Project: Sprout & About

How? And what? Oh, so much. Let’s just dive in.

Howdy, From The Greenhouse!

Updates are long overdue. It’s crazy how fast time flies, how fast the days (I mean, the weeks!) go by. The thing is that first, I tell myself that it will only be one day that I skip from writing, and in the blink of an eye, it has suddenly been a week. Where is the time going? Someone, explain. But when it comes to Sprout & About life, it has been a fascinating time recently. Simply, I am working a lot in the garden and a lot has happened. Lately, as the days have gotten warmer, I have found that the greenhouse is not only a zen place to have my morning tea but also a fantastic place to write (the posts’ cover photo). It’s wonderful to have nature so close, and watching the plants and the birds doing their thing creates a perfect calm atmosphere for thinking. Maybe I could write more about that another time…

And hey, we are in JUNE already! ❤

I think I have a trend going on. I think of a topic to write on, and they are great ideas, like “Bugs & Remedies”, “Chaos Gardening First Time”, “How I Almost Killed All My Plants”, and along those lines. I let those ideas marinate, and fast forward, DAYS have passed by, and I have 0 words written down on any of my grand ideas. Naturally, after some time, my post ideas don’t make much sense anymore. You know, because in the life of a gardener, so much can happen in just one day! You water the plants, then you sow some seeds, then you come up with a new cool plan to replant something somewhere, prune your chili, or propagate a lavender, and here we go. By that time, two or three weeks have gone by and we are in a totally new place… and then we see a tiny flower on that tomato ❤ (and instead, you introduce an idea of a Mini Post series, hahaha – fairly, it has saved me from totally abandoning this challenge of a blog (read: stay accountable)). Enough of time-talk.

Here’s one of the many important tasks completed!

Long story short, I will now make a general post of HOW THINGS ARE GOING, for the sake of a tomato!
Read about the bugs, the chaos gardening, how I saved the plants from an apparent death, and something more. And boy, oh boy, I may have the first tomato baby!

What’s New

Last time I posted (the Mini Post (III)), I shared some pictures on the process of building up my garden beds and moving in the tomatoes after a carefully planned period of a hardening off schedule. I am not sure if I was surprised by the good results, but I was definitely euphoric about the success that resulted from moving them to the greenhouse. Remembering the time I was ´panicking ´ about the Marmande-variety that seemed like they were suffering from a disease of some sort, well, now they are thriving! It turns out that the indoor life was getting too thin for them. In addition, all of my tomatoes are doing extremely well in their new homes.

Speaking of thriving, I HAVE GOT THE FIRST TOMATOES growing!

A week after the tomatoes, it was time for the cucumbers, squash, and pumpkins to find their final place. I was proud of myself for waiting until May to start growing them inside, and it went well, apart from one close call that almost cost me losing them all. I came to the conclusion that the problem was overwatering. This might have happened while I was away from home. Once back home again, I quickly moved them inside the greenhouse, and now, a week later, it is safe to say that the ones in the greenhouse are recovering well.

It might not be a lost game after all.

The only thing is that I might have risked it with planting the cucumbers in a different kind of soil, a flower soil to be precise. Fingers crossed they agree to grow there. A local seller at a plant store gave me some peat to boost the growth of the root system of the cucumbers. Anyway, I’ve come to understand that peat is not a sustainable option in gardening, and that many environmentally conscious manufacturers of gardening products try to lessen the use of peat in their products. But since I was given it for free, I’d better take the most out of it. I also used it for the watermelons because I planted them in the same type of soil…

I get it, growing watermelons, pumpkins, and squash in baskets is a risky business. Sounds like it’s a risk after a risk, but there’s some sense in this work, too. Maybe I am about to discover that plants are not as fragile as I imagine them to be!

Similarly to the tomato garden beds, I used all natural materials found in the garden while preparing the different layers for drainage, fertilizers, and finally, new organic soil.

Haricot vert, the French bean, oh, how I am looking forward to enjoying these at the dinner table. Please grow, mon haricot vert.

