Regrowing store bought celery

Nice! Cute froggie, too!

That is so funny 'cause that's what DH said when he peeked at the picture as I was posting it. It's funny 'cause he LIVES WITH ME, and yet STILL doesn't know that it's actually a gecko pot-hanger. LOL!!!!!! Can you tell he's not as "into" my gardening stuff as I am? ;)

Haahaahaaa, ok, even though it's pitch-dark outside, I **had** to go outside and get another shot of my little buddy, so you can tell that he's a Gecko. ;) Thank God for flash!! =)

Ahhh, I see now. How cute!!

Cute pot decoration. My local raccoons would probably try to eat it. :)
You might get some nice production from your lettuces. I've been growing leaf lettuces in my little GH from seed started back in January. Using the "cut and come again" technique, they're still growing decently. Cut enough leaves just last night for a salad for dinner. I also did spinach but it's really limping along. Not much leaf production even though they're under lights 17 hours a day.

They are looking great guys!!!! I've been dragging my feet a bit lately. Had a lot going on the last few weeks, and now my son's blood sugar levels are just bonkers at night with no real pattern showing up (with no pattern, i cant make adjustments to his insulin). I think he's hit yet another growth spurt and its causing these funky bg's lol... which is causing mommy lots of sleepless nights lol.

I am excited that my MIL brought up a truck load of dirt for me for my garden though! Now I need to level it out, get some lumber and make a raised bed, and ask her for another 1-2 truck loads LOL! Had planned to go out there today and level it all out, but then this morning my shoulder, back, hip and knees started hurting, so I abandoned the idea. Think I overdid things yesterday lol. I spent yesterday making homemade fresh squeezed sugar free lemonade for the kids, zested a full bag of lemons so i could dry and save them for future use, made a batch of potpourri, made rice pudding and cookies lol... on top of the other household chores! Yeah, yesterday, for whatever reason I actually had a huge, long lasting, burst of energy, so I took advantage of it. I wanted to get all that done plus go out and do some stuff in my garden, but by that time, the kids came home from school and i was just beat!

It'll be there tomorrow though :) We were supposed to get some rain today... but it never came.

Oh yes, and Welcome to the official first day of Spring!

Goodness Gracious MrsL you've been a busy little bee!! =) It feels good though, huh, to get a bunch of stuff like that done when you've got those bursts of energy? Nice!!

I hope your son's blood sugars straighten themselves out soon, but you're probably right, another growth spurt and all things go haywire! =) I had a very good friend in high school (and beyond) who was an insulin-dependent diabetic from just about birth, and I can remember being in school helping her check her blood sugars and find a new spot for her insulin injections. =) What a wonderful Lady she turned out to be!! =)

LOL Ya know... even though yesterday I was dog tired and didnt really wanna go out and get yardwork done.... I still went out and loosened up the soil in my front flowerbed, levelled out MOST of the farm soil my inlaws brought up, and put my bulbs in the ground.... and started to rake the leaves up in my front yard... but then the kids came home and I had to get dinner going and all that, then took a much needed nap after dinner LOL!

My son is on the insulin pump now, and he just loves it! He flat out refuses to go back to shots lol, and he HATES when, on the rare occation that we do have to, give him a shot (usually only when his ketones are so high that nothing else we try doing works lol... so maybe once a year, if that lol)

Today, as soon as im done chattering with my brother on facebook anyway lol, I plan to get back outside and do some raking again. It'll take me forever to do my whole yard (about 1 1/2 acres), but, it needs done so I can throw down some grass seed. I have one of those sweeper things, one we have to walk behind, but its broke. I'm hoping hubby will fix it this year so we can use it this fall! Not holding my breath much on that though LOL!

I was walking through my yard yesterday and found our "first sign of spring!" The first picture is of some wildflowers I planted last year (and reseeded) in my front flowerbed. I tried to bury them last fall, but appearently I didnt do a very good job LOL! The second picture, I'm not sure what that is, but its growing in my flower bed next to my side porch. I can only assume its something that I had planted there last year that reseeded, but I dont recall much of anything growing there. I know I did plant some snapdragon seeds there last year, but they didn't take off. I also planted some cosmos along the boarder, but not that far back to reseed that far back. The last picture is, again, something I have no idea what it is lol. Must be some kind of wildflower that got carried by wind and reseeded, cuz its in a location I havent planted anything in! In fact, they are growing up threw a pile of leaves the kids made and left LOL! My daughter saw them yesterday and picked them though.... gave them to her brother LOL! Such a thoughtful lil girl, I tell ya!

Aaaaaaw, what a Sweetheart she is!! I hope you get more of those little blue pretties to bloom 'cause they are certainly lovely!
And, I'd have to agree with your son, the pump has *got* to be the way to go! Julie (my high school friend) eventually got a pump, but they were not available back when I was in school... just a "few" years ago. ;)

Don't you love those little flowering surprises!? I had some Dianthus pop up last year that I KNOW I didn't put there. THANK YOU little birdies!! =) I've not had time yet to get outside again, working and going to the dentist.. ugh. I've got a handful of bags of compost in the back of my truck that have yet to be put where they belong. =/ And DH has got plans for a date tomorrow during the day, (I'm off work this weekend), so hopefully I'll have time when we get home. =)

The pics are of the 'surprise' Dianthus (annuals) that I had pop up in my driveway-side bed last summer.

I had some of those in my wildflower mix last year! They really are a pretty little flower! I don't remember those little blue flowers being in that mix though... but, I wouldn't be surprised LOL!

Yes, the pump is defintely the way to go! We love it, and it has opened up so much more freedom for him! I just heard that the FDA has approved clinical trials for the artificial pancreas too (and on humans now.... outside the hospital setting!) I'm still not completely sold on that idea as of yet. To me, it mostly sounds like a glorified insulin pump and CGM. I dunno, think I prolly just need to do more of my homework on it before I get a sound, educated opinion on it.

I didn't get to put the lime down on my lawn yesterday like I had planned to. We had to take my daughter to her therapy appointments, then get her registered for kindergarten next year! Didn't even get to do our grocery shopping yesterday! Gotta do that today lol. Since it's supposed to rain tomorrow though... I prolly should do the lime today lol. The day before yesterday, I had also "raked" up a bunch of moss from my front section lawn, both by hand and using a kind of rake thing. I told my hubby, I will NOT do the rest of the lawn like that! Man o pete, that was hard, tedious work! I got a lot of it up though... filled up almost half a 30 gallon kitchen trash bag of the stuff! Now, question is, how do I dispose of it lol. I don't want to throw it in the pile that I want to start a compost pile. Might not be good for making good compost LOL! Maybe I'll see if hubby is gonna find a better location for the burn barrel he brought home from work last year, and burn the stuff lol. Hubby wants to go grocery shopping today, and stop at best buy for something.... think if we have time, I'm going to ask him if we can also stop at walmart or something and see if they have garlic, onions and lima beans out for planting yet. Thats all I need left from my list of things we want to grow this year lol. Might also see how much a bag of grass seed will cost us lol.

Oh oh oh, WAIT!! Don't do your grass seed now, I beg you!! < ='( I've been going over this with customers at work left and right, Fall is the time to over-seed, now's the time to work on weed prevention and spread your compost. We mostly grow Fescues in my area, which are a cool-season grass (yeah, some of you will be surprised that some people actually grow a tall fescue on purpose, LOL!), so I'm guessing you grow cool-season grasses in your area too. If you're not opposed to corn gluten for crabgrass prevention, then throw that down, water it in lightly, then top dress with compost, and lightly water again. Dr. Earth has organic weed killers if you find a need for that this Spring, but otherwise, wait until Fall for your over-seeding and at that time, another top-dressing of compost. =)

Have to agree with Speedie. Cool season grasses should always be sown in the fall. We had to break the habit of seeding in the spring. Summer comes on too fast for baby grass plants. Putting down corn gluten for crabgrass has very tricky timing. If put down too late (crabgrass has already germinated), it won't do anything to kill off baby crabgrass plants. It'll just feed them.

