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Gapeys Grub

Paula Thomas's homestead and food adventures

Tag: Gardening

Must Grow Tomatoes

It’s the beginning of March and that is the time I start my tomato seeds. I love trying new varieties every year, but I always grow a few I’ve grown before because they are so good that I just have to grow them again. I will be growing 20 varieties this year and these are… Read More Must Grow Tomatoes

March 5, 2019May 13, 2020 gapeyLeave a comment

Best Fruit and Vegetable Varieties to Grow

I have been growing a wide variety of fruits and vegetables in the garden the past couple of years and have a few favorites I wanted to write about that I’ll definitely grow again and think you should try too. Garlic I prefer the hard neck varieties of garlic because I enjoy the garlic scapes… Read More Best Fruit and Vegetable Varieties to Grow

December 30, 2016May 13, 2020 gapey1 Comment

Tomato and Pepper Varieties 2016

An assortment of last year’s varieties (Dester & Latah not pictured) I’m growing more varieties of tomatoes than I did last year as if 15 wasn’t enough. I’ve got 22 varieties started. I’ll just be putting one plant of each in the garden but have started 3 of each and will be selling off the… Read More Tomato and Pepper Varieties 2016

March 4, 2016May 13, 2020 gapey1 Comment

Seed Swaps – Free Seeds

I’ve become addicted to seed swaps over the course of a year. There are so many different ways you can get seeds besides buying packets online or at your local big box stores. I can’t even count the number of seed swaps I’ve participated in the last year. I’m sure it’s over 20. I should… Read More Seed Swaps – Free Seeds

February 9, 2016May 14, 2020 gapeyLeave a comment

2015 Bean Varieties

I’ve never grown beans from seed before but harvested what was already planted by previous owners last summer. I don’t even know what variety they were but they were obviously a pole bean and had nothing to climb on which made it a challenge to harvest. I didn’t save any of the seeds because I… Read More 2015 Bean Varieties

June 2, 2015May 14, 2020 gapeyLeave a comment

This Year’s Lettuce Varieties

In addition to planting a bunch of tomato and kale varieties, I’ve also planted quite a few lettuces (7 of them) and they are just about ready to harvest. There are a few more varieties I will be starting soon to replace these after harvesting. I had originally planned to put the lettuce in the… Read More This Year’s Lettuce Varieties

April 23, 2015May 14, 2020 gapeyLeave a comment

This Year’s Kale Varieties

  This is my first year planting kale however did have one variety (red russian) in the garden when I moved into the house last summer and it seemed to grow well. The previous owners of the house did not thin out the rows so they were pretty tightly packed. I’ll be giving them much… Read More This Year’s Kale Varieties

April 1, 2015 gapeyLeave a comment

This Year’s Tomato Varieties

Going from a teenie garden to a big one has made me go a little overboard on planting stuff. Even after adding two additional beds to the six I already had, it seems I don’t have enough room for all I want to plant. I used to plant typically 2 tomato plants in a container… Read More This Year’s Tomato Varieties

March 20, 2015 gapeyLeave a comment

Backyard Garden

This is my first year planning and planting a garden that is big enough to actually require detailed planning. I gotta say it’s kind of fun. My parents always had a garden in the backyard but the majority of it was filled with tomatoes and peppers and not much greens of any kind.  I also… Read More Backyard Garden

March 4, 2015May 14, 2020 gapeyLeave a comment

Garden Compass App

It’s been a busy few months! I unexpectedly sold my house to my neighbor’s sister and managed, within a couple of months, to find a newer bigger and better home that’s 15 minutes closer to work. It was a little more than I originally planned to spend but still affordable. I had an awesome realtor… Read More Garden Compass App

August 27, 2014May 14, 2020 gapey1 Comment

Instagram

These violas are everywhere in the front yard. They spread super easy and for the most part we let them go where they want. They’re easy enough to pull out if they encroach on other plants. It’s a great ground cover and so beautiful when in bloom. The foliage isn’t bad looking either. What’s your favorite ground cover?
Has anyone grown Korean Dark Green peppers? The seeds were from @bakercreekseeds and 2 of the 3 plants have some variegation but far as I know they aren't supposed to be variegated but this is my first time growing them. 🤔 Have you grown them?
We were falling behind when things were blooming last year. But we got a heat wave over the weekend that got us caught up. Last two days we’ve had highs in the 80s which is very unusual for Western Washington this time of year. This pulmonaria is one of many flowers that just opened up from the heat wave. Just love the foliage on this shade loving plant and it’s deer and rabbit resistant!
The bees are filling up their boxes fast this year and this nice weather has them bringing in nectar earlier than usual. No one seems to know what they’re foraging on since big leaf maple isn’t quite in bloom yet. I put honey supers on the 2 front yard hives and one of the backyard hives so we’ll see what they bring in this spring. Got a new mated queen from @snohobeeco since the one I split a few weeks ago didn’t appear to raise one themselves. The challenge now is to not let any swarm and hopefully not split any until after maple is done. Splits during a main honey flow reduces the amount they make so I avoid it if possible.
Happy #flowerfriday! The fritillaria (checkered lily) are blooming. Glad I saw them before the slugs got to them all. They had already taken out a few of the blooms. Such a unique flower! 😍 What’s your favorite spring flower?
I’ve been working on a grow tent makeover. @official_marshydro gifted me a TSL 2000 to replace my old blurple Maxsisun to finish it off. You’ll be seeing more of this light in upcoming grow room videos. The unboxing and assembly is up now on my channel. Do you use LED grow lights?
I’ve been working on getting the annuum peppers potted up into larger containers. Only 18 more to go! This variety I got from Timothy Moltrup. He calls it Chloe’s sweet tangerine.
I decided to do an experiment after pruning some of my fig trees. Several of them did not fully lignify for the winter and were still somewhat green. I couldn’t find any info on if these type of cuttings would root so I gave it a try and this white madeira looks very happy so I guess it can be done. I like rooting in these clear cups so I can see the root development to help determine when to pot up into a bigger container. I keep the roots from light by keeping in a solid cup which also allows for bottom watering.
This white seeded samara lettuce is so pretty and is cold hardy too which I learned by mistake. The starts I shared yesterday all spent the night outside and got hit with a low of 26 degrees. Everything was pretty frosty in the morning but everything survived! I’d say they’re ready to go in the ground.
Been working on hardening off the first trays of starts this week and will be having a small plant sale. The summer starts will be available next month. I’ve got lettuces, kales, broccoli, celery, thyme and calendulas in this batch. I still need to get some of these potted up into 3.5” pots. Who wants some?
@maginashun found a cute potting bench at @secondusebuildingmaterials for my grow room! Just finished filling it up and getting ready to pot up some more peppers. Love it!
Look at how beautifully red this anemone is? @haldengarden sent me a great collection of them last year to try out and I get excited for each to bloom because they’re all different. Do you grow anemones?

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