Sunday, April 4, 2010

Tulips

Little Red Riding Hood:
Red tulip that came with the house. This is only the 2nd time it has bloomed in the 9 years we've been here:

4 comments:

LindaSue said...

Your flowers are so pretty.

I have been spending time reading your back posts. And enjoying them I might add.

We are soon to get our own little piece of land and am planning on having my first ever garden next year. Maybe some fall stuff this year. So I will have some questions later for you.

I quilt and other stuff. May have a question or two about selling my extra stuff on Etsy, later.

I love your canning stuff. Some good idea's also. Going to try some new stuff maybe. Later for questions.

We are here in south east Alabama. I am originally from Chicago.

Really enjoy reading your blog. thanks

LindaSue said...

Forgot to mention about your figs. My mother in law, who by the way is a fine Southern lady makes the absolute most delicious fig preserves. I would have to say that I never liked figs fixed any way before. But, her fig preserve on a fresh baked biscuit is heavenly.
I will get the recipe from her and send it to you. Later

LindaSue said...

I forgot about the seeds. I bought about 100 dollars worth of seeds, maybe less from Baker Creek a month or two ago. I have never done this before, but here goes. I did 2 or 3 each of several pepper and tomato plants, some in growth medium and some in just vermiculite. Used one of those buy in the store mini greenhouse things. Also used some yogurt cups and Popsicle sticks to mark them. So I think I started them too early. So most came up but they were too tall and spindly. Don't have a grow light so tried to set them in front of the window. I suppose I should have put them into my dirt then or sooner. So now what I did is a waste, but I learned and now I know I can start my own seeds. Just have to have things better set up.

I love the square foot gardening book and just bought his newer one. I have the older one in storage somewhere. So I have some litter buckets I am going to poke holes into and get my hubby to help me mix my soil up and going to buy some tomato and pepper plants to get me started. Some of the tomato seeds are later variety so I may try again with a few seeds.

Now to get back to what I was writing about. I would love to trade some seeds with you. My email address is lindamason627@msn.com if you want to . I will list what I have when you write me and I reply.

Thanks so much.

Jody M said...

Hi Linda Sue!

Wow, Chicago to Alabama is quite a culture shock. My dad's family is all in Georgia. My husband was shocked the first time I took him to visit, he said it was like another country.

About the tomato/pepper seeds. At this point, you may be able to seed them directly in the ground. Alabama's growing season is so long that probably you would do just fine. Peppers take FOREVER to sprout and then grow very slowly. I have to start pepper plants in late January for them to be any size worthy of planting come May, which is when our last frost date is here.

I also grow my tomatoes/peppers in a south facing window inside, and they turn out leggy, too. Did you notice the tomato stems were hairy? If you repot the tomatoes deeper and cover the stems with more dirt, those hairs will become roots...which is a great way to deal with leggy tomatoes. Just keep potting them deeper.

Also, if you place a fan nearby blowing lightly around the seedlings they tend to grow stronger stems.