Aug 1
If you’re following my journey growing Spitfire Nasturtiums from seed, you may remember I planted the new seeds I got from Renee’s Garden about a month ago. I’m happy to report the new seedlings are Read more
Jul 30
Front yard & hedge five years ago
When I bought my house over five years ago one of the things that convinced me that I needed to buy it was the front hedge.
Since I’ve always loved hedges and been fascinated by secret gardens Read more
Jul 27
I got my new iPhone 4 and thought I’d test out the video function. It works pretty great – aside from my camera work and shooting directly into the sun.
Here’s the video I made of my front garden and some of my chickens:
Tips and video feedback are always welcome.
I took the pictures on July 15 – I just didn’t post until today! Oops. Here’s everything that’s blooming right now.
Jul 7
Climbing Nasturtium Spitfire from Renee's Garden
My two Climbing Nasturtium Spitfire really took off in June. This is a bit of a surprise since we had horrible rainy weather the entire month. Some say it was the worst spring EVER, but what do I know, I was in Europe (ha, ha).
One of the plants grew OVER FOUR FEET since June 3. Now that’s impressive. I’m also pretty ecstatic that they’ve started blooming. And, I’m no longer sad that I only got two seedlings out of the entire package of seeds. I figure the other seeds knew about the weather here and decided “why bother.”
But, because Renee’s Garden has such AWESOME customer service, they sent me another package of seeds with a hand-written note! I love companies with great customer service and now I love Renee’s Garden.
I’m also happy to report that we have sunshine in the forecast for the next week. I’m confident these new seeds will do great things. I’ve already planted half in various parts of the garden, including the vegetable garden and around the back patio. I didn’t clip the seeds, soak them or start them indoors. I’m trying something different and planting as nature intended – isn’t that what this project is about?
Nellie (from Renee’s Garden) mentioned in her note that Renee had a couple tips, “make sure the soil is well drained and protect from slugs and snails.” Hmm. Maybe I kept them a little too wet when starting indoors? I have sandy loam in the garden (old riverbed) and get great drainage outside. Seems like the new seeds will do better.
Before I went out of town, I planted a couple nasturtium starts from a local nursery in neighboring pots. My Nasturtium Spitfire babies are the huge ones climbing up the chicken coop.
Climbing Nasturtium Spitfire (in chicken pot) from Renee's Garden
You can follow my progress using my Seed GROW Project tag for this site.
You can read all the participating blog posts here on the Seed GROW Project site. Like all the other participants, I’ll be posting my progress every first Sunday of the month.
“I’m growing Nasturtium “Spitfire” for the GROW project. Thanks, to Renee’s Garden for the seeds.”
FREE-RANGE CHICKEN GARDENS. I have the pleasure of being included in Jessi Bloom's beautiful book (pages 27, 51 upper left, 112, 114-117). Check it out!
THE NEW LOW MAINTENANCE GARDEN. This book by Val Easton is one of my favorite design books.
WICKED PLANTS: Great read about poisonous plants by Amy Stewart.
THE VEGETABLE GARDENER'S BIBLE. My favorite vegetable garden reference book by Edward C. Smith.
GROW. COOK. EAT. by Willi Galloway is a beautiful vegetable garden cookbook. Great recipes and tips on eating ALL parts of the veggie - not just the mainstream parts.
Gardening in My Rubber Boots 