Sorry I haven't been doing the step by step on my petunias this year, but they pretty much went the same as last year. With one exception of course, the light garden!!
So this year my petunias look fantastic. They are nice and full and not leggy at all, for me it was a great investment. And since they are selling plants my size for $3.99 at the local nursery I have about $150.00 dollars worth of petunias, all of which I collected the seeds from last year.
I also have about 30 snapdragon plants and I planted 40 marigolds today, so I figure I will get my money back out of it within 3 years. Maybe even sooner but to be perfectly honest, I don't care :) I love starting my own plants, it's my very happy place so to me it's worth every penny.
I forgot to mention the pansies, dahlias, herbs, eucalyptus, forget me nots, lavender, carrots, cucumber and tomatoe. Lol. Although my cucumber doesn't love it under the lights, it grows a couple of leaves then they dry up and fall off.
The carrots are doing well, I was trying to see if I could grow them through out the winter. Not sure if I want to do that, since there are plants I can start in January I might forgo veggie growing in the winter.
I might just do micro greens and herbs.
Yeah! They are both in full bloom, and I actually have one of my other phals sending out a bloom spike from an old spike.
I have had to move them back from the south facing window so they don't receive direct sunlight anymore. It was getting to much for them and the leaves were burning a bit.
Our days are getting longer now and the sun is starting to get its kick back for the upcoming spring. But still no artificial light for these guys, all natural sunlight!
I say upcoming spring because is was -20 this morning :( I'm really anxious for it to get warm outside.
So I was in the mood for pesto today, and I really wanted to use my lovely basil plants that I transplanted this weekend.
I bought a small pack of ground turkey, provolone sliced cheese and some romane hearts. I had everything else at home, my co-workers told me about making provolone taco shells and since I don't eat wheat this seemed to be a perfect taco shell alternative. For those of you who don't eat dairy, sorry.
By now you have realized I'm not a stickler for measurements, and again I didn't really measure this so I will try to be close ;)
For my pesto,
Two tops of a basil plant (about 10 leaves) I think more would be better
1/4 C pine nuts
2 Tbsp almond oil ( I just don't like olive )
1Tsp garlic ( I used freeze dried but fresh would be awesome)
Salt and pepper to taste
Like I said not a stickler.
I put the provolone cheese on parchment paper in the oven for 10 min at 350, when they brown take them out and peel them off the parchment paper and drap them over a wooden spoon until cool.
I put all the pesto ingredients in my magic bullet with a little water and let er rip.
Brown your turkey in a pan then add the pesto mixture and let simmer for a few minutes. Cut up your tomato and romane hearts, stuff your taco and wa la!
Transplanted some herbs today, I started these guys from a little herb starter kit I got from my local nursery.
The basil and chives I started about a month ago and the ginger I started from my kitchen scraps, also about a month ago. I did what it said to do on Pinterest and wa la, new ginger.
I did start all these guys under my grow lights but I'm thinking you could start them just as easily in a window sill. For the basil and chives I followed the instructions on the package, and it came with dirt and a little dome to cover them.
Now I will put them in my window sill to make room for more baby plants.
It's almost spring, I can feel it or at least dream it ;)
My baby is blooming! And mama is on her way as well. Very exciting at my house right now, well for me anyway 😉
So this little guy bloomed in its first year, it will only produce one flower, maybe two. But it's doing very well and I still can't believe I grew a keiki and then it bloomed, and without grow lights!
I'm so excited!!! My bees have arrived! Of course they will remain in the fridge until May, but still it's so awesome.
These are mason bees, they won't produce honey but will pollinate my garden. I seem to miss the good pollination every year, and there weren't very many bees around last year so maybe I can add some.
I'm hoping to release them a little earlier so that all my fruit trees get pollinated. The regular bees don't seem to visit until it's a week to late.
Can't wait to see them do their magic!
I will tell you more about them when I'm not so tired :)
Good night.
Wow, the time really just gets away from ya. So just a quick update on my orchids. Both momma and baby are almost ready to bloom, so awesome. This will be my first phalanopsis rebloom. I haven't used any grow lights of any kind on these orchids since they have been with me, they are about 6 feet away from a south facing window and get about 3 hours of direct morning light. It's still very much winter here so our sun isn't very potent, I will be moving them back a bit in a month or two.
