Plastic is good!

I just gotta say... I love love love the way this snow pea grows.  :)

NOTE: stem you see that has been cut, it was because when I transplanted, I maimed the roots big time.  The leaves on top started to die, so I cut off a piece of the plant, thinking the roots that were left couldn't supply for the plant, so they needed less to take care of.  It worked like a charm; once I cut, the top leaves regained their vigor again.  And, as you see, the plant is doing great.  :)

Canopy up!

It has arrived!

So my thoughts with this are that having the plants on the window sills, combined with the time of the year + the heavy rains we're getting as of late, wasn't providing enough light.  If you haven't read the posts below, no problem.  Basically, I don't put them outside because I'm afraid the heavy rains will kill the seedlings.  This canopy will allow me to not only have them outside getting the most sunlight available, but also protect them from rain.  I'm very excited to see their growth in the next couple of days.  Check the post below for a link to the canopy.

Rain rain, go away...

I have this arriving sometime today:

CLICK ME - CANT WAIT

I bought it because I don't believe my plants are getting enough light on the window sills.  The sun exposure isn't the best, and the crappy weather is not helping either.  With the canopy, I plan on putting them outside, and they'll be protected from the monsoons that we have been getting daily.  I'm excited to see how their growth speeds with with the additional exposure to light.

Here's what they look like today:

True leaves are true.

After 2 days of being transplanted, I'm starting to see a lot of true leaves coming out!  The plants seem to be growing slowly, but I'm not sure.  They're supposed to be giving fruit in 3 months, so we'll see.  I'm hoping that they get really strong in the next two weeks so I can plant outside, if not, they'll have to be at least another 3 weeks indoors.

Transplanting and bed extension, part 2.

I originally started with the bed below.  It seemed adequate for something I had no idea about.  However, the more I read about the space that tomatoes, and especially watermelons, really need, the more I knew we had to expand.  I set out to buy some pavers and soil, and the rest was history.

This project took a lot longer than I had orignally planned, because I kept raising my expectations of what I wanted accomplished.  First, I simply wanted to make the bed bigger.  Well, that's easy: rip off lawn, add pavers, done.

Well, that wasn't the case.  It made sense to have this look as aesthetically pleasing as possible, and that meant making sure everything was leveled.  I achieved this by taking measurements on top of each paver, as well as in between, in order to get a consistent flat surface.  It was interesting because I didn't realize that the pavers where I had started were on higher ground than the ones at the end of the bed, and the difference was about the height of one paver.  So not only did I have to level, but I had to add dirt as I moved down the line to keep everything nice and flat.

In the end, even though it looked okay and I knew it was level, I used a larger level and measured on different locations.  It made the happy that the result was almost identical in all 3 locations.

Below are pictures of the end result.  I added one 32 qt bag of Nature's Care potting soil.  I figure I will need about 6 more bags, maybe more, to get the depth that I want.  I'm very happy with the result, and most importantly, so is my fiancé, who is doing this with me all the way from London.  :-)

That's it!  This took me about 3 hours in total.  What's next?  I will be going out of town for a week in 3 weeks time, so I'm hoping that by then I can have the seedlings planted into the ground and will only need very minimal supervision.  Either way, I have an AWESOME friend house and dogsitting, who I'm sure won't mind giving the plants all the attention they'll need, even if that means reading them bedtime stories and whispering sweet things into their leaves.  :-)

Transplanting and bed extension, part 1.

Got a lot done today!  I transplanted the seedlings, as well as expanded the garden bed.  I'll break the post up in two.  First, the transplanting!

I'd like to start by saying that reading about handling the seedlings by their leaves, instead of the stems, was a tremendous tip.  I can't imagine how many of them I would've maimed had I not done that.  

Ok, so, I wanted to have everything in place before I got started.  I made a watering device, which is basically a water bottle with some slits made on its top.  This lets out a soft stream, which doesn't disturb the soil too much.  Not much to it... see below.

As I was transplanting, I felt like taking this picture.  It reminded me how important plants are, and how well we should be treating them.  Imagine that the soil being held together here is our planet, and that the seedling is what gives our planet life and allows us to exist.  This, I find to be a miniature replica of ourselves.  Sadly, we don't pay enough attention to our one source that provides us with life... maybe we will, one day.

