Starting Seeds

I do have another post to do about the rest of the spring vegetables that I have planted out in the garden, including the potatoes. But I wanted to take time to do a little post on starting seeds inside. I'm not so sure you can gain great expertise from me b/c I don't do anything crazy, but it might help. Side-note: I do dream about the day I can have a little greenhouse off the side of our shed! Maybe someday I'll get to the point where I start all my vegetables that don't go right in the ground. Although I have to say I get great pleasure out of going to various garden centers and buying.

I mostly start my annuals inside. I like to do a combo of starting the seeds and then also planting them right in the ground. It gives me a huge variety when they start blooming. My personal favorites are zinnias - I chose 5 different varieties from Renee's Garden. I love to have every color I can - purple, pink, red, orange, yellow, striped, you name it! I also like the variety in the actual flower whether it's a cactus petal, double or single petal.

I also started a few different kinds of cosmos: double click which has a double petal, regular sensation, and then a newer variety that I've done for a few years called Candy Striped. It has a white flower with pink tips - really really pretty. I love my cosmos really get going late in the summer and just 'flit in the wind!' Last year they didn't survive the hurricane.

The last flower started are snapdragons. I will never get enough of snapdragons in the summer. They just seem so dainty and pretty to me. I often end up buying tall white & pink, but I do try to start them. It's a really tiny seed so it's hard and I'm not always successful. I sprinkle them on the little peat pots and then keep the strongest.

That brings to me how I start the seeds... I have these 2 trays that I bought a few years ago that hold the small round peat pots. Peat pots are cheap so I get new ones every year just to protect from any disease, mildew or whatever may be around from the previous year. At the beginning I didn't pay too much attention to that stuff, but I do now. Experience... I can go on and on about how the first year I just put things in and didn't listen to all the 'advice' b/c I was 'just doing it.' Oh to be that naive again... you do have to pay attention, if you hate the  scientific side as I do. There are pests and disease and it's best to learn and prevent from the beginning. I put 2 seeds per pot exc the snaps which I sprinkle and keep the strongest.

If you look closely you can see that I started the tomatillos and one tomato - green zebra. I've never started tomatoes so we'll so how this goes. I'm not sure I get enough light where I have them - which is in our big, south-facing window. You can see that I put some plastic over which acts as a loose cover to keep moisture and heat in. I only did that for the first week as the seeds germinated. I've since removed it. I water every other day - just enough to keep them moist. I rotate the trays every week and turn them around. This is the second week so hopefully over the next 10 days we'll see true leaves. As the seedlings get bigger and stronger, I'll transfer them into larger pots. I'll post that. And then start to harden them off for a few hours a day in Mid-Late May.

Welcome to Turtle Knoll

Welcome to the blog from Turtle Knoll! As mentioned in the "About Me" section, my name is Ashley and I live in a agricultural community in Southern Rhode Island with my wonderful fiancee, Keith. This entry is going to be a little bit about what the intentions of this blog are, the inspirations for it and to get to know me some.

Over the last 10 years my life has completely changed! 10 years ago I worked in finance and had a certain 'idea' of what my life would be. Thankfully for me, that all changed! It hasn't been an easy road, but I couldn't be more delighted to be where I am now. The last 5 years have been building something wonderful, of which I feel incredibly fortunate to have every single day. Keith works crazy hours to build our security and I stay at home making sure our lives are somewhat organized and balanced! I love to cook, garden, craft, read and work on my photography & photo processing. I also like to make sure I see my niece & nephew, Keith's nephews, the rest of our families and friends on a very regular basis.

I am creating this blog as a place for me to document what goes on in our lives! The gardens, what we cook from the gardens and around the year plus whatever else comes in our path. Paper crafting is on another blog: ashleynewbert.typepad.com. 

I have spent the past 4 years restoring gardens that were here, adding my own tastes and building a huge vegetable garden. That is really the driving force behind the blog. I would like a place to keep track of the changing seasons, and the challenges and victories of those seasons. If there is one thing I've learned it's that the garden isn't quite as simple as putting a plant in the ground and watching it grow! I've learned quite a lot about the elements, nature, soil and anything else that can affect my garden. I still have quite a lot to learn. I would like to share some of what I've learned in hopes that others can build on the knowledge and hopefully I inspire!

My main inspiration has been my mother, Lillian. Growing up our yards were always beautiful - full of my Mom's creative touch. Gardens of vibrant colors that were in constant bloom from spring thru fall that made you want to be a part of what she created. I never understood it nor thought I'd be interested in it! I took it all for granted, never appreciating how much she worked at them. But once I was bitten by the bug, a container garden in Newport, RI, it's pretty much spiraled out of control! Now I've created my own little peace of heaven that is several acres of land with perennial gardens, annual gardens, a vegetable garden (that I fear is outgrowing it's 1000 sq foot space!), shrubs and  my new fruit trees.

Mom is also the inspiration for how I cook. The vegetable garden didn't start with my Mom, her father had probably the biggest home vegetable garden I've ever seen. This is how I was taught to cook - with whatever is fresh. And also basically everything is made from scratch. I have never really known a pantry that was full of canned foods - even down to spaghetti sauce. Salad dressing has always been homemade, she makes her dough (I'm slowly learning that!). There were times as a child that I resented these things, wanting american cheese and white bread, but now I appreciate it. This blog is also going to be a place that my Mom and I can compile our recipes as we try new things & develop existing recipes

I hope that this becomes a place that you like to see what is going on, my adventures in this newest season of the garden, and the recipes that we develop and share. On a personal level, Keith & I are embarking on a whole new journey of trying to expand our family. We've decided that adoption is our path so we're working with Adoption RI to hopefully help a child from our state that needs a loving home. We're currently in the throes of endless paperwork and inspections that will hopefully be done in the next few weeks. From there we'll see how it goes! We're very very excited.
A picture of the vegetable garden September 2011: