Summer Seedlings

I carved out some time to sow herbs and summer vegetables! I didn't go crazy since I'm  the only person in the household who has any time to tend to the garden right now. I am sure in June when I'm 9 months pregnant, I will have little desire to anything outside! Here's what's growing:

I buy loads of cilantro, and since many recipes don't call for a whole bunch I end up throwing so much of it in the compost bin. The plant bolts and goes to seed really fast which changes the flavor, so I'm going to plant it every 2-3 weeks to keep a constant supply.

These are sugar babies. They are so easy to grow! Last year when I gave up on my garden, these still produced 3 melons with basically minimal water and attention. They are perfect for the Square Foot Garden because they are small and you can train them up a trellis.

One of my favorite memories is eating pickled okra that my Aunt Angie canned. I am going to plant 8 more plants so I can have her show me how! The only way I would eat it as a kid was pickled, but now I love it cooked any way, so I want to make sure we have plenty!

This is another herb I buy often and end up throwing out at least a 1/4 of the bunch. Happens with almost every herb I buy. Cilantro & Parsley are the only two I ever see for less than a dollar a bunch at the grocery store, so this will save SO MUCH MONEY! I'm waiting on the Italian Parsley to germinate. I might soak some seed overnight and then plant it to see if that helps speed things up - it's been over 2 weeks!

These are bush beans.  They grow in the form of a bush, so I don't have to worry about trellis. 

There is also a cucumber peeking in the bottom left of the picture. Only one plant germinated and that's fine for now, I'll plant more in July for the late summer garden.

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I am most excited about these! They are jack-o-lantern  & pie making type! I only planted two because that will be plenty for our family. I am not going to trellis these, but just let them run over the side of the bed into the yard since we have plenty of space right now.

By the way, these last two pictures show a little soil block action. My soil mix is not ideal. I just used what I had on hand and they didn't stay into a "block" very well. The watermelon blocks completely fell apart which is why they are in little gelato cups. This summer I am going to work on buying the ingredients for the soil block recipe I have that people all over the web use with great success. Oh, and some trays. I am currently using the tops to storage tubs!

Stella and I are off to the garden to get these transplanted! The herbs are staying on the back deck for easy access. I don't plan on doing much more planting besides more okra and cilantro until July to get ready for the late season/fall garden. 

I'm also going to start a YouTube channel and do video updates on the garden inspired by the Donna's Square Foot Vegetable Garden videos I love so much. I've already taken the first one, I just hate uploading and editing pictures and videos on this computer! I'm so ready for an iMac. I'll update as soon as I get the video loaded!