Thinning out

This week, I surprisingly didn’t plant anything. Instead, I have been taking care of my little seedlings. They had gotten some white fuzzy fungus on the surface of the soil. I learned that it is called damping off. I have tried a few natural solutions that were recommended to me. I tried sprinkling cinnamon around the seedlings but this wasn’t very effective. I also tried putting some hydrogen peroxide in the water but this was also ineffective. Finally, I tried misting the soil with chamomile tea. This seems to work the best for me so far. I put a picture below showing the difference with half sprayed and half unsprayed. I think I may be over watering the seedlings and probably should cut back and let them dry out more between waterings. They are growing pretty well and it was time to thin out the bunching onions and cherry tomatoes and tomatillos. I found this to be hard to do but I know it is necessary for the proper development of the seedlings. The bunching onion seedlings are edible and can be used like chives. I will probably add them to a stir fry next week. I had read to put multiple seeds in each cell, but I didn’t expect such good germination. I have been especially impressed with the complete germination of all of the Dollar Tree seeds. The peppers have been growing quite slowly and I can see why it is good to begin them early after my experience last year. My sweet potato in a bag is also getting bigger and outgrowing its bag. Soon, I think I should move the tomatoes and tomatillos into larger containers. I am planning to start more seeds indoors after the trays are empty. I may begin some things indoors like coleus and petunias that take a long time to grow and don’t like the hot summers of Oklahoma. My birthday is next week and I am looking forward to eating some delicious tiramisu. I will be going to the farm next Saturday and have taken the whole day off to spend preparing the garden. Not sure what I will plant yet but I still have a ton of seeds left to plant this year. I have planted so many things but will be happy if even half of them come up. I am a bit of a chaos gardener and have difficulty remembering what I have planted, when, and where. I am always quite busy with work so have little time to plan where to put things. So I am hoping to record some of these details here in this blog so next year I can have an idea of my successes and failures. I hope maybe this could also help other people who want to know what grows well here in central Oklahoma. We should be receiving our two paw paw trees this week and will be planting them on the 15th. My wrist is healing well and hurts much less than last week. We have had a good amount of rain this week which is great for my garden. There’s still a possibility of another freeze here, even though the weather was beautiful last week. So that means we should wait to turn the drip line irrigation area timer for another month. This week, I cooked fried chicken and baked some sugar cookie dough left over in the freezer from Christmas. I used the fried chicken recipe from delicious day on YouTube. This is my favorite fried chicken recipe and the only one I have had much luck with. I usually substitute chicken thighs for chicken breasts because I think they taste better. The chicken is so good it doesn’t even need the sauce. This is the link for the chicken recipe: https://youtu.be/n51rik64ozE?si=BwV8Vg8WbV_5s93c

I tried to make frosting for the sugar cookies with butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk. It tasted pretty good with the sugar cookies but very similar to the frosting that comes with canned cinnamon rolls. It was also lumpy even after blending it for a long time. I am going to try to make pickled ginger next week and I am researching some recipes. I will be making corned beef and cabbage next week for St. Patrick’s Day. We enjoy it a lot and it is inexpensive and easy to make in the crockpot. I have not done much drawing or reading this week. I am seeing a few things come up on my balcony at the apartment. I had good germination of the German chamomile I planted from botanical interests. I also see what might be a few love in a mist and a tulip. My oregano, apple mint, dandelions, Chinese lanterns, Utah tall celery, and cardoon have not sprouted yet. On the farm too, I saw some bulbs and greens starting to show up. I think spring is right around the corner and I will be surprised if it freezes again.