Sprouts

our snap peas have sprouted and started to reach for the sunlight but as of yet they are the only ones trying to get out of the soil.

Project #1

This is the first project that we have in our gardening experiment this year. Obviously this one isn't to produce vegetables, its more just for fun. I was looking at these empty Izze bottles the other day and thought it would be interesting if there was a plant growing inside of it. With a quick search on Google, I saw that other people had tried it and seen results. In one bottle we have some Marigolds and in the other bottle there are some Phlox. I will be interested to see if they will actually grow over the next few weeks or if they will refuse to germinate. I chose the marigold and the phlox because they were the shortest of the flowering plant seeds that we had already purchased. This is one of the few project that we will be monitoring over the next few weeks and months to come. Hopefully this will be a success.

The Enemy

This is Buffy. She is the cat that will potentially single-handedly destroy the efforts of our garden. She has already knocked over our attempt to grow an avocado and enjoys playing in the dirt. Hopefully our seedlings will be able to survive her destructive efforts. We have planted a few plants so far. Unfortunately it decided to snow today so we may have to wait a little longer to plant then expected. So far we've got tomatoes, some peas and I believe eggplants, I'll have to double check later.

For now, she is the enemy but once the season starts other enemies will be in our garden. One hope is to potentially grow some corn in our small space as well. I've read many places online that raccoons like to eat corn and that is one animal that I'm sure will become our enemy. So far we've seen three possibilities suggested for this potential problem.

1. An electric fence - not an option (too expensive)
2. A floppy fence - not an option (the family member that actually "owns" the plot would not allow this because of numerous reasons)
3. Spices - our most plausible option

Number 3 is our most plausible option. Supposedly putting a ring of cayenne pepper, black pepper and/or cinnamon will deter the raccoons from wanting to enter the garden because the strong smell of the spices is undesirable to them. Obviously other people have said that simply shooting them is the easiest sure fire way to get rid of them, but seeing as Lolamosk is a vegan and I am a vegetarian that is definitely not an option. Someone else mentioned growing cucumbers around the perimeter of the garden as the vines have small spikes that keep raccoons away, but we do not like cucumbers enough to want to even try that option.

We will see if Buffy will be the only enemy or if another will take up the challenge. Hopefully our seeds will be able to germinate and then grow into healthy plants without being killed by the cat or another animal... Or us.

The Plot

This will be the small plot of dirt that Lolamosk and I will be using to plant a vegetable garden this year. It's not that big, but it should have plenty of room for the two of us. It's still early, but it's time to get started and get ready for planting. It's a little bigger then last years but hopefully it will be even better. Last year's garden was marginally successful, yielding numerous tiny tomatoes and one cucumber. This could be due to the fact that the plants were transplanted from an established garden across town. The zucchini did not survive. More will come as we begin our venture in creating this garden. Hopefully it will be successful and we will be able to incorporate some fun projects and some fun ways to recycle too.