Ranunculus

I wanted ranunculus flowers in my bridal bouquet, but I got married in July.  Unfortunately, ranunculus flowers bloom in the spring and wilt in the heat, so this was not the flower for my Utah wedding.  Ranuculus is a beautiful alternative to roses and is infinitely easier to grow.  They are known to be frost hardy cool-season perennials that like mild winters and cool, long springs.  

My husband thinks these flowers are perennials in SC, but I think they are annuals.  First, because we bought them in the annuals section of Hyam's, second because we have insanely long, hot summers here.  I am about 75% sure they will wilt in the heat and die completely.  If, however, their tubers survive, I will be completely and utterly delighted.

They have been blooming continuously since we planted them Valentine's Day weekend.

The pink ranunculus, above, has wavier petals than the flowers I have seen grown for the floral industry, below:

Image credit: blog.bloomsbythebox.com

I love the tight, prolific petals of these flowers.  If I had ranunculus in a bouquet, I would rather have these than the type of petals in my garden's ranunculus.  However, both are beautiful and I have loved having these in my front yard.  

We also have red and orange plants.  They didn't photograph as well but they look beautiful in person.

Ranunculus typically come in white, red, pink, and orange.  This is such a unique and beautiful flower I was tickled pink when my husband found some for me!

I also love this Cannon lens that allows me to capture clear pictures up close!

Veggie Babies

On March 7th we had our 3rd annual planting party indoors.  We planted many of the seeds given to us by Scott's parents, as a housewarming gift, from Johnny's Seeds.  Pretty much everything was selected for taste, and not especially disease resistance.  The zucchini squash 'Costata Romanesco' is supposed to be half as productive and taste twice as good.  Since we usually have too many zucchinis, we're good with that.  Our strategy with the tomatoes is that we will keep them in the raised beds until they are too diseased to produce anything. They are 'Paisano' and 'San Marzano'.  We also have leeks and shallots from Johnny's Seeds.

We had some leftover 'Jelly Bean' cherry tomatoes from last year, Anaheim peppers and Serrano peppers.

  

The oregano seeds are from Johnny's; the basil is leftover from 2012.  Have you ever seen oregano seeds?  They are so small they look like dust!  They can't be planted and covered with soil.  They must be left on top of the soil to sprout.

All of the babies were put in peat pots (a Jiffy tray from Walmart - $5) and covered with a clear lid.  I'd really recommend investing in a heating mat for germination.  Our peppers, tomatoes and basil sprout in half the time and we get a better germination rate when we use it.  You have to read the directions on the packet because some plants, like parsley and oregano, prefer to be left to germinate at room temperature.

Some of them germinated at the end of the second day, and before we knew it, we had some babies with true leaves.  

True leaves are foliage leaves, unlike the first set of leaves that emerge from the seed.  When the true leaves emerge, it's time to fertilize your tomatoes. The following pictures were taken on March 19th, 12 days after planting.

Here are some nasturtiums.  They really didn't do well in Colorado.  They hated the alkaline soil.  I'm hoping I will have better luck with them here in our SC acidic soils.

And here is a closeup of a baby tomato plant.  It is saying, "Gimmee some nitrogen!"

We started a little late with our warm season crops.  The locals tell us this is the coldest winter they've experienced in years, so we're not too worried about our late start.  It's just starting to warm up.  Yesterday's high was 74 degrees and the night low was 44 degrees.

Welcome to Our Garden Blog!

We are happy you've stopped by in our corner of the blogosphere! Scott and I love to garden, and we are excited to share our adventures with you.  When we were dating, we discovered our mutual love for all things plant related.  We made sure that our first apartment had a grand gardening space.  We now live in Charleston, South Carolina, known by the locals as the 'Lowcountry'.  We are embarking on our first attempt at Southern gardening.

Below are some highlights of our first ever winter cool season garden.  We planted in late October, after Scott built our two raised planter boxes.  Everything vegetable you see was grown from seed.

Our little broccolis are quite healthy looking.  This is our first time growing broccoli.

Kale is so hardy and didn't need to be covered during the cold days.

The cabbage looks so beautiful and we are looking forward to a bountiful harvest.

The lettuce has been more problematic.  We had several days of stormy winter weather where the night temperatures dipped below freezing.  Our lettuce didn't appreciate this and has grown much slower than the other plants.

From left to right is Scott, cilantro, rosemary and chamomile.  The cilantro is bigger and more beautiful than we could ever have imagined.    Scott used to say that cilantro wasn't worth growing because it is so cheap to buy.  He has since rescinded that statement.  We have loved walking outside and breaking off a stalk for an omelet, tacos and salsa.  It has grown well all winter and even forgave us for not covering it up during the ice storm last month.

The rosemary is alive and well.  I haven't cooked with it yet.  They grow like shrubs here so I need to find another home for it.  The chamomile has quadrupled in size since last October.  I'm excited to see it bloom this year.

And then there's the sunchokes.  I will let Scott tell you all about these, as I have no doubt it will be the biggest and most fun thing he grows this season.  Here he is digging the tubers up so as to find another home for them.  (They have been evicted by yours truly.)

And that is pretty much the extent of our veggie gardening, for now.  We're gearing up for the warm season and will be starting some seeds later this week.