Seed Starting Sucess...then death.

In late January, I went to a "potting party" at a locally owned garden supply store. There, I was able to gain knowledge of seed starting (which has never been successfull for me), and came home with four trays of organic seeds. These trays included spinach, swiss chard, kale, red lettuce, broccoli, and cauliflower. I was so excited to see them start growing!

 (three days after planting!)

                                                           
We purchased a few grow lights, as our home doesn't have enough sun through the windows to get seeds growing. Our whole family delighted in seeing the progress from day to day...

(12 days after planting)

(22 days after planting)

(35 days after planting)

 

 At this point, it was warm enough to start hardening off the plants --- so, we took them outside on a lovely sunny day...and then forgot to bring them in at night. Needless to say, they died. Instantly. As in, one day they were big and beautiful, and the next day the stems were limp and translucent. I was sick. Sick! My first ever successful attempt at seed starting ended overnight because I neglected to bring the plants in overnight. 96 plants...gone. ACK! But --- the time I spent at the "potting party" workshop was totally worth it, even if my plants did die. I was able to enjoy the company of my best friend (hereby called "bestie") and alone time from my kiddos for a few hours on the weekend. So all was certainly not lost! Though our plants died, we bought seeds to replace them; and I sure had fun, despite the tragic death of our seedlings...duh duh duh...

 

--Autumn

 

 

Welcome!

Hello!

Welcome to our Yarden --- a place where we grow our vegetables --- in the midst of toys, play structures, wildlife, and general chaos. I should start with introductions...I am Autumn, wife to Cullen (who you'll hear more from soon), and mama to three children: two boys, ages 6 and 3, and one girl, age 9 months.

Gardening has been a love of mine for several years; however, I have been the only participant. This year, my husband of 10 years has taken an active role in my passion. We are now working together to make the most of the little land we have to work with. We live in the middle of a small, but bustling, city, and own about 1/4 acre of land. I have always been a row gardener, as that is what I grew up with. This year, however, is an experimental year. Given our small space to work with and the fact that our garden has had some difficulty in the past few years, we decided to try our hand at raised beds and square foot gardening.

We are looking forward to blogging our progress, successes, and failures.

--Autumn