Green Wonderland | Vegetable and Strawberry Growing Week 1
Because I love strawberries so much, I decided to use the green house my grandpa loved so much and try my luck with it. Additionally I wanted to grow veggies for my family so that we don't need to go and buy so many. I want to document my vegetable - and strawberry-growing on my blog because first of all, it keeps me accountable. Secondly, even though I'm by far not perfect my-self, I want to inspire others to try out a more sustainable way of living. And even if you're not going to grow vegetables yourself, I hope that it is at least a bit interesting to follow my journey and see what I learn along the way. So, with no further ado, let's start with week 1, shall we?
Day 0 01.04.2021 Start of the adventure!
Today I went to a gardening center and bought looots of strawberry and vegetable plants:
6 strawberry plants
3 hanging strawberry plants
Spring onions
2 red, 1 purple bell pepper plants
2 red and 1 yellow cherry tomato plants
Radish seeds
1 chilli plant
To be honest, I spent much more money than I expected. The main culprit are the hanging strawberries which each cost about 13€. But I don't mind because they were the main plants I wanted. Actually I am planning on buying more of them and hang them on every free spot in the greenhouse^^ All in all I paid almost 70€.
Day 1 02.04.2021 Let's plant!
Today I planted all the plants I bought yesterday with the help of my dad who taught me how much space I need to leave between each one. The plants come in thin plastic pots which can be removed easily by first pressing on the sides a little so that the soil loosens up a bit. After that you can turn it upside-down and carefully pull out the plant. It was not so easy to decide which plant to place because I want the green house to look pretty, but I think it turned out nicely. However, later mum noticed that I made a mistake when planted the spring onions. I always planted two or three together as they came like this in the package, but you're supposed to plant each onion alone. I will fix that tomorrow.
Day 2 03.04.2021 Re-do
Yesterday I made a mistake when planting the spring onions. When I bought them they came planted very close to each other and when parting them I always left 2 or 3 together which according to mum was a mistake. So, I re-planted them one by one which was easier than I thought.
I also added a strawberry plant which used to hang outside but now looks not so well. Let´s see if it will recover. The other plants look good, although I don’t see much difference to yesterday. I’m not sure how much water the plants need, so I gave them plenty.
And I noticed one hanging strawberry has buds!!
Day 3 04.04.2021 Making mistakes along the way
All three tomato plants look very sad having their leaves hanging down. Either I watered them wrongly or the night was too cold. Dad told me it is important to water tomato plants from the bottom because they don’t like water on their leaves. But I poured water all over them because I didn’t know yet. Well, I will be more careful from now on. Also, because the soil was still a bit wet I watered much less than yesterday.
The other plants however look great! Some strawberry plants even grew tiny buds!
Day 4 05.04.2021 First blossoms
Except for the tomatoes, which look terrible, everything looks great and is growing nicely! One of the hanging strawberry plants even blossomed and two others have buds.
Especially the chili plant has been growing a lot and has three tiny buds.
The bell peppers grew, too. Just the right side one not so much, but it looks very healthy and that’s what counts.
I can’t see any radish yet, I guess they will take a while. My salad didn’t grow much but it looks good.
It has been snowing tonight and I am worried about my plants. I hope the green house is protection enough, especially for the strawberries. Today again I didn’t give the plants that much water as the soil still looked wet.
Day 5 06.04.2021 Snow?!
It snowed a lot today, what got me very worried. Luckily, except for the tomatoes all plants are doing great!
Even the spring onions started standing more upright.
One more hanging strawberry plant started to blossom. Isn't it beautiful?
Dad kindly put a candle with an upside-down ceramic pot over it inside the greenhouse in order to warm it up a little. Because the soil was still a bit wet, I did not water the plants at all today. Also because I was worried the cold water could be bad for the plants.
Day 6 07.04.2021 Growth
All my plants (except for the already dead tomatoes) survived the cold, yay! I am very glad about that. The strawberry plants even grew some more buds and blossoms. The other plants look the same as the previous day.
As for watering, I only used little water and avoided getting it on the leaves as I am not sure if the cold water is good for them. So, I tried to water as close to the soil as possible.
Day 7 08.04.2021 End of week 1
All plants are doing great, especially the strawberries which keep growing and growing! Also, the spring onions are standing even straighter and grew a little! All in all, everything has been growing and looks amazing. The radish is not visible yet but I guess it just needs more time and patience. The bell pepper plants, too, have not been growing as fast as the rest.
Learnings of the week:
Tomatoes hate cold weather
Tomatoes don't like water on their leaves
candles help warming the green house up