Sunday, June 20, 2010

Garden Journal 6/20/10: How To Transplant Sweet Pepper Seedlings, the Extended Version

Planting Sweet Peppers 1
Off to Browner Pastures!

Realization of the Day:
The most important thing you need to do in the garden is get your seeds and plants in the ground. Otherwise nothing else matters.

As obvious as it sounds, it's amazing how often I forget this simple fact, missing out on growing so many things each year because I'm focusing too much on all the prep work I need/want to do and not enough on the actual planting. Lettuce season in southern Missouri has come and gone, yet despite always telling people how easy it is to grow lettuce from seed, I don't have a single leaf to show for it this spring—and you know how much I love lettuce.

Your seedlings don't care if the soil isn't perfectly amended, or the pathways around your raised beds are full of weeds, or it's not the absolute ideal day for transplanting according to the lunar calendar. They just want to be put in the ground. And yesterday morning—after worming 30 lambs and before it got quite all the way up to the 103 degree heat index predicted for the day—some of the poor suffering seedlings I bought over a month ago finally were.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

How To Easily Attract Butterflies & Pollinators to Your Kitchen Garden: Garden Journal 6/17/10

Attracting Pollinators 1
Just plant some echinacea!

Realization of the Day:
There's a winged frenzy going on out in my flowerbed.


More below. . .