Day 3!

It was raining when I got up this morning and when we went out midday and hey - it's not raining much now, but it is still so, stinkin' WET! Here is something entirely different for a rain shot!

You know it's wet when the garden has puddles!

NO PLAN FOR THE DAY

Most things in the hoop house are under control and requires not much of my attention at this point. Because of that, this morning was spent indoors. Besides napping and eating breakfast I did go through a cabinet that needed to be cleaned out of stuff we don't use.

Also, we are having friends over for dinner tomorrow and I needed to get my menu/shopping list put together and do a little shopping. Tomorrow I will need to make a trip out to the Asian store for a couple of other key ingredients.

ANYWAY...

After returning from our trip out we got to work outside. Now that the shoe rack that I was using in the Living Room was empty I decided to use it in the hoop house to create a little more room on the bench.

I love to re-purpose stuff!

The whole unit is usable now! The rack only takes up the space that two trays would so this will work out quite nicely.  The plants might be happier here too, but then I might move them to the other end. I haven't decided yet. We'll see how things go over the next couple of days.

In the big picture starting seeds and being able to start things way earlier than usual is still a new thing for me. The hoop house has made that possible. In past years I would drag out the trays and then try to keep them safe on the back stoop until they germinated. That worked out fine, but man this hoop house is so much better! Plus, the lids don't need to be secured while in the hoop house. Why I never thought to set things up in the Living Room is beyond me. Oh, I know, we now have less stuff in that room, so it was easier to just use the old TV stand in addition to the shoe rack.

As for the flower seeds that I started and had in the garage and only just moved them to the hoop house this past weekend. They are definitely happier and the Zinnias (the easiest) and the Asters are starting to pop up too. Hopefully it won't be too much longer and the other seeds will start doing something too.

TIME TO GRADUATE

Mary came by to check on her seedlings - they are starting to put out their true leaves. Since she will be leaving on vacation (a cruise, no less) I wondered if she might want to transplant to pots before she leaves. I don't mind taking care of the watering/misting of the plants, but she needed to decide on what needs to be transplanted. So she decided to graduate these guys a little early. I think they'll be fine and I'll keep an eye on them while she is gone.

These are just a few of her transplants. 

They should grow pretty quickly now that they have more room to grow! Should be interesting to see how much they grow while she is on her vay-kay. I'm happy that she gets a total girls trip!

ALLIUMS

I've been thinking of alliums today - specifically A. ampeloprasum (Leek) and Allium cepa L. (onion).

That was your botanical name lesson for the day. You're Welcome.

There were some leftover onion seeds from last year so I sprinkled those into a pot for germinating. Seriously, can't have too many onions! Also, I've been wanting to grow leeks again. I don't understand why growing them was so easy before. Granted, "before" was many years ago. Did a quick search on the google-pants and decided to go with a method that uses a seedling tray. I kind of did my own thing which was sprinkling them about in three rows in the tray instead of being careful and too perfect about it. Potting soil was sprinkled on top and then it received a nice mist of well water.

MOBILE CHICKEN COOP

The Chicken Coop is going to happen! The frame is progressing fairly quickly. The only things that we have had to purchase are brackets and the chicken wire. Tom's first idea for the wheels was to use wood. Now that we can see just how big it is (6ft by 6ft) this thing will need something a little more substantial so as not to collapse the wheels while trying to cart it around the property.

In fact this thing is so big, I'm wondering just how heavy it will be once it is complete. I'm not so sure that I'll be able to help Tom get it down off of the saw horses. Then again, we might be surprised, it could be lighter than we think too.

It has been fun helping with the construction even it's working the cordless drill....the BEST! Just a FYI if anyone needs any assistance with "ripping" boards, I'm well skilled in holding the boards as they are being cut on a table saw...hehe.

Dreams are starting to become a reality - this farm things is happening!