After Challenge Update: The Seed List

It was a fun 30 days, but I have to admit I am relieved it’s over. My backyard is becoming a bit overgrown and my attention needed to be out there with all the currently growing plants. However, I have quite a lot coming on indoors which tickles me to see. I’m so glad we planted for a solid 30 days!

So here’s the breakdown of what we planted this month….

Cilantro 
For these seeds, we actually used three different sources. The first  was an older packet and they were planted in the north kitchen window. The next was also planted in the north kitchen window, but the seeds used were directly off a flower that had finished blooming. Both of these are growing a bit slow, due to low light conditions. The final seeds were from a free packet we received from Baker Creek Seeds, sown upstairs under grow lights with quite a few other plants. This one is strongest of the bunch, fully caught up and grown taller than the others.

Cilantro sprouts

Catgrass
Over the month I gave a few updates on the cat grass. It’s still growing fine, but may need replanted again soon. The cats are chowing it down at a fairly fast rate. We used the same seeds through the entire challenge and I do highly recommend them. They were from Amazon, specifically Renee’s Garden Cat Grass Mix.

Cat Grass

Forget-Me-Nots
These aren’t doing the greatest in pots. The flowers in the fairy garden were doing better than the ones in an individual pot, until the cats thought the fairy garden was a bed for them. I’ll have to do a bit of work on our fairy garden and hopefully the Forget-Me-Nots will survive. I don’t blame the seeds or the seller, just myself for improper care of seedlings. If you are interested in trying them out, they were Cape Forget-Me-Not (Anchusa capensis) Seeds by Seed Needs

Garlic Bulbs
I have a hell of a time keeping garlic alive, and this one was no different. For this experiment I did not use seeds, but rather scraps that we had from a store-bought garlic clove. It was sprouting just fine when I planted it, but I believe the soil was far too rich and moist to keep it going. I started over with new scraps since I am determined to grow garlic correctly.

Lettuce
I’m happy to report the lettuce is doing just fine in the big indoor box in our south window. The seeds we planted this month are still little sproutlings, yet the lettuce that went in a month ahead is nearly ready to harvest. It’s hard to find the little guys right now, but I assure you there are there and growing. I’m sure they will grow a little better once the big guys are out of the way. If you do purchase Butterhead Buttercrunch Lettuce Seeds from Botanical Interest on Amazon, make sure the seller is No Thyme Productions as we have had no issues with their seeds.

Butterhead Lettuce

Salad Mix
Growing beautifully with a random amaranth under grow lights, the salad mix is getting close to harvest. I can’t wait to mix this with the buttercrunch lettuce! These seeds were purchased last year at Target, so obviously they were Burpee brand.

Catnip
These seeds don’t have the best germination rate (and honestly, I doesn’t matter where you purchase them – catnip just IS hard to germinate from seed), yet we’ve got a few just beginning to sprout.  I see no problems with this plant as the hardest part is over. Now it’s just a matter of keeping it properly watered and growing along side the other two plants.  If you are interested in growing catnip from seed, I highly recommended Organic Catnip Seeds from Ohio Heirloom Seeds on Amazon.

Oregano
Also just beginning to sprout and going strong. The other oregano growing in the house is also doing well, even when I don’t get them watered right away. The oregano actually prefers not to be overwatered. Organic Oregano by All Good Things Organic can be found on Amazon.

Dill
Sprouting like mad, although not nearly fast enough to keep up with the amount of cucumbers we’ve harvested. I had to break down and purchase dill seeds to make pickles. Hopefully we can keep a better stock of both dill and dill seeds in the future. There was enough in the packet we purchased (Botanical Interests Bouquet Dill Seeds) and they germinated perfectly, we just haven’t planted enough. Really these should have gone outside earlier this spring, but too late now. We just have to make due with them indoors.

Dill sprouts

Potatoes
The original bucket of potatoes is still growing strong, with the newer ones just starting to sprout. So far the weather outside has cooperated and given us plenty of rain. When it starts to cool off this fall, both buckets will have a home inside to finish flowering. Thankfully the spot is all set up and currently growing carrots and peas.

Bucket Potatoes

Rosemary
These herb sprouts aren’t getting a whole lot of sun right now and are a bit blocked out by the rest of the plants growing in the big south window tub. It’s fine they take their time grown, as I really only planted them as a companion herb for the rest. I don’t cook with it often, so don’t have a clue what to use it for when it matures. Thankfully I still have time to figure it out.

Peas
Since they are just starting to pop out of the dirt, there isn’t much to report on how these are doing inside or how they’ll do this fall when I go to transplant them. I am pleased to see them sprouting inside the big bucket though, as I’m anxious to see if they produce well.

Snow Pea Sprout

Ground Cherries
I couldn’t believe how fast these guys sprouted as they were toward the end of the challenge. Yet there they are, every seed planted is coming up. They’ll be transplanted to the big bin upstairs with the peas as soon as they are big enough.

Onion
Apparently much easier to keep alive than garlic, the onion is sprouting and growing in a bucket outside without trouble. We’ve had some big storms roll through as well that didn’t seem to bother them in the least. In fact, they grew extremely fast and furious in the short time they’ve been sitting in a bucket outside.

Onion Sprouts

Carrots
I was afraid there would be enough light for the Atomic Red Carrots to sprout, but I’m please to see they are sprouting beautifully. It only took them about a week to pop out of the dirt.

Morning Glories
We’ve had a special set of issues with the morning glories. A few nasty storms knocked over the fence and I’m honestly not sure how many are going to survive. Lesson learned – wood posts don’t necessarily stay put in rich soil, especially when massive amounts of vines are weighing them down. We plan to replace the wood posts next year with metal, or at least set up a more sturdy structure for them to climb on.

 

So far, that’s all we’ve got growing. Some of the other seeds will take a good month to even sprout, and some I gave up on completely (like the Lemon Balm – I have been offered cuttings from established plants, so will go that route since the seeds gave me such trouble). All in all though, we’ve added a lot indoors and out, so the challenge was well worth it. 🙂

 

 

Challenge Day 20: Update

Today I planted the last round of cilantro for the month, but wanted to give a few update. There are all kinds of fun sprouts popping up from all the seeds and bulbs I’ve planted thus far.

 

Cilantro

If you’ve been following along, you’ll know I’ve planted different cilantro seeds twice before today. The first ones in the window are sprouting, but slower than the planter upstairs under florescent lights. I don’t believe the kitchen window gets nearly enough sun to get herbs started properly, but it’s an alright spot after they are established.

Cilantro Sprouts (grown under florescent lights) 

Catgrass

Have I mentioned how easy it is to grow grass for the cats? Even the seeds I planted a few days ago are sprouting already!

Cat grass is growing beautifully!

 

Forget-Me-Nots

I wasn’t sure how these were going to get along inside, but so far they are looking pretty good. Both containers we planted these seeds in are sprouting. Really can’t wait to see how these flowers look in the fairy garden.

Forget-Me-Not sprouts

 

Garlic Bulb

We planted this guy 2 weeks ago and he’s still going strong. I honestly think I should have used a slightly better draining and lighter soil, although I have resisted the urge to over water it. My other attempts at growing garlic outside have not worked out well, I suspect due to our backyard soil being too heavy and rich.

Garlic Bulb Sprouting

Salad Mix

Another set of easy growing seeds that have exploded in sprouts. SUPER excited about this one, since these little salad sprouts are right on track with the lettuce planted a month ahead. They should all be ready to eat at the same time.

Mesclun Salad Mix

 

 

Lettuce

The seeds that were planted this month probably won’t go with the salad mix, but are sprouting just the same. They should be starting to mature after the first round of lettuce is done. We’ll be sure to plant the salad mix again soon to go with this batch.

Little Lettuce Sprouts

 

 

Tiny Sprouts

Oregano, roman chamomile, and catnip have all just barely come up. The oregano and catnip  sprouted just fine under florescent lights (daylight spectrum bulbs, not generic fluorescent bulbs). The roman chamomile, which I was most concerned with in the fairy garden, is just barely peeking out through the soil.

Some of the trickier seeds haven’t come up, although I didn’t fully expect them to just yet. Some will take nearly a month to sprout and some haven’t even finished the stratification process. When they do, I’ll be sure to post updates of them as well!

Challenge Day 17: Cat Grass Round Two

The cat grass planted at the beginning of this challenge is growing wonderfully and has done it’s job keeping the cats out of the big garden bin in the window. It was time to fill in some gaps and replant the older containers so they have a constant supply of fresh grass to snack on.

Love love LOVE this Cat Grass Mix from Renee’s Garden. It’s fast and super easy, even with my rambunctious bunch of felines. One of the planters we planted at the beginning of the challenge got knocked over almost immediately, and I never did put in more dirt or fix it back up very well. The grass grew anyway, but I finally fixed the missing section and added a bit of dirt.

This planter was knocked over the first day. It still grew!

Replanting these seeds is simple. All it requires is to be pushed slightly into the dirt and watered. Nothing special. I probably could be letting some of these plants go to seed so it could replant itself, but I rarely take them away from the cats in time. We did see one plant go to seed one time, but the cat ate it before I could collect it.

Cat grass is growing beautifully!

I’ll be ordering a new pack of seeds soon, as this pack is getting a little low. All in all, this was an excellent purchase, since the small pack of seeds lasted us nearly a year! I’m planning on trying out some other seeds from Renee’s Garden soon, since we’ve had nothing but good luck and healthy plants from them thus far.

Challenge Day 10: Catnip

Hard to believe I’m a third of the way done with the 30 days already, with lots of seeds left to go. I am running a little short on room in places, but we’re figuring it out pretty well on the fly. Today I added another container that just barely fit upstairs: Catnip.

We’ve already got a few containers of catnip growing successfully, but since we snip from them so much (catnip makes a wonderful tea for me and my daughter), I decided we should have another plant. The current plants are struggling a bit with all the clippings and few attempts the cats made to eat them.

Catnip

 

In the new container, I used dirt from the backyard. Specifically, I took a few shovels from near a transplanted catnip plant. So I know the dirt is suitable for catnip, as the transplant about a month ago was successful. For the indoor plant, though, I used seeds purchased over the winter from Ohio Heirloom Seeds. These are the same seeds we used to successfully grow the current indoor plant.

I noticed that stratification is generally recommended for catnip seeds, although we did not do this step with any of the catnip seeds planted before. Instead, we placed about 10 seeds over wet dirt, then sprinkled a bit of dirt on the top before misting it with water. The new container is obviously in a safe place where the cats can’t get to, where it’s usually behind a closed door and under florescent lights.

Even though the germination rate of catnip is low, I still feel like the hardest part is keeping the plants away from the cats. We managed to set up a high enough shelf that they leave it alone while we’re watching, yet there has been a few accidents. Luckily, we caught them before they ate the whole thing and the plants grew back.

 

Upstairs Shelf and Lights

One thing I love about plants in the mint family is their ability to grow back stronger when cut. While I still have more seeds, I’m may propagate the next  plant from cuttings. I have never tried with catnip, but have been successful with actual mint and other plants.

Have you grown catnip before? How did you keep it from your cats?

Challenge Day 2: Cat Grass

The second day of the challenge we focused our attention a little less on our own needs and a little more on furry family in the house. Mainly, the cats and their grass.

While we love the idea of giving the cats their own plants, the bigger reason we plant cat grass is so that the cats will stay out of the other stuff we have planted. For the most part, when they have something familiar and proper to chew on, they spend less time trying to eat our peppers and other plants growing inside.

We do have cat grass growing, but it isn’t as fresh and lush as it was when it was first planted. Cat grass does need to be replanted from time to time. We also needed to do some rearranging, as we noticed our new set up in the main bay window inside isn’t as cat friendly as our last set up. The cats have been trying to climb into the new big bin and sit on top of my lettuce, so we need to set up a better barrier of grass so they aren’t interested in going further.

I decided to start with fresh planters for the cat grass and dug some out that I haven’t used in several years. These weren’t originally planters, so I put rock at the bottom so it would drain properly. Grass is pretty good about growing in any soil type, but I wanted to make sure it would drain at least a bit.

Cat grass seeds in recycled containers.

 

The next obstacle was where to put them. As mentioned, we wanted to block the cats off or at least divert their attention. I had some old encyclopedias stuffed away in the closet that I used to make the grass the same level as the other plants.

 

I thought I was being slick with this design, but it only took a few hours for the center container to get knocked over by the notorious calico who loves to cause a stir. We thought it might have been because the currently growing grass was in the back, so we switched the rows around so the growing grass was in front. So far it’s been left alone and nothing else has been disturbed. Here’s hoping it stays this way and we have no more accidents!

What are your biggest challenges gardening inside? Cats? Kids? Spouse? I’d love to hear it!

 

Growing Catnip with Cats

Catnip is a fun plant to grow indoors or out, and isn’t just for the cats. It’s actually an herb in the mint family and can be made into a tea. Catnip can also be a sleep aid for younger children, while providing relief from menstrual cramps in women and teens.

Growing catnip from seed, for whatever purpose, isn’t too terribly hard, but does have some challenges. Germination is low and can take near a month, so it’s usually better to start with a propagated plant. Personally, I like a challenge, so I purchased Organic Catnip Herb Seeds from Ohio Heirloom Seeds on Amazon.

After several sprouts germinated and I had gotten past the hardest part of growing catnip, I ran into another challenge: My cats. Obviously this was not a plant I could have in areas the cats could reach or even smell, which isn’t really anywhere in the house. My only option was upstairs on a high shelf, behind a closed door, where the cats only go when supervised. It really was the only option, sad to say, as anywhere else the cats will destroy it or destroy half the house trying.

Catnip in a shallow container.

While there have been a few accidents when a cat found the magic plant and chowed what he could before getting caught, the two containers we planted last winter are still thriving. They get trimmed about once a month for tea, with the cats getting stems and occasional leaves here and there. We’ve also dried some catnip in case these plants meet and untimely demise.

If you have a proper location and patience, starting catnip from seed can be a fun experience and great reward.