The Growing Challenge – Stubborn Seeds and a general round up.

At our first early planting I put in a variety of seeds and most have popped up and are doing great, but a few are still no where to be seen.

The luffa, butternut pumpkin, cantelope (rockmelon) and bottle gourd seeds have not germinated. It seems odd because the Turks Turbin pumpkin was one of the first to pop up, and both watermelon seeds are doing well – so it’s not like the conditions are not right for pumpkin and melon seeds to germinate at least. Maybe the seeds are just duds? Though it seems odd that the one seed I used from four different plants are all duds? They didn’t even all come from the same company?

Anyway – I”ll put in a second round of seeds sometime this week and hope that they all come good.

Something is still eating our tiny pea seedlings. I thought it was slugs but maybe it is earwigs? I put in a slug trap and caught nothing. We’ve had problems with ear wigs and seedlings in the past and I’ve never managed to figure out a way of keeping them under control. It doesn’t help that the chooks got into the veggie patch the other day and scratched out a few peas… still we have at least 6 more plants that are looking like they won’t die, but whether they will ever grow big enough to have peas is another thing!

We have potatoes! Finally we have potato plants breaking through the surface and lots of them! Need to get some mulch on them asap!

We also have lettuce, bok choi and spinach seedlings coming up, which I probably should thin out but I am not sure I can be bothered. I was hoping the climbing rose seedling that stowed away in the pot of another plant my Mum bought up might take off and cover the fence providing a bit of summer shade for the lettuce and mint but obviously it is a slooooow grower (and it was teeeny tiny to begin with) so I might have to look at sorting out some shade for those as the weather gets warmer.

The rhubarb we divided and moved mostly looks ok. Some of the bits that were a bit dodgy to begin with are not looking crash hot but I have some hope they might come good and sprout again eventually. The three main bits that we moved are all looking ok, so while we are missing having rhubarb to harvest and eat hopefully in the long run we’ll triple our supply.

The strawberries are looking great! They are covered in flower buds and if they all turn into strawberries we’ll be feasting!

We are almost done preparing beds to be planted. Still trying to sort out what to put where and which plant likes to be near what and which plants we should definitely not put together! I think this is doing my head in! There are some zucchinis and cucumbers which could almost go in the garden already so I am thinking I might put them in as early little seedlings under plastic drink bottles for frost and bug protection, but we need to sort out a watering system first….

As always so much to do in the garden! Thank goodness the weather is much improved and the small boy is walking (and climbing on and off the trampoline by himself!!!) and much happier to be outside while I potter around in the garden. I’m so enjoying the Growing Challenge hosted by One Green Generation. I’m learning lots from all the great blogs that are participating and best of it motivated me to try some new things this year and I so keen to see how our new varieties grow. We are just loving this spring gardening!