garden progress

I planted out the arugula into the garden, and dill seedlings into window boxes on the deck railing. More on those later, when I have time to sit down and upload photos. Sowed beets and Swiss chard directly, after soaking the seed. I made little labels out of strips of cedar shims written in marker for the rows, because I want to make note of which chard grows better, my old store bought packet which might be too aged to germinate now, or my saved seed. And which type of beets we prefer the flavor of, since I planted three varieties.

I'm starting to throw out some older seed from my jars, which don't seem to be germinating well anymore. Seems not all of my saved seed is viable from last year. I had very few marigolds and tithonia sprout in the trays, it's just enough but thin compared to the numbers I actually put in there.

Potted up the tithonia, tomato and marigold seedlings.

This little torchflower has the seed casing still adhering to edge of a leaf

Yesterday I started my final batch of seed in trays. Basil, two kinds of bush beans, summer savory, chives, cosmos, parsley, cucumbers, nicotiana, sweet potato vine, and the flowers my husbands aunt sent, I think they are hollyhocks and something else. ...

I started the beans with some trepidation, as I love the taste of fresh picked green beans but struggle every year with them getting disesase from the insects. I'm not going to pick aphids to feed my fishes this year,  but douse the plants regularly in soapy water in an effort against that. I've not had any luck yet trying to grow chives from seed, so might toss that packet if they fail yet again. The sweet potato vine are an experiment, it's the three seeds I got from the flowers that bloomed wondrous surprise last year. Thought I had seed for oregano and thyme but I don't, so will have to pick up started plants when I go back to get stevia.