Strawberries - 2

This year, we found a second gardening center/greenhouse and bought strawberry plants from both. The first store we went to only had two sets of 6 and 2 weren't doing so well, so when we saw the plants at the greenhouse, we added some of those as well. 

We'll likely go back to the greenhouse and get some more because those plants are doing MUCH better than the ones from the first store. The 2 that weren't doing well died completely and I'm having a much more difficult time strengthening the ones that did. Todays post shows a plant from the greenhouse rather than the gardening center. :)

This plant is doing really well. It's grown a ton, did well after the transplant and I'm hopeful that it will continue doing so :) Along with all the others one we got with it as well. Like with the tomatoes, we figure we'll transplant all the strawberries outside in about 2 - 3 weeks as well. And then just watch them grow!! 

Tomatoes - 2

I'm really excited about this post because I wasn't sure if I'd ever get to make it. After I got my tomato plants, I watered them and they all just started drooping. I wasn't sure if it was because they were to cold in the window or because of to much watering.

I posted in a local group, got a quick answer (it was way to much water) and some additional advice to help my plants out and now we have this: 

That's at least double, maybe even triple, the size the plants were just 6 days ago when I took pictures last. It blew my mind and is the exact reason I wanted to document my plants growth. I hadn't really thought they'd grown much until I took a look at the pictures I'd done before. :)

You probably noticed that my tomato plant is in a small styrafoam cup. Part of the advice I recieved was to transplant the tomatoes into a larger container and farther up closer to the bottom leaves to get them more stability. Boy did it help a ton! I got the cup idea after watching a pepper transplanting video from The Rusty Garden Blog (that guy clearly knows what he's doing so I thought it a trick worth following).

Going by what he said, I should be able to keep my tomatoes in these containers until it's safe to transplant them outside, which is just another 2-3 weeks away! I can't wait. And I'll of course continue to document growth each week until then.

Onion - 2

I've essentially got the same plans for my onions as I do for my garlic but possibly (if I have enough) for fajita mix too that we'll freeze :D 

As you can see, my onion plants didn't like being inside either. I'm not quite sure if it was to much water, not enough sun or what but a couple of them are a little wilty. Hopefully they are enjoying the sun that's out now! 

Garlic - 2

I love garlic. And I am especially looking forward to eating garlic I grew! My plans for this garlic is mostly salsa... but maybe some fresh cooking, ketchup and sauce too! We shall see :D 

Strawberries

Last year, strawberries were the only thing I actually got to eat that I grew... and I think the kids and I shared 2 rather small ones lol - Gardening was a bit of a fail for me last year. I've learned a ton more and am definitely hoping to be more successful this year though.

And to start off, we got 15 strawberry plants!

This one shows the most perfect flower, so I figured I'd share the picture of it. And the one behind it already lost its petals and looks to be on its way to forming into a strawberry :D YAY! :p

Being prego and all, strawberries have been one of my LARGEST craving... and if these plants make it where I can go out, pick a pound of fresh strawberries and eat them all in one sitting I shall be one very happy prego lady :p 

This is another one of the plants and the bud in the middle is taking on the starts of forming into a strawberry. Color me excited :p

I had these plants all inside because of the cold weather (though I'm using todays nicer weather to work on "hardening" all of my plants. I actually took to hand pollinating the flowers to see if we could go ahead and get a start on some actual strawberries! If you look at the bud going towards the bottom that gets cut off, it is also turning into a strawberry.

Beautiful. Just beautiful. And oh lord are they going to be tastey! 

Tomatoes

During the bad weather, we went to the local greenhouse and got 12 Roma tomato plants. They've been in the window seal since... and I'm very new to the tomato world, having never actually grown any before... so these little guys have me worried.

They are just a little droopy. Not all of them but about 1-2 in each set of 4. You'll see what I mean in the picture:

See what I mean. It's just a little... "bendy". I don't know if saying its wilted is exact right description. Others stay up nice and tall though. Definitely color me confused.

I asked in a local group and it was said that perhaps I've been over watering them so I'm going to let them enjoy the sun for several hours today and bring them in and be a little more careful about how much water I give them to see if that helps! :D 

Jalapenos - 2

When I first started working on this photo I figured I'd have to just say that Jalapenos must grow slowly because it looked the same as before... but first I went and looked at my last jalapeno post and there was a good change in growth after all so YAY!

I still think the plant is growing slowly in comparison to other plants I have going but have read that the amount of peppers it gives is plentiful. And I have several jalapeno sprouts going to! At first, I was only going to put some jalapenos in salsa to can for the year... but since I had sprouts going I figured why not get all I can get and pickle them for the year too! Every little bit will save money ;) 

Several of these plants are going to be a little waiting game for me. I had to carefully move them around before the roots all tangled with one another so they'd have space to grow and so they'd be easy to transplant into their own pots later.

To save on money, I figured I'd use pots I already had to get things started. It didn't hit me until last night while watching a The Rusted Garden video that styrafoam cups would make the absolute best and cheapest pots ever until the plants were large enough to go into larger pots.

Live and learn and save money next year ;) lol