. In my square foot plans I had allowed just four spots for the initial planting of lettuce, so all the lovely bonus plants are now in the tires where tomatoes will go when the time is right. Notice the orange and blue of the tomato cages I bought last year. I like to have lots of a little bit of color in the vegetable garden.

7am Thurdsay 26th

This morning I have a lovely crop of frosted flowerpots. Last evening, after I had my plants in the ground and as I was putting away my gardening tools, my gut feeling told me it was going to frost, even though it was not in the forecast.

This newbie veggie gardener is learning to pay attention.
I am so happy I listened to my intuition, something I was inclined to ignore in the past.
Not any more, from here on out, the smart thing to do is to I cover all my tender plants, just in case there is a frost.


I looked around for something to use in a hurry as it was late, and I had to get inside and fix dinner. My eye fell on all these flowerpots I had stacked in a corner, I had one of those ah ha! moments, and the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Quote of the day
Despite the gardener's best intentions, Nature will improvise.

~Michael P. Garafalo, gardendigest.com


10 comments:

Unknown said...

Good going KeeWee putting the little pots over your plants. Ya saved the day!
I've always wondered if those bags would be hard to plant. Cripe I had a hard time with a strawberry planter. LOL
Everything is looking very good!

Cathy S. said...

That is great, love the pansies in that hanging bag.

Michelle said...

How clever, using pots to protect your plants. I suspect that if I did that that the poor babies would fry when I inevitably forget to uncover them!

Kit Aerie-el said...

Love the crop of frosted pots. (I laughed out loud when I read that one!) It was good you listened to that little inner voice and 'planted' those upside down pots!
The flower pouch looks like a lot of work. You'll have to keep us posted on whether you'll use them again.

Lona said...

You have been a busy lady there.You have quite a variety already going into your garden.
I got one of those bags last year but never used it. They take a lot of plants to fill it up good. The yellow will be amazing hanging up.

My Mother's Garden said...

Hi KeeWee~
What a great start to a yummy veggie garden! Love the viola bags, such a sweet blossom.
Thanks for the visit!
~Karrita

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

It was a frosty night! When is your last frost date? I'm glad you decided to cover your plants and what a great solution.

Victoria Williams said...

ELEVEN more flower pouches? You are ambitious!

ryan said...

Nice going with the pots. We didn't listen to our gut instincts and lost a lime this winter.

Megan said...

Great idea with the plant pots, I never thought of that. You should submit that tip to fine gardening magazine. They give you a little cash prize or something if they publish your tip.