Our Green Babies

He says:

   I fancy myself a bit of a gardener, and the "bit" should be stressed.  While I have grand plans for our future property, right now I have to settle with what we have - a 1'x12' gardening strip on the side of our house.  I've heard that we all have to start somewhere.

Ample gradening space, eh?

    Last year I planted so many things, but I think a mixture of bad germination rates from the seed packets and a horde of voracious slugs claimed everything but two cucumber plants, one pitiful daikon radish and tons of mustard greens in pots.  Fun fact: you can scorch your mouth by eating raw, fresh mustard greens.  Every salad that I had only had one ingredient (mustard greens) and each one ended with me crying from the heat.

   This year I learned from the my previous mistakes and bought some plants as transplants and then seeds from a reputable source that moves a lot of product so they should be fresh.  So far the strawberry and cabbage transplants are doing well, the peppers not so much probably because we get a paltry amount sun on the side of our house.  We have 2 strawberries!  It appears that our slug problem is still the death of most of my seeds so I decided to grow them as transplants.

Our strawberry crop so far

   Last weekend Abby and I planted 20 seeds in tiny seedling containers.  We've got kale, malabar and regular spinach, swiss chard, and cucumbers.  Abby only helped me because cucumbers were included, just kidding?  The idea is that we will transplant these seedlings once they sprout then move them into a bigger containers and then finally into the ground.  That way when the ravenous slugs emerge from their vile ground dwellings and descend upon my garden the plants will have a little more defense than if they were just seedlings.

   So far two of the kale "babies" have emerged.  Nothing else yet, but I guess it's still early.  Every day I take them out in the morning, water them, and then bring them back in at night so they're safe.  I can't wait to taste them.
 

Look at those babies!