Freezing Weather

The last week El Paso had extreme freezing weather.   So much so that that didn't give me any motivation to plant anything.  Plus because of the many burst/frozen water pipes, El Paso was placed on water restrictions so I didn't think it was a good idea to go watering my new seedlings.   Also because of the freezing weather my mini heated germination station did not arrive until Monday.   Plus I got a special birthday surprise over the weekend.   My husband surprised me as he flew in from Acapulco.  So instead of doing much gardening I was busy unfreezing my pipes and yes just downright enjoying my husband.   But we did achieve some gardening steps.   He accompanied me to Home Depot.   Not to my surprise all the plants in the outdoor nursery were frozen.   You'd think they'd have put them inside the store.   We picked up some garden soil, peat moss, and soil acidifier.  Yes, I found what to use to change the pH of my soil.  I found this little bag and will be using it in my garden.  Basically, its sulfur.  I still don't know exactly what the pH of my soil is because I haven't found a soil test kit that I like but I did return the previous one I bought back to the store.   Thank goodness that was a waste of time and money.

Mini Green House Jan 31st

I have gotten plenty more growth in my from my seeds.   Last you saw were the corn, squash, and onion seeds.   Those are a lot bigger now, I even had to transplant the corn and squash because they were too big for the mini greenhouse container.   You can see I moved them to a south facing window in my bedroom.  First here is a picture taken January 31st.

Yellow Onion Feb 7

Now here are some taken February 7th.   You can really see how these have grown.  The onions are no longer horseshoe looking things sticking up out of the ground but rather they look like small sticks sticking up out of the ground.  

The squash has grown very leafy and the corn is very tall.   That's what made me take off the green house cover to begin with.

Corn Feb 7th.

Squash Feb 7th.

Now one of the more interesting herbs that I will be growing is Epazote.    This is used in Mexico as a spice in the kitchen.  I chose this herb because I have never seen it fresh in the supermarket and my husband asked me for it a few times while he was cooking.  I had no idea what he was talking about.  The seed was a little tricky to find because it is not common but I managed.   The seed is tiny, similar to the onion seed, and fortunately those sprouted quickly although difficult to see.   The sprouts are just tiny.   They have had about a week now and are still tiny.

Epazote Sprouts after 1 week.

Epazote

Okay so I've been holding out.   I have planted a few more seeds in little egg shells because I heard about it and thought it would be cute.   Later, while I was researching, I found that egg shells actually raise the pH of the soil which is not what I want to do.  Unfortunately I already started them so oh well.  Now I started these at the same time I stared the corn squash and onion.   They might have taken a little longer because they were not in ideal temperature conditions like the mini green house.   I did clearly label all of these and that is how I was able to identify the epazote.

Jamaica

Now this last December when I went with my husband to a city/town close to Acapulco the jamaica plant caught my attention.   It happens that December is the month they harvest the Jamaica.   Now they say that the jamaica really wears the soil it grows in but it grows quickly and only needs to breath earth to grow.  So I figured if its that easy to grow I should give it a shot.  So once again with trouble I found the seeds and ordered them.   The scientific name is Hibiscus Sabdariffa.  It makes a wonderful aqua fresca which is one of my favorites and I've heard its used in some wines as well.  So here it is on the right.   It was one of the first sprouts to come out of the eggs.

 Another one of the first exciting sprouts to come out was the Roma Tomato.  Here it is pictured just barely breaking out of the ground.  These egg photos were taken on Jan 31st as well.

Roma Tomato

I do have more growth in my egg shells and I received my green house which I'm setting up.   I will be posting more updated photographs soon to show the seedlings' progress.