getting in the zone

by Stacy

When we moved, we left a hardiness zone 4 for a hardiness zone 10 (find your zone here). It’s taking a little work for my brain to transition from putting the garden to bed or bringing pots inside to …. planting seeds. Last fall, I brought my tomatoes inside to eke out a few more ripe ones, and my rosemary and parsley survived the winter indoors.

Not all of our pots are here yet, so we bought a handful for the patio. For seeds, I started some mixed lettuce, basil, fennel, parsley, and kale. The lettuce sprouted in four days! So did this herb (I didn’t label them, so it’s a surprise):

tiny sprouting seed

I love this little trio of pots we got from IKEA. Too cute! The sprouts will outgrow them quickly, but that’s ok.

trio of tiny planters

The plants we bought at Armstrong Garden Center included tomatoes (Early Girl, Roma, and Balconi Red) and a jalapeno. We’re trying to grow salsa.

fall garden 9/26

The tomatoes are either flowering or producing fruit already since we’re sort of between seasons right now. It’s probably an odd time to be buying plants, but we didn’t have a place to put them several weeks ago!

We also want to get some flowers to keep near our front door. I will probably end up growing them from seed once we decide what we want and I get back to the garden center. We don’t really know what does well here, so everything takes a bit more forethought and planning.

And, of course, there’s our lime tree.

thorn!

Be careful, it’s sharp!

I have a few more seed packets but no more pots. It’s so strange to be planting seeds now, but I am excited to have fresh herbs and greens! Once I have the space, I’ll plant arugula and scallions, too. Yum.

Anyone else have a fall garden? Indoor, outdoor, herbs, veggies, fruit, what-have-you?

{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

Birch October 1, 2009 at 6:54 am

Are you sure those aren’t shot glasses?

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stacy October 1, 2009 at 10:13 am

Hah, no they are not. They are 2.75 inches in diameter according to IKEA.
Well, unless you’re drinking some serious shots. O_O

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Helen October 1, 2009 at 8:19 am

Classic winter annuals for around here (zone 10) are pansies and snapdragons.

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stacy October 1, 2009 at 9:54 am

Ooh, I love snapdragons. Thank you!
My husband and I were both raised in the Midwest and the local plants are so mysterious to us. We’re planning to order at least a region-specific gardening book and possibly a field guide so we know what things are!

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Helen October 1, 2009 at 7:46 pm

If you buy the Sunset Western Garden Book, it’ll be a long time before you need anything else.

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