New cedar trellis

My hubby made me a gorgeous cedar trellis for additional gardening space.  When I commented on how pretty it was, and how we could put more tomatoes there, he built a sf box to go under it:

This will allow me to plant an additional four tomato plants here, using the smaller Siberian cherry tomato seeds I ordered this week.    So excited for March 15, when I can start my tomato seedlings.


Since you can see this trellis outside the kitchen window, I plan on putting sweet peas between the tomatoes to have some flowers growing up the side of the shed.  Gorgeous addition!

Siberian tomatoes?

Has anyone had any experience in growing Siberian or Russian heirloom tomatoes?   They are more set to shorter growing seasons and colder climates, so I'm going to order some seeds to give it a whirl. 

Got my belated birthday gift yesterday!

I love making cards, I love idea books and I love Wendy Sue Anderson's style of scrapping.  When I saw she coordinated a book entitled A Card A Day with 365 cards, I couldn't resist purchasing - but couldn't find it local anywhere.  Had to special order, and just picked it up last night (after waiting a month).   I'm excited to get caught up and inspired to continue on with a year's worth of cute ideas.    I'll be posting hopefully 3x a week with the creations.  :)    Once gardening season hits, might be more like once a week.  

Speaking of, I got too antsy and started marigold seeds on Sunday in a window ledge greenhouse (aka plastic tray and cover, with 24 peat pellets inside).    These were the 20 cent packs you can get at Walmart (American Seed Co) and I figured why not give it a shot; if they only half germinate, I'm out 10 cents and 2 bucks on peat pellets.   It said germination takes 10-14 days.   On Thursday I was so excited to see sprouts!!  This morning there are sprouts in almost every peat pellet (we put 2 seeds in each).     So I grabbed my other window ledge greenhouse and started the broccoli seeds.  I will move those outside once they get started, since they are a cool weather crop and we have been having  a lot of 50 degree days already.   The soil in my square foot boxes is awesome; I added a bucket to each of compost from my composter and it looks so rich and healthy.   I never understood when people said that gardening was so satisfying but I get it now!     My challenge - finding nice bigger containers for the deck similar to the 5 gallon Homer buckets you can buy at Home Depot for $5.   I don't want to spend $40 on buckets to try tomatoes but the 8" pots I used last summer just didn't cut it - I think the tomatoes were too crowded and didn't produce much.    I would like to use the bigger buckets as "hanging basket" type plants and let the tomatoes grow out the bottom while putting herbs in the top.    That also helps keep the slug issue at bay, which we definitely have plenty of here in Washington.  My hubby laughs as I head out at 10 pm with a pair of tongs and a tub of salt water.  They will not win!  ;) 

Where does the time go?

Already February.   Looking up for some prospects, and enjoying some nice weather (ok, 45 isn't great but it isn't raining all day long so I'll take it!).      :)