Too much energy usage?

If you are like me you start your garden indoors months before planting season. But the month of March, at least in New England, is still dark and dreary and cold so everything needs extra love and warmth. Enter the grow lights.


My lighting system is totally DIY and the lights aren’t technically grow lights but fluorescent shop lights that I got at Home Depot.

In total I have 8 hooked up in there and the GE Slim Line lights are linkable so they are only taking up 3 outlets. I am supposed to be able to link 10 together but that would be if they were all in a straight line – the alignment I have them in only allows for two at a time. Thankfully for the linking ones because my surge protector is out of control.


My concern about all this extra seedling love is that those lights are on roughly 12 hours a day, 7 days a week! I think fluorescents are more energy friendly than regular lighting but still I worry about how much I am putting into this process and sucking the life out of the energy grid. This is something I have been thinking about since the other night when I was sitting outside at about 9:30pm and noticed that the lights were still on and boy do they light up the driveway!

Would it be more efficient for me to just buy the plants that are shipped from God knows where and packed in non-recyclable pots? I really enjoy they whole process of growing my own seeds and I feel so much accomplishment when it actually works! I like knowing that they are organic seeds in organic seed starting mix and started in cow/peat pots. How do you balance off the amount of energy used versus the peace of mind that knowing what you are growing is safe?

Another rainy weekend

It's been raining again and it is supposed to get down to the mid-thirties tonight. I heard on the news that there is a chance of snow in parts of New England too! So much for Spring, huh?
I was able to harvest some asparagus last weekend. The stalks were very thin but I couldn't help myself - I just had to cut them. Don't they look pretty?
I have plans to go to Depot or maybe the Grossman's Outlet to buy some wood to build a melon/squash trellis. I got this super easy design from Organic Gardening. It looks like even I can do this and I stink at building things!
I am already looking at more spring bulbs for the front and side yard. This year all the giant hyacinths came up and the rest of the yard looks so blah. I love the look of all that color blooming after a long, dreary winter and Brecks has a $25 coupon if you spend $25 along with a $10 saving if you spend $75 or more. Sounds like a plan to me!
The lettuce in the garden now is officially stolen. Every little seedling is gone. Hopefully the ones in the window boxes will stay put. Not sure if the Swiss Chard seeds got stolen too. As of right now I have nothing coming up. The purslane on the porch is finally starting to come up. I am not sure if everything is just slow to germinate or it is because of this crazy weather we have been having. Fingers crossed that eventually the real Spring will arrive and everything will just pow - pop up.

Holy Heatwave!!!!!

Starting on Saturday it has been 90+ degrees!!! This from on Thursday being 50-60 - what a crazy climb in temperature. My tomatoes and cukes are loving it - but not so much for the lettuce. You know it is hot when the Rhodies start to droop! My roses started to bloom and MUCH better than any other year. Here is a picture of the two that are on my side yard. The one on the left was a spindly little thing last year and look at her now - almost the same size as her neighbor! I guess a little love and some "roses alive" from Garden's Alive really does the trick!


Even the rose bush out back that came up with only one bloom last year is doing well.


I wanted to capture my garden now while it is still in the infant stage. I did have to trash the sugar snap peas - they just didn't cut it. Only one survived and instead I plated a number of different bush and pole beans.



The first photo captures my cukes, lettuce (both romaine and buttercrunch) edamame, and beans. Keep in mind that I just plants the bean seeds yesterday so there really is nothing to see yet.



The second photo is of my Thai hot peppers (to deter the critters), yellow and green zucchini and tomato plants. I added some marigold seeds throughout the garden as well as in pots to hopefully help with the critters. I also planted some Nasturtium plants that will hang along the fence again in the hopes to keep the thieves at bay.

Yup, I grow Herbs too

So I have been focusing a lot on my garden here but wanted to share the success I am having with my basil plants. Originally I planned on growing them in the garden but it seemed cramped at the time so I chose not to. What a great choice - because now everything is growing out of control (and that is SUCH a good thing) I am glad I planted them in containers on my porch. I have two types growing - sweet basil and purple basil. Both shown here


I have only picked the sweet basil so far and made a great tomato, basil, mozzarella salad (unfortunately not my tomatoes yet - but still organically grown).
Not too much labor intensive news to report - just the typical weeding and watering. But I do have to say that I now have four tomatoes on the small plant and only two on the large one and many, many flowers so I am hoping for a "bumper crop".
The cucumbers have started to grow the vines and are attaching nicely to the lattice in the back - and a little to the tomato plant so I had to unwind it and guide it back to the lattice - hopefully it stays there. I have also gotten cuke flowers already. They seem a little to small to be forming flowers at this point, but if it is ready then so am I!
The buds have formed on all the red pepper plants and on one or two of the green pepper plants. The green ones just aren't taking as well as the red so I have given them a little extra "Veggies Alive" fertilizer to help them along.
I just harvested my first crop of buttercrunch tonight. We are having a family cookout this weekend so I wanted time to rinse cut and mix it all before then. Not too mention they were getting huge and I was afraid it would be too bitter if I waited any longer. And for the fact that it has been 90 degrees the past three days I didn't want them to bolt to fast.
I still need to show my watermelon experiment to you - but the pictures keep coming out so crappy you can't really see the results that well. Stay tuned for more.....