I had some bad habits to break when I started working at the nursery, and Spring seeding the lawn was one of 'em. I had no idea of all the "why's" behind it, so I just figured, seed is seed, whatever. HA!

Thankfully I was an early bird and got my corn gluten down about 5 days before my neighbor's Forsythia started blooming, and theirs was even early, it started blooming nearly a week before I saw any others in my area blooming, so now all I have to deal with is Oxalis and Chickweed! =)

I am just now starting a compost pile, so I don't have enough for the whole yard yet :( I have no intentions on buying it for an acre and a half of land, plus garden area LOL! Its just too expensive from what I've seen. With all the other projects we have to do (and some we just want to do), I'm a bit on a budget this year.

I can wait till fall to throw down the grass though, that's no biggie, but, I can put lime down now, can't I? This front area of land is very acidic. I just checked it with my pH tester and it was about 4.8

Most of my weeds in my yard consist of moss and dandelion. At this point, I'll take a yard full of stinking dandelion over this moss! It literally covers my entire lawn! Not a whole lot I can do about it though, since I can't get rid of a lot of the trees that cast the shade in my yard (technically they are on township/borough property). I think we are going to check into seeing if they will remove atleast some of these trees, the nearly dead ones, this year though. We have several that are close to the house but on township/borough property that are dying.. branches falling off of them every year (sometimes big branches). Will soon become hazardous if not taken care of. I'm always so worried that a branch will fall on the house or our car.

Anyway, all the trees casting shade in my yard is whats causing the moss to grow. The moss has taken over my lawn mostly. I used a metal rake thingy on the front patch of the yard to get the moss up and have a good 1/4 kitchen trash bag full just from there (and this front patch isnt very big at all!). There's no way I'll do that on the rest of the lawn though. It killed my back, was sore for several days after that. And, if I have to wait till fall to throw down grass seed, I don't want to mess with the moss now then just have big patches of dirt all over my yard LOL! Bad enough the front yard is gonna look like this all summer LOL! Sigh. I ever tell you all how much I hate my yard? LOL! Its so difficult! LOL!

On the plus side, I did get the 2 celery butts in some GOOD new soil hubby bought yesterday! Also started some seeds (though, some of them I prolly started too early, but, I just couldn't wait any longer LOL! Got antsy. Atleast I have loads of seeds left if they do die off lol!)

We have a lot of trees and moss as well and we've been working on our lawn (albeit moderately) over the years. Yeah, you can put down lime for your soil pH. One thing I would recommend (based on experience) is to aerate your lawn in the fall to improve the soil condition. You can put down any mild fertilizer (no weed-killer though) and sow your grass seed. If you can, it's also a good time to top dress your soil a bit and improve contact between the grass seed and soil. You could top dress with compost or composted manure. I think the general "window" for this is between Aug 15 and Sept 15. Yeah, you'll have to keep the seed watered but really just enough to keep the seed damp most of the time. You could use a moss killer in the spring if you're so inclined. We grow a clumping fescue so that while it may look sparse when it sprouts in the fall, it'll start right off growing in the spring.
My one celery plant is actually growing into petite stalks at the moment. I did move it from rooting medium into potting soil so it should really start growing well now.

We don't have a lawn, but the chickweed is trying to make one for us. It has out-creeped the poor creeping charlie this year!

I have had a tremendous problem with chickweed for the past couple of years. And you're right! It out-paces creeping Charlie quickly. Time to get out the trusty Bernzomatic this week and tackle the stuff while it's blooming.

Uh-Oh, the Flaming Rambo is back!! < =0 LOL!!!!!!!

