Gardening update

We got this beautiful orchid from Hasting's Garden Center around valentine's day. Of all the orchids they had, only this one had buds that hadn't opened yet, more than four of them! I've been trying to carefully water it and give it the bright, indirect light it needs.

And look! It's started opening a new flower and it looks like a second is poised to go.

I remember that Kate at Hastings said that you could spray it with water instead of the water and dump method, but I can't find anything anywhere else about spraying and I don't want to spray the wrong thing. So back to the water and dump method.

At that same trip to Hasting's, I bought a bunch of seed packets to prep for my spring garden. I'm going to seed them in the Aerogarden (finally ordered the seed starter tray last week) and then I bought little pots for the seedlings to grow. I need to order deeper pots for the plants since mostly I only have shallow ones that aren't great for stuff except apparently spinach and lettuces. You learn so much after you buy all the wrong stuff!

Anyway, here is a list of all the seeds that I bought. They carried a wide range so I tried to get heirloom seeds if I could and failing that, I went for organic. Failing that, well, seeds are seeds, yes? For a beginner like me, they are.

A lot of these seeds say not to sow them indoors first but I am going to anyway. Except maybe lettuces.

- Eggplant: pingtung long. A chinese eggplant. It looks pretty similar to the eggplant we had good success with last year. I hope it turns out as well from seeds. Apparently, they are not for beginners. Who knew? This packet is Seed Savers Exchange, so they are heirloom seeds.

- Squash: patisson panache, verte et blanc. White and green-striped patty pan squash. Last year, all my squash didn't form any female flowers so we just ate them. Apparently, you are supposed to hand pollinate. I will keep an eye out for the female flowers. And maybe I'll plant a couple extra plants with the goal of only squash blossoms. :) These are heirloom seeds also.

- Cucumbers: homemade pickles. It's funny to think that the name of a kind of cucumbers can be "homemade pickles" but that's exactly why I chose this seed packet.

- Cherry tomatos: lizzano. The packet says perfect for hanging baskets and containers. I'm debating if I should put some hanging plants in the screened porch. The hooks are kind of high up and I'd like all my veg to benefit from wain. I guess we will see how I feel. Anyway, I tried for more compact plants where I could. These are semi-determinates, which I read about in my vegetable book. I think it has to do with the way it puts out shoots.

- Pole tomatoes: black krims. I'm a fan of the darker tomatoes. I think they are higher acid, but they are sure tasty. I also learned that you are not supposed to let them ripen all the way on the vine, just until they have pink shoulders. Then you let them ripen indoors. These are indeterminates.

- Tam jalapenos. The jalapenos were surprisingly prolific last year. I plan to plant a bunch of them to keep us in charred peppers and hot sauce gifts all year.

- Poblano chiles. Same idea. Never grown poblanos before.

- Caribbean red habaneros. For my habanero sauce.

- Cilantro. And now we get into the herbs. I don't really use that much cilantro unless we do tacos and such and havenm't really had much luck growing it. It prefers cooler weather. I'm going to try a couple plants indoors and see how that goes.

- Italian genovese basil. That's the stuff!

- True Greek oregano. Or so it says. It was the only oregano they had. Oregano is the key component to my chimichurri so it's great to have it always available.

- Italian flat parsley. I had two plants last year and they never gave me enough so I didn't have to buy it. But I suppose it did well enough on its own. This year, lots of them!!

- Chives. I never really remembered that I had chives, but I tried to put them on potatoes and such. They did only okay.

- Dill. The dill plant was doing really well until it got too cold. It was really nice to have it for potatoes and carrots. Oh, and dill pickles, the packet reminds me. Right, that.

- Flowers. I chose three packets of flowers that specifically said they were good for hummingbirds. We already have some that the hummingbirds like, but you can't have too many, can you?

So we will either have a super-abundant garden this year, or none at all. I'll set up the soaker hoses so that we don't just suffer from poor watering. So much to learn...

We're in zone 8 so the last frost date is March 15. Damn, I'm behind! Better get moving.