Green Thumb

About three weeks ago, this thing was a seed:



Terrifying, no?  It is to me anyway.   Bean plants shoot up so fast, it's almost alien-like.  The directions on the package said not to put them in the ground until May, but this is doing so well I'll probably have beans by May.

I've been happily getting my urban farm going.  I started everything indoors on trays in peat pots and cardboard egg crates in early March, and slowly acclimatized them to outdoors on sunny days.



Pretty much everything has peeped up through the soil and is thriving.  Dozens of tomatoes, lettuce, kale, herbs.  I think I started the cukes too early as they never materialized, but I had good luck with everything else.





The radishes erupted with such an alarming ferocity that I was sure an errant squirrel had disturbed the soil.



They broke through so fast, they pushed the top layer of soil out of the pot.  I have created a monster.



I have many more tomato seedlings than I have space for mature plants.  As soon as the seedlings get a bit bigger, I'll be giving them away.  If anyone in the London area would like some free heirloom tomato seedlings, please let me know.  So far I have Black Krim, Bradywines and a couple varieties of cherry tomatoes that will need a new home soon.





I also planted some honeybee-friendly flowers.  Apparently, there are lots of beekeepers in the city, but not a whole lot of food for the bees, meaning they have to travel quite far to find food now.  They are encouraging people to plant more flowers for bee food, which I am happy to comply since they will be quite helpful pollinating the tomatoes once they flower as well.

I've been getting a nice stash of plant containers, mostly found items and giveaways.  It would be nice to have some raised beds, but I'm not that invested in a rental.  My nomadic hunter-gather lifestyle probably isn't suitable for farming anyway.