A lot of new stuff and new sowings are going on, as you can see ❤

First Bug Problems

I know this day had to come sooner or later, so I was mentally prepared to face the pests. Either I have been lucky, or maybe companion planting has helped protect my tomatoes and cucumbers, but the first plant to suffer from unwanted guests is the grape vine near the entrance of the greenhouse. I noticed these nasty, hard-shelled bugs while I was redirecting the vines’ growth. (I recently weaved a threat over the entrance where I wish the grape vine to grow, over the entrance, like in Italy or something. Every now and then, I need to adjust the long vine to grow upwards.) While I was bending them around and over, I found something squishy in my hands. So, yes, it didn’t take me long to take out my phone, take a picture, Google, and find out what they were.

Turns out, and unfortunately, we have gotten ourselves an aphid problem now.

I learned that the main solution to this problem is to manually remove the bugs. I also realized that I hadn’t prepared the grape vines with any companion plants. I guess I had thought that they didn’t need any (??) because they had always been that way. But oh, they do need friends, too, and what could be better than aromatic herbs and flowers. I went to the nearest plant store for fresh rosemary. More is more, I thought, and so I also cut a few stems from the lavender bush that grows in the yard outside in hopes of propagating one lavender plant in the greenhouse as well. Love the scent! And well, I might have gone a bit crazy with this, but I planted a couple more marigolds below the vine, too.

Like I said, more is more, and the aphids must go!

And wait, because that’s not all!

Most importantly, amid pest panicking, I also learned that the NETTLE is a great plant to use in the garden. I must admit, I grew to despise this prickly plant, but actually, it can do so much good. You bet, I had to go immediately and find these guys from the field nearby and make some magical-natural aphid repellent. After soaking them in water for a day, I saved the liquid and then used the rest of the plants in the garden plot.

As annoying as it might be to have pests, I understand that these things sometimes result from some sort of imbalance in nature. To be fair, I haven’t seen many ladybugs around, who supposedly are the bugs keeping the aphids away. Maybe I have too few flowers in the garden? Ladybugs like the nettle as well… Whatever it is, we shall see if the nettle spray is the key to solving this problem. Meanwhile, I promise I am not touching the spiders, and hopefully the ants will help me in some other shape or form, creating a balanced greenhouse ❤

Trying Out (Cool) Things

Sure thing, you must follow the basic rules of gardening and plant care for optimal results. But sometimes, I feel like trying things out and going for the thing, even when the odds might not be on my side. It’s about experimenting, seeing what happens.
So after having prepared the garden beds in the greenhouse, I was still left with many cucumbers, one squash, two pumpkin plants, and a couple of tomato plants. After all, my newly (almost) transformed greenhouse has a limited space capacity, so I decided to move those plants outside to the garden plot. And this was the EXTENDED part of the Sprout & About, anyway, which I promised to overtake as well.

The thing is that I was “warned” that the soil in the garden plot has not been the best for certain plants in the previous years (or ever?). I assumed that’s because it’s too acidic (blueberries and strawberries grow there well), but I went for it anyway. It’s been a couple of days now, and the pumpkins don’t look very happy in the garden plot, honestly. But I cannot help it, I will wait to see if there’s hope that something might start growing. I cover them at night, because although days are warm, the nights get a bit chilly… You bet I tried improving the growing conditions with fresh compost and new garden soil.

I guess all I can do now is to sit tight, give them lots of love, and hope for the best.

In addition, I came across the concept of chaos gardening, which is basically throwing seeds around and seeing what happens. I figure this works best with flowers, especially with field flowers. Happily, I was equipped with seeds of marigolds, calendula, poppy, and some dahlias that I sowed outside, right next to the longer side of the greenhouse.
Looking forward to seeing if they get enough sunlight there and maybe, we’ll get a beautiful, bee-friendly mini flower garden by late summer ❤

Last but not least, I was given an oak to take care of. There’s nothing to see, yet, but who knows, maybe in some months, we will have a baby oak sprout, too.

Wow, someone was clearly in the mood for writing, and I feel like there are still a hundred things I could write about. There’s just so much to report on because these plants grow by the day. Better to leave one post to a 10-minute read, hahaha.

To conclude, it’s so amazing how much sunlight there is now and how the days get warmer and warmer. You can see how fast everything gets greener and bigger, and it really feels like summer now.

All in all, Sprout & About’ing is going good (tap on the shoulder), and as it seems, I am staying on schedule.

What could I get my hands on next…? ❤