I have GOT to get an up-to-date picture of my celery, it's really growing well!! The 2 lettuces, .. not so much. I ended up poking around in the soil the other day to check on them, and when I nudged them they were so loose in there I gave 'em a 'tug' (to check their root-ed-ness in the soil), and OUT they came!! I guess they either didn't like what I put them in or they just don't grow like that. (seems I may have heard that from someone before, **wink**). My celery, however, has got a good number of baby stalks and oodles of really flushed-out leaves, AND it's really rooted in the soil very firmly. My carrot that I have out there has only got a few thread-like roots and isn't growing so much, but it's not dead or rotted! LOL!!!!!! I had some left-over green onions that I didn't have any immediate plans for, so instead of letting them go to waste (like I knew they would), I potted them up and they're doing really well, too. I think I'll snip some off and use 'em in a salad this week! =) (but, I'll take pictures first!!)

Yes, yes! Do take pictures!!! hehe!

Here's a picture of how my herbs are doing. They are all getting their second set of leaves! Yay! I lost our oregano though :( That's ok, I'll just direct sow some in May lol

speedie - carrot tops - I put some in my worm compost bin a few weeks ago and they sent out roots! Don't know if it's because they were in the dark or the moist and possible nutrition in the worm bedding with compost prompted that or what. They were organic carrots so don't know if that made a difference. No, I'm not digging them out of there to grow on. :)
MrsLidwell - did you ever conquer your soil critter problem?

No, but it doesnt seem to be bothering the herbs that much. I didn't repot or throw out those herbs that I spotted the critters in. In fact, those pictures are of the herbs that had the critter problem. I still see some things crawling around the soil, but not nearly as bad, and these critters look a bit different than the ones I was seeing before. The only thing I did was cut back on watering frequency and I put the pots in the greenhouse and put the greenhouse out on the front porch in a partly shady area for a couple weeks. I did have to bring them in last night though, because this week its going to be a bit too cold for them. But, so far it seems like things are going well, with or without critters lol.

Hmmmm, it's looking like I should start a worm composting bin! =)

Maybe cutting back on the water is controlling the dirt critters?
Yeah, I think I need to pull the carrot tops out of the bin because the worms won't eat it.

Yeah, I'm thinking cutting back on the water and increasing the a out of sunlight and warmth might be what's controlling things. The herbs sure do look a lot healthier now lol. I'm hoping this cool weather spell don't last very long do I can get them back outside in the greenhouse again lol

MrsL, your herbs look wonderful!!

I got home from work yesterday to find that **someone** (musta been those DRATTED squirrels!!!) had been DIGGING around in some of my babies on my deck!!!! Ooooooh, if I'd had a shotgun at that moment, bullets woulda been FLYIN'!!!!! Even one of my pots of Chaste Tree seedlings had been dug into!! And my ONIONS had been dug into, too!!!! I thought they didn't like onions!?!? Thankfully most of my Winter Sown containers still had their tops over 'em, but they (or it) had dug into one of my WS jugs of Veronica seedlings too, man oh man. And they dug up my little carrot baby, but thankfully they left my celery alone. Sheeeeesh, gonna need to "hair-ify" EVERYTHING now!! =( Time for another trip to the hair dresser. **snff!!**

DD was down from MI over the weekend and of course we had to go to one of the garden centers. This year, she's gardening on her rental's back deck (as opposed to her for-sale property in TN) and is discovering squirrel problems. She bought some bird netting that she can cut to size and drape over her pots. They don't seem to bother much here but they don't come up on my patio anyway.

Oh, nooooo, speedie, that's terrible! I sure know how you feel. I have taken to gardening on other peoples' property, 'cause of just that scenario. I have been yanking weeds and transplanting all afternoon at my sister's neighbors place. They live in a condo community, so there aren't many critters around.

Stopped off at the hair dresser's on the way home and am armed with a new bag FULL of freshly cut hair! =)

Wow, getting your summer do? Let me know how the hair trick works!

So far it's been working really really well! I stick hair into all my bulb-planted pots and areas and the squirrels don't bother those, but I was getting low on hair, that's why all my babies on the deck were hairless. But, NOT ANYMORE!! Muuaahahahaahaa!!
I learned from my hair dresser today that the hair is also supposed to be good for deterring deer! She said that one of her customers collects hair regularly and puts it into plastic shopping bags, then hangs the bags around on her fruiting trees, and the deer don't touch 'em. Neato! =)

Hah!! Learned a new trick! I'll have to remember that hair trick... thanks!!

