Road Trip

Today, Mr Chiots and I are driving from Maine to Ohio once again.

We have some work to do in Ohio that was booked long before we decided to move. It’s not bad though, because we have Dailon taking care of the place in Maine and we get to spend time in Ohio with my mom and our nieces & nephew.

Needless today, it’s still been a busy week trying to get things in Maine ready to go and buttoned up.

Any road trips in your future?

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I Spy Seedlings

This is the eigth installment in the 5×5 Garden Challenge Series. Every Wednesday I’ll be posting about the challenge, covering topics that will help all the new gardeners get started. If you haven’t heard about the challenge head on over to the 5×5 Challenge Website, we’ll also be putting up a page here that pulls in all the 5×5 Challenge posts.

Last week I planted my 5×5 Challenge Garden and I’ve been watching patiently for the seeds to germinate. After losing a few bean seedlings to those pesky chickens, I finally spied almost every seedling emerging. Today, I’ll be showing you a parade of seedlings so you know what to look for after planting your garden.

In this post I’ll be showing you the first leaves not the second set or the first set of true leaves. When your seedlings first emerge they will have a leaf shape that shows what type of seed they are, so brassicas all have the same shape of first leaves (brassicas include: cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, mustard).

We’ll start off with a zucchini seedling (pictured above). Zucchini seedlings are HUGE, you’ll definitely be able to spot them. No need to get out the magnifying glass for these guys.

The lettuce on other other has fairly small seedlings that look like this. They generally fairly small and can different colored leaves depending on the type of lettuce. Some of my have a reddish tint to them.

Basil seedlings are also small, you’ll notice that they have a different leaf shape than the lettuce seedlings.

Tomato seedlings are also fairly small, they have beautiful long slender leaves and often they will have a purple color to their stems.

Finally you can see the beans. Bean seedlings are big and tall, often you can see the bean itself pushing up through the soil if you catch them at the right time.

As of yesterday, none of my scallions had germinated yet, luckily I had a few in my photo files. Onion seedlings look like tiny onions. The marigolds hadn’t germinated yet either and I have none of them in my archives. As your seedling start to emerge, pay close attention. One of the most magical things about garden is watching the tiny seeds germinate and grow into giant plants. Just like children, they’ll be huge in the blink of an eye, so enjoy the intricacies of this seedling stage.

Which kind of plant has your favorite seedling? Do you like big, bold seedlings like beans and zucchini or do you prefer dainty seedling like lettuce and basil?

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Popeye Would Be Happy

Last week all the spinach that I planted many months ago started to bolt. So I harvested all of it, many, many pounds.


All of it was rinsed, cooked, and packed into small containers in the freezer for winter soups and sauces.

What didn’t make it into the freezer was fed to the pigs, they LOVED it.

What’s in your harvest basket this week?

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Cultivate Simple 33: Stew 2.0

An honest and unrehearsed discussion about trying to live a more simple life. This is episode 33 and today we are talking about everything that’s going on Around the Run.

The main garden when we put the pigs in and the main garden yesterday after moving the pigs and putting in a few days of work ourselves. The first two were taken on April 27th when we put the pigs in that area. The other two were taken last night. And this is with moving the pigs off of this area for a week or ten days.

What’s mistakes have you learned from recently?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:08:43 — 47.9MB)

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Quote of the Day: Rainy Days

“God made rainy days so gardeners could get housework done.” – author unkown

So very true, yesterday morning I swept and cleaned and polished and mopped but that wasn’t enough.


I also baked eight sourdough boules and make a few pounds of butter. But then the sun came out again and back out into the garden I went and the dishes remained unwashed…

Do you ever put off inside chores until a rainy day so you can spend all the nice days in the garden?

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