Here comes the sun!

Spring is slowly arriving and my plants at my window can tell. I've seen a recent growth spurt in all of them and I'm excited to show them off. I'm growing a lot of stuff, I can't tell you how many times I've agonized over growing one variety over another, or which herb fits well for my balcony. I finally made my choices (for the most part), and but I'm still constantly on the lookout for awesome seeds. I'm still going to Seedy Sunday yet I have a ginormous seed list (which I will probably post later).

I'm also very very pleased that I got my cilantro seeds from Cubit's – it's not showing on this blog, but I am absolutely in love with that herb. I use cilantro in almost everything and to think, I used to hate it (with a passion). I am particularly happy that I got some organic seeds, at least I can save some seeds and use it for the next season. Also another note, GO TO SEEDY SUNDAY! Get some seeds, it'll be fun.. I promise.

Some other great news, Daniel over at My Small Kitchen Garden finally got the seeds I sent him! He was kind enough to do a seed giveaway and I got some paste tomato seeds from him, as well as Blue Hubbard Squash, and these lovely Neck Pumpkin seeds. I plan to start sowing some seeds again, and will probably blog about the squash. I'm a little nervous, but hopefully it should be fine.

I should post some photos. I took a lot of photos over the week showing the growth of my baby plants. I hope you enjoy the photo spam!

PHOTO SPAM IN 3... 2.. 1.

My little Polka-dot plant, the pink in the leaves is just slightly showing.

 

 

Aunt Molly's Ground Cherry

One of my fave plants, Chinese 5 Colour Pepper, insanely beautiful fruit

 

Lupin, this plant has grown a lot. It makes me miss Prince Edward Island so much.

Red Currant Cherry tomato, it smells amazing and is so cute.

 

 

 

 

 

Cinnamon Basil

Organic Sweet Genovese Basil - thanks for the seeds Cubit's!

Flat-leaf Italian Parsley, just enjoying some sun

Mimosa Pudica, poor plant. I keep touching it, it must be so tired by now.

My chives from last season that came back. I left it outside, no care at all and it came back anyways!

Lamb's Ear, so fuzzy... so awesome.

Spring, where are you?

It's nearly the end of February and I'm itching to sow some seeds. To be honest I'm so excited about planting things that I just seem to want to plant everything in my garden. I should stop being so overambitious because I need to remind myself that I don't have a lot of space.

In order to satiate my gardening appetite, I've been washing out some pots with warm soapy water (I use dish washing liquid), and a little scrub of a water and hydrogen peroxide mixture. I wash extremely well with some steel wool and I let it dry. Most of my terracotta pots are washed and dried and ready to go. Now, you may be wondering... why make all the effort of washing pots when I'm just going to fill it up with dirt anyway? It seems counterproductive yes, but it's really not. A plants can carry a disease, or a fungus  and the pot can have residue of said disease/fungus. Rather than risk potential infection on a new plant, it's better to wash everything out. I had powdery mildew on my zucchini/courgette plant that just refused to go away, so it makes a lot of sense for me to wash the container that plant lived in. I just don't want to take risks when it comes to these things.

I've also been doing a lot of garden clean up, however, it's been mostly pots. The winter took a toll on my balcony, there's snow and ice, and my window boxes are filled with frozen soil and plants. Pictures to come later.

So spring, please come now. I want to grow stuff outside.