Gardening Meme:Starting Our Own

These things are lame, but you know you love them.  Since we are all counting down to our respective planting dates, might as well pass the time by with a gardening styled meme.  So play it if you would like, just link back here for those that do participate.  I may go look around for Mr. Linky to help on this one… stay tuned.

Ready?  Run it.

Describe your gardening style.

You would think since we picked the questions, we could do a halfway decent job at answering them… but we didn’t really think like that.  Our gardening style probably is that of a slightly green, intense (during the season), laid back (offseason – however, we are looking at doing year round maybe this year), smile-filled, beer or wine here and there type of gardener.  Hope no one else wanted to use any commas today – because I think I just used them all. 

We are also veggie gardeners probably 70% of the time and we are growing our skillset when it comes to other plants… we have big plans this year.  Lots of foliage on the way.  That is where the other 30% of the time will go.

What was the last plant you bought?

We bought some tulips that had already started to come out, about 2 dozen or so for a barrel.  Here is a link

What were the last seeds you bought?

9 Million different kinds, not sure which one got scanned first.  We did just get in some seeds from TMSeeds – however we did not pay for them… they were a trade deal for that lil banner you see to the right.  Expect to get a post soon about those and what we ended up with.  Lots of goodies

When was the last time you had to pick the dirt from under your nails?

Probably Sunday – we did a bunch of planting of seeds this weekend.

Any big plans for the garden this year?

Always… and since we do not have a garden at our new house – we must create one.  That and pretty much trying to take out as much grass as possible in the front yard and just whipping the backyard into shape in general.  Also – we are going to try and build a patio on this summer that will give some relief from the heat and I’m sure encompass some sort of planters or things of that nature.

What was has been your biggest mistake in gardening EVER?

We once planted the entire bulb/head of garlic.  Seriously.  About a week or two later with no signs of anything really happening – we read something that said to plant the CLOVES… are you kidding me!?!?!  We thought at the time of planting that this had to be some kind of mistake – I mean the bulb/head was already big… would it grow into the size of a melon? Nope.

Biggest success?

Last year, before we moved – we had an awesome crop of peppers (Jalapeno, Bell, Banana, Santiago, Sweet Cayenne).  This was after a very slow summer, with it starting with one of the hottest/windiest days in a long time.  From one extreme to another I guess made the success that much better.

If you could be doing anything right now in regards to gardening… what would it be?

Honestly, we would be happy just staring at our plants watching them grow.  Some music going, messing with seeds… watering, weeding… hell anything.  We would rather be WEEDING… thats how bad we wish we were not at work.  haha

So there you have it.  Get after it.  I am not going to name people to do it, because no one needs that pressure… seriously.  Don’t you hate when you get named on one you don’t want to do?  We do too.  But – this is only if you want to participate.  If no one wants to do it… I guess we will just do it by ourselves… all alone… crying… in silence… cold… scared… solo. 

I’m sure we will be fine.  Use the Mr. Linky tool here to link back.

My New Toy: The Aerogarden Pro200

I guess that James decided that I wasn’t obsessed enough with gardening so for Valentine’s Day he gave me an Aerogarden!  I’ve been wanting one for awhile, but just never broke down and bought one.

So far my review is….AWESOME.

The set up was amazingly easy and it’s safe to say that we went from this

Aerogarden Pro 200 Parts

to this…

Aerogarden Pro 200 set up

in under 10 minutes.  It only took that long because of all of the pictures we were taking a long the way!

We set it up on Thursday night (yes he gave me my gift early, he couldn’t stand it) and took this picture on Monday.

Aerogarden Salad Greens

See all of those little salad greens in there?  Pretty good for 4 days!!

This morning before I left for work I had to take the plastic domes off of two of them.  I’m pretty sure that they would’ve been large enough by the end of the day that the dome would’ve been confining them.

Our Aerogarden is not to take the place of our outdoor garden, but instead to add to what we can grow.  I plan to use it for salad and herbs during the summer and maybe a few others things during the winter months.  It is just too hot and windy for salad greens and herbs here during the summer.  We tried hard last year and they just got extremely beat up, even with all the effort of moving them around the yard (they were in barrels). 

The seed kits are a little expensive to pay for everytime but after doing some searching online I’ve found that you can make your own grow sponges and use your own seeds. That will cut down on the cost a ton and will make the whole thing a little bit more worth it.

Have any of you had one for an extended period of time?  How do you feel about it?  Any tips you would like to share?

We Cheated… On Valentine’s Day.

We were out early V-Day morning and found some tulips at a good price.  Shala has wanted tulips  and we just haven’t made it happen.  Well we made it happen Saturday.  We cheated… we let someone else do all the hard work – we will take it form here…

Tulips planted in wine barrel.

Also, we picked up some onions while we were out – and started them inside with all the other plants.

Onions planted indoors.

We have lots of new stuff popping up, and Shala has a new gardening toy she can’t wait to share with everyone.  I will save that for her to spill the beans on.  That could be a pun couldn’t it… I have to remember that one when we are planting pole beans or something.

Happy Late Valentine’s Day to everyone.  Hope you got to spend it with someone you care about.