WARNING ~ LONG POST WITH LOTS OF GARDENING LINKS AT THE END! 🙂

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Even though it’s still January and in the middle of winter…I can’t stop thinking about my garden! I’m getting itchy and twitchy! I want dirt under my nails!

In between the rains last week and the snow over the weekend there was a brief break in the skies and the sun came out. I rushed out back and busied myself with my raised garden beds. Checked the soil, threw on some leaves, newspaper and grass that was mulching in a corner and some of Starbuck’s coffee grounds. Did you know that all Starbucks have a bucket near the door that have spent coffee grounds for free?! 🙂 If you’re anywhere near UNR…the Student Union Starbucks has more then plenty.

Last year was my first garden in the raised beds we made…and there were no wormies in the soil then. I dug around and found lots of wormies in my beds. 🙂 Eat and poop my little ones!

Here are the plans for and what the raised beds looked like before I took it apart and made it smaller. PLANS FOR RAISED BEDS

The BEDS BROKEN UP INTO TWO instead of one massive bed.

And THE BEDS ALL PLANTED.

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While over at ECLECTIC CULTURE FARM I found a great site called Local Harvest ~ Real Food. Real Farmers. Real Community!

LOCAL HARVEST ~ Nevada (I linked to the Nevada part of the site…it’s country-wide though.)

Here is a little closer to home ~ NORTHERN NEVADA & EASTERN CALIFORNIA

There are lot of local farms listed where you can buy from…also a shop page to buy seeds, gifts, and whatnot.

My mouth is watering over the HEIRLOOM TOMATO SEEDS! Are those the most beautiful lip-smacking things ever?! I’m all ah-giddy!

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I’m going to start my seeds soon…last year I planted most of my seeds right into the ground. But I think I’ll start my peppers and tomatoes inside this year…I harvested a bunch of seeds before eating them. 🙂 Hatch Green Chiles and Heirloom Maters….yummmmmie!

After some doing some online research I found that you can start your seeds in almost any type of container as long as it is at least 2 to 3 inches deep and has some drainage holes.

The seeds should be started in a soilless growing mix that is made up of fine, moist and spongy blend of sphagnum moss, vermiculite and perlite. You can mix your own, using 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 perlite, 1/3 milled sphagnum moss. This mix hardly contains any, if any, nutrients. Start feeding the seedlings with a weak fertilizer solution several weeks after they germinate…they’ll need to be fed weekly until it’s time to transplant them into the garden.

After the wee plants are 6-8 weeks old, they can be transplanted into larger pots with a coarser growing mix with up to 20% garden soil or compost…that will help the plants get ready for garden life.

Here is a cool schedule I found ~ WHEN TO START YOUR SEEDS from The Gardner’s Supply Company online site.

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MORE HELPFUL LINKS FOR NEVADA GARDNERS!

UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA COOPERATIVE EXTENSION'S HORTICULTURE PROGRAM

THE NEVADA MASTER GARDNER PROGRAM

WASHOE COUNTY CALENDAR ~ if you live in a different county than Washoe, just click on the drop-down menu and it will let you click on your county!

A Great Link for Teachers ~ SCHOOL GARDENS PROGRAM.

HORTICULTURE PUBLICATIONS for the State of Nevada.

SEED SAVERS EXCHANGE ~ Since 1975, Seed Savers Exchange members have passed on approximately one million samples of rare garden seeds to other gardeners. They are a non-profit organization of gardeners dedicated to saving and sharing heirloom seeds.

A great write-up on THE THREE SISTERS GARDEN
~ The Three Sisters garden is a special way of growing corn, pole beans and winter squash, and its first use can be traced back to the Iroquois Confederacy.

GARDENING IN NEVADA ~ The Bartley Ranch Series. FREE CLASSES on Tuesdays starting 3 February through 31 March 2009.