Gardening Update #1

I read a great quote here:

The most energy efficient thing you can do in your life is grow some of your own food. 40% of all the energy consumed by a city is the agriculturally consumed food. Growing your own food, that's an enormous action

It's from Geoff Lawton (or so Kelbot claims, I haven't checked), and it rings true. While I didn't know the quote then, it is that thought that motivated us to finally start growing our own food. It's been almost two months now, so I'd thought to write down how it's going so far, if only for my own reference.

At the start of March, when temperatures were still firmly below freezing point, the first seeds went into small greenhouses that fitted in the windowsill. Pak choi, red cabbage, pointed cabbage, peppers and strawberries. Several days went by but imagine the joy when the first little shoots peeked out from the dirt. The strawberries took longest to germinate, about two weeks.

The pak choi and red cabbage have moved to larger pots by now. Especially the pak choi is doing really well:

It's amazing how a relatively tiny stem is able to support a plant that's 20 centimers in height and has such lush leaves.

I should really move them outside at some point, but I'm a bit anxious. Last week, the temperature still dropped below freezing one night, and I need to figure out how to protect my babies from scrupulous predators such as snails and deer that will no doubt be eager to nibble on them.

The red cabbage is, as whole, doing a bit poorer. Maybe that's normal? Two or three out of the batch of six seem to take off really well, the others not so much. Fingers crossed!

The peppers, although second to last to germinate, are doing really well and growing steadily. I really need to repot them, I've been meaning to for two weeks now. I've got a long weekend coming up, so it'll finally happen.

The strawberries are real slow to grow, but they seem to be OK. I think that's just what strawberries do.

As for the pointed cabbage, I'm not convinced. I think I may have given them too much water initially. For good measure, I will repot them as well this weekend, give them some fresh soil to work with.

All in all, I'm pretty chuffed. Apart from some radishes as a kid, this is the first time I'm doing this, so I'm learning on the job.

We've got plenty more seeds lined up - such as carrot, beans and zuchine - that should go directly in the open ground outside, but we're moving soon so that complicates things. I think we'll have to save those for next year (if they will keep, that is).

It's all just an experiment, to gain some confidence that we can actually do this. Friends of ours are really into permaculture, the art of growing crops without using pesticide, and this is definitely something I want to explore and put into practice as well. It's all about putting the right combination of plants next to each other, to provide a natural environment that defends against pests without having to use poison. Sounds good!