These are the gold heirloom tomato seedlings in their new homes.  I used a spoon to help me "lift" them out of the seed starting tray, and that helped tons.  I would break up the top dirt a bit, then use the spoon underneath as I lifted the plant by its leaves.  Worked like a charm.

Here we have the 6 organic orange watermelons.  Same as with the tomatoes, only difference is that I planted deeper since they were so leggy.  I researched the case of the seeds still being attached, and the common consensus was that it happens because the seeds weren't planted deep enough, and they should be ok to remove.  I've removed them as of this post.

 And here we have the 4 kolb heirloom tomatoes.  The one on the left of the bottom pic was the smallest of all, but it transplanted very well.  Same as before, I used a spoon to "spoon" them out of the seed starting tray, keeping as much of the soil connected to the roots as I could.

That's it for the transplanting!  I took them outside to get a couple of hours of sunlight, making sure they didn't dry up.  It is suggested to make sure seedlings are well watered after transplanting to minimize the shock, so I'm staying on top of it.  I feel that the peat pots will be great as they will allow me to expose the plants to light better, and when they finally go into the garden, it'll be as simple as planting the entire pot in the soil.

Read on for the bed extension adventure.  I'll end with a few more pictures... :-)

State of the yard....

So, this is where we are.  I've been reading quite a bit, and watermelons seem to require lots of space.  That information, aside with the fact that I've also sowed tomatoes, has made me come to the conlusion that the previous piece of land dedicated for this seemed inadequate.

How our yard currently looks.  It'll be much larger by this time tomorrow.

I got myself 80 more pavers.  I will be extending the garden area all along the side of the fence.  This will give me the room I need (I think) to properly spread the watermelons and tomatoes.

80 pavers for $30 ain't that shabby of a deal!

I really love my Golf.

As for what we're growing, this is the current state of the seedlings.  Leggy, barely any true leaves out yet, and not fully sprouted yet.  The watermelons seem to be continuously searching for light, no matter where I put them, not wanting to fully commit to opening their seed leaves (called cotyledon) yet.  

Heirloom tomatoes on the left, watermelons on the right.  In the back is my snow pea, growing quite happily.

You can see "some" true leaves starting to grow.

After much consideration, here's my plan:  I'm going to transplant the seedlings into 16 peat pots.  This will allow me to do two things: 1. I will be able to transplant the seedlings in deeper, giving them better support, and 2. having the seedlings in pots, I'll be able to move them around the house easier, putting them closer and more of them on the south-facing window sills.  Only a couple of the tomato seedlings have sprouted their true leaves yet, and technically until that happens, it is advised not to plant outside.  Don't ask me how it is then okay to start seeds outside...

You can plant these outside, pot and all, and the pot will disintegrate into ground.

I will take pictures of the yard tomorrow, as well as the newly transplanted plants in their new homes.  I'm hoping that this will allow them to grow as they should.

Last but not least...

We have 100% sprout rate!  Today the remaining tomato seedlings came out to play!

I will definitely be transplanting the watermelons over the weekend, either to pots or outside... not sure.  As for the tomatoes, I'm going to let them stay on the starting tray a little longer.  I need to look up ways to protect seedlings from heavy rains.

Surprise!

Today I noticed that 3 new tomato seedlings have sprouted!  Late bloomers, but late is better than never, right?  

My snow pea is looking rather ravishing!  I'll be transplanting to a pot soon.

I think I'll be planting the watermelons outside this week, and I'll be transferring the tomato to pots, which I will keep inside.  It might be a little early for the watermelons since they don't have true leaves yet, but we'll see.  I may do only a couple and not all.

I also need to decide what type of trellis I'll be using for the tomato plants.  As for the snow pea, I think I'm going to rig something to grow on corner between the post and the slats of our fence.  Pictures will come later.

Onward we go!

So these guys look like they know where they're going... right through my window! I think I'm going to rotate the tray to try to make them grow the opposite way, hopefully making them grow straight up!  We'll see how that turns out..

As for the soil, it's still moist.  I think another day and I'll have to water it.

I did a fair amount of reading over the weekend about watermelon and tomato plants.  One source says that each watermelon vine must have an area no smaller than 5 feet by 5 feet.  Not sure how true that is, but our dogs are not going to be too happy if this is the case.  As for the tomato plants, I plan on doing something like this...

I think they'll look great against our white fence and help a lot with keeping the plants under control, allowing us to maximize the space.

Lastly, I want to end with some pictures of our 2-day old tomato seedlings.  Enjoy!