Prolly started some of this too early, but... got cukes, tomatoes, peppers, triple curled parsley, oregano, beans started... the cukes are the tallest, tomatoes are sprouting too, and beans should pop up any day now! Oh, lettuce is poppin up too lol!

This message was edited Mar 29, 2012 6:38 PM

Very neato!!!

Your lettuce is popping and mine pooped out. Haahahaaa!! Those "butts" from heads that I had sown did not make it. They were healthy and all, but when I nosed around in their pots, I found that they were not putting out any roots, and there was a cone-shaped hollow up into the base of each one. Hmmm, odd. There were no critters or anything funky growing in the soil, they just simply hollowed-out in the middle, even while they were putting forth new baby leaves. Anyway, they are gone now, BUT, the celery is doing VERY well. I really should have taken pictures when I was out there yesterday; I'll try to remember to do it this morning before I leave for work. The carrot.. I dunno, the greenery on it is still green, so other than watering it, I try to just ignore it. ;)

I started my tomato seeds last night and peppers a couple of days ago. Have been soaking my parsley seed before planting (read that somewhere) but have to make up a few paper pots for those. Have to be careful of the tap root when transplanting and, since I'm clumsy and inpatient, they're better off in paper pots that I can just plop into the ground.
I did start lettuce seeds a few months ago to grow indoors and have gotten several salads from them. They haven't bolted yet so I think I'm good for a few more weeks. The spinach however didn't last long before bolting and not a lot of leaves either. Have already tossed that one.

Cindy, can you tell me how to make paper pots? Thanks!

Celery bottoms I put in milk jugs about a week ago. So far so good it seems :-)

Ky... I'll bet u can use Dixie cups the same way :-)
Have heard of other ppl using them as seed starters, tho I dunno if its OK to plant cup and all in soil. Never tried it, mostly cuz I didn't have anything to put under them to catch water drainage lol.

Ky - I'm sure there are videos out there but I'll give you the rundown. I have a wooden pot maker that I've had for years but you can use a soda or beer can instead or even a beer bottle. Don't wrap the newspaper too tightly or it will be hard to slide off of the cans made from soft aluminum (or whatever). Cut newspaper (try to avoid colored inks if possible) into 3.5" x 10" strips. I always eyeball the dimensions. Roll the paper around the can, leaving enough hanging off of the bottom of the can to fold all together to make the bottom. I use the tiniest bit of tape to hold the bottom together. Then slide your paper pot off of the can. You can adjust the height of the paper pot depending on whether you like them shorter or taller. If you want to develop really deep roots, make your pots a little taller. I have found that, once off of the can/bottle, the top of the pot wants to unravel a bit. I make the pot a bit taller and then fold down the top edge, sort of like a cuff, and it'll hold together a lot better and be a little more sturdy. Now you're ready to fill them with soil and plant your seeds. You can use them for small transplants as well if you run out of small pots. I have used 9 oz plastic cups in the past when I'm planting "up" and do reuse those every year but sometimes I just don't have enough and hate to buy more plastic. Make sure you poke holes in the bottoms of any plastic container (I use a metal skewer.) I generally use paper pots for seeds of plants that dislike root disturbance because I can just plant the pot and all in the ground. Sometimes I'll tear off the top edge of the paper pot so that it doesn't stick up from the soil or act like a wick. And I generally pack filled paper pots pretty closely into a tray which generally helps prevent them from drying out too quickly. Hope my instructions aren't too garbled.

Cindy, I dunno about anyone else, but *I* thought your instructions/directions were really clear and easy to understand. (And I'm the one-brain-celled Pollack!) =)

OK, I said I'd take another photo of my celery to share, so here it is. Drum-roll please! ;)

Looking good!!!!

Hey Speedie - Mine looks a lot like your's but mine is smaller. I'm just hoping they'll put on a little more growth.

Wow, that's a healthy looking plant, congrats!
Yes, thanks for the paper pot instructions, Cindy.