Thursday, February 25, 2010

I Caved and Bought Myself Some Dirt!

Can anyone blame me? We are just a few days shy of March and we woke up again to sub zero temperatures! Minus 11 to be exact! So while I was out driving my neighbors around I stopped at my favorite family run greenhouse! After my over-indulgence on homemade chocolate chip cookies that our home teachers from church brought by, I figured why not indulge some more? I've been craving dirt and sunshine for months now and since today was already turning out to be of caving to cravings I was justified and I caved big time! 40 pounds big time! 40 pounds of rich, thick and oh so lovely potting soil!
So after getting it home (and letting it defrost for a little while) and diverting everyone else's attention so I could enjoy without interruption, I set up shop on my stove top. I'm sorry if that if that is offensive to any of my readers, but as far as I'm concerned, its the only thing a ceramic cooktop is good for! One of these days I will have a lovely gas range, but in the meantime, if it takes up space in this little old house, its gonna have to serve a valuable purpose! Here is my soil, all ready to plant in. I'm starting artichoke seeds. I don't know how they will do, but I've spent the last couple of years researching how these things grow so I might try to have a successful crop here. The plants typically don't produce chokes in their first year of production, but this particular variety might bear this year if you can give the plants enough of a chill while they are still young. Its called vernalization. This will be a fun challenge. It will be even more fun if I can actually harvest something off of them!
In case you were trying to figure out what the red box under the clear lid to my seed flat was, its the antique Hopalong Cassidy lunch box my friend gave me. I store my seed packets in here. Isn't it a fun antique? Don't I have a nice friend?

4 comments:

Maria Babin said...

ooooooooo love that box!!! your project sounds fun. i wanna go out and buy me some dirt too! jardinerie de chevreuse here i come!

Tanya said...

You go girl!! I'm still scrubbing the dirt out from under my fingernails! LOL

christianne said...

Hop a long Cassidy lived in our town when I was a child in Palm Desert! I am curious about successful greenhouse gardening in our area, do you have any referrals for us?

Tanya said...

Thats really cool, Chris!

Greenhouse gardening, check with the university extention. They are great and very personable! Also, make friends with your favorite grower! My experience is they are really excited about what they do and are happy to share info. Lots of info online as well!