Straight from the Farm

Aw, they’re so cute!  Look at my little babies!  All the seeds I put in trays last Monday have germinated, much to my relief. 

I tacked on the “much to my relief” part there because I had a few casualties in the “directly sown department” out in the garden.  Both my radishes and my sugar snap peas seemed to have failed in that 80+ degree arid weather we’ve been having here in southeastern Pennsylvania.   I knew it was a long shot for the peas in particular, but I had thought the radishes would make a go of it.  Another culprit for them might have been the clay soil turning rock hard as it baked in the sun, keeping the little leaves from poking their heads out. 

But enough about the what-might-have-beens and more about these little cuties.  Now that they have germinated, I’ll be watching closely for their true leaves to appear (the ones that come after their initial set of leaves, sorta like baby teeth).  Once that happens, I’ll be thinning out any extras that are crowding the trays and then start hardening them off in about another two or three weeks, depending on each crop.

Of all the little thrills and victories in the garden, nothing quite beats seeing the seedlings come up!  I’m now dreaming of arrangements of chartreuse green “Envy” zinnias and the beautiful blue salvia I just bought from the nursery.  Sigh….  

That trip to the nursery was quite fun in-and-of-itself.  There were little wagons to pull around that I got to fill with all manner of perennials, annuals, and biennials.  My favorite find was a new herb (to me) called stevia that I am in love with now.  Can’t wait to get back in the kitchen and start making some sweet dishes with it.  By the way, I swear there’ll be a new recipe up on here sometime soon!  Thanks for being understanding about the little lull.

How are your gardens doing this spring?  Is everyone as dry as we are here?  There’s been only an inch of rain in the last six-seven weeks.  Now’s a great time to think about hunting out more native plants for your gardens since native varieties are often much more drought tolerant than those species that have been brought in from elsewhere.