 |
| Nellie's project containers |
Renee picked 3 seed varieties for seedGROW this season:
 |
| Lettuce, Container, "Garden Babies" |
 | |
|
 |
| Marigold, "Summer Splash" |
Notes from Nellie: I sowed my project seeds in three separate big containers according to the packet directions on Saturday, 5/28. Our Trial Garden manager Lindsay recommended FoxFarm Ocean Forest potting soil for the containers, which is a blend of earthworm castings, bat guano, and fish and crab meal. Two 1.5 cubic ft. bags easily filled three large 18-inch containers. I’m expecting to see a few seedlings pop up by this Monday. The weather has been unusually cold and rainy in Santa Cruz, so I may need to be more patient.
I chose containers as my planting venue of choice because of some serious gopher problems. The containers circle a bed of greens, and the seedlings will be protected by strawberry baskets while they're small since my backyard seems to be full of hungry birds (I removed the baskets from the first container above so you could see a decent picture of this very nice potting soil).
If you have a garden blog and would like to participate this year or be considered for another project, please email me: nellie@reneesgarden.com. We did decide to keep it small this year to so we could pay extra attention to the participating blogs, but we don’t want to exclude any bloggers who are interested in joining. The seedGROW Trial Guide sheet is located here.
We’d also like to give special thank you to Mr. Brown Thumb for all his help. He will be rounding up all the bloggers’ posts each month and posting them here on the seedGROW website. I’d like to encourage everyone to check out the other seedGROW updates – we are excited to have some gardening writers on board!
See you next month,
Nellie
I also have groundhogs and containers do seem to keep them at bay. It's not that they aren't physically capable of reaching up into them, they just don't seem to (knock wood). I also love the strawberry basket idea for protecting little seedlings!
ReplyDeleteWe've been growing the Garden Babies lettuce in a container at our house and it's doing great. We've all ready harvested some. Good luck Nellie!
ReplyDeleteNellie,
ReplyDeleteThis will be so fun to blog along with you on the seedGROW project. I am so excited! This will be my 2nd year participating! I have fun container ideas in store! Love Renee's Garden Seed!
This is my 2nd year too, it is so fun to be doing it again! I started using a worm bin this spring and I just got my first tray of worm castings to use in the garden. Nice to meet you.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea! I love the 'Garden Babies' Lettuce - so cute!
ReplyDeleteI'll have to look into that FoxFarm Potting Soil - sounds so much better than what I can find around here. I usually end up making my own.
Would love to participate in this next year if you need more bloggers - I'm growing a lot of your lovely things in my garden right now. The 'Ruby and Emerald Duet' lettuce is especially beautiful right now!
What does that FoxFarm Ocean Forest potting soil smell like? Bat guano? Fish and crab meal? May be great for the plants, but what does your garden smell like? Just curious. Hope everything grows well!
ReplyDeleteI would love to get involved in this project but I think I'm too late for this year. Perhaps next year?
ReplyDelete