That right there? That's about it for now! All these little seed-babies under the light on the end table, pretending it isn't near-freezing overnight these days, waiting for us to move them to the new house.
The apples and the sea buckthorns have sprouted, and I'm super-excited about both.
The buckthorns are from Biodiverseed in Denmark (did I mention this before? I can't remember.), and of the five seeds I planted, three sprouted so far and two have finally lifted their little heads. They almost have leaves!
The apples were from Braeburns, and I'm hoping they're true, because Braeburns are my favorite, but even if they aren't, they'll be, what, probably crabapples? Which I can handle. They flower pretty and make a nice jelly. Or! Maybe they'll be some other neat new kind of Apple from a mutation! Who knows! Future-me will! Anyway, they were already sprouted in the fridge when I went to check on the stratifying babies, so I planted them. One has the very start of first leaves, and there's I think two others, just straightening up toward the light.
No word yet from the vitex, elders, mimosas, or my one little moringa seed that I feel like should have sprouted by now. Also no word from the avocado or the mango.
I just planted nine fat honey tangerine seeds today, so I hope they come up! They're yummy, and one of the few things I miss from Florida is the super-easy-to-get citrus.
Outside, the mums are doing okay, all the saplings have lost their leaves after putting on their first ever fall colors, and the various bulbs are all waiting for spring.
Inside, I have two sprouted onions I found cleaning out the pantry, the jade plant and the prickly pear are resting and not freezing, the strawberries an peppers have decided to die back after all, and I'm collecting seeds. I got some from The Snarky Gardener for free (two kinds of tomato and some seven-top turnips), and from Trade Winds Seeds (tomatoes I've never seen before, okahijiki, sweet datil and aji dulce peppers, some neat looking beans, and NOT seven million exotic trees I wouldn't get fruit from for a decade).
I have plans to hit up Harris Teeter for grow-ables soon (they have sunchokes, itty bitty potatoes, pomegranates, citrus, root veg, and I'm hoping, soon, chestnuts). And I'll just be sprouting seeds left and right all winter until, like, February, when I give in and start growing the annuals for the actual food part of the garden--you know, the lets-not-starve main point of expanding the garden.
The new garden will be shadier than the current one--we're going to be almost at the end of the building by the little patch of woods, rather than at the far other end, by the open space of the playground. I think it'll still get sunshine though, and the lack of a hedge should make up for some of the loss from the trees.
I'm going to see if there's edibles I can forage in that little woods--there's supposed to be hickory trees all over the place here, and who knows what herbs and greens and stuff. Maybe even some raspberries hiding; they're all over town, inconveniently close to the road, so maybe I'll find some hidden back there. Or I can plant some.
The stuff in the fridge is doing alright. Some of the stuff I gathered myself got moldy, and I think it was because I let it be too wet, so I cleaned, saved and replaced the baggies with much less moisture. I want to plant them! Oh! And my share of the Kent State study's pawpaw seeds came in--I'll be answering questions about how they grow and how I plant them and how they do in my climate. Which is cool, because they're US native, and maybe I can save them a little.
I missed the chance to plant a fall/winter crop this year, but I'm hoping to get greens, at least, growing into next winter, and hopefully some overwintering herbs, root veg, etc, so I can still eat from my garden when it gets cold.
So that's me. How's your garden growing (or not) right now?
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