I moved again!

Not really, just this blog. The new site is bucolicbushwick.com please update your bookmarks and if you subscribed via email please sign up again at the new site. If something on the new site doesn't work as it should please let me know.

Vegetable gardening goes mainstream

The Obamas are planting a vegetable garden at the White House! I predict the growing interest in home vegetable gardening will now skyrocket due to the fact that the First Family is into it. Makes me glad I bought my seeds early.

Excellent Seedstarting Guide

The folks at getrichslowly.org, a personal finance blog I read regularly, have posted an excellent article about seedstarting. If you're considering starting your own garden this year this post is definitely worth bookmarking.

New Year, New Garden

Aren't you glad winter is almost over? I'm tired of the cold and I can't wait for spring to arrive. I was so eager to start this year's garden I bought my seeds at the end of December! That snowstorm we had March 1st was an unpleasant surprise, but hopefully that was winter's last gasp.

Last year I bought a lot of supplies since I was starting from scratch, this year I'm going in the opposite direction. I'm going to try to spend as little as possible. Every monetary expense will be logged on this site. So far I've bought 6 packets of seeds and a re-usable seedstarting kit. As long as nothing goes catastrophically wrong my only other expense should just be a couple bags of soil.

Seeds: $30.40
Seedstarting Kit: $29.90

Running Total: $60.30

I'm moving!

But I'm still in Bushwick. My current home is right off the Morgan L. That train stop and my old loft building attract a lot of hipster nonsense so I decided not to renew the lease. I'm washing my hands of that scene and moving into a turn-of-the-century brownstone off the Myrtle JMZ. The private roof has no neighboring buildings to block sunlight. It's perfect for my needs. Here's the view. Can't wait to get started next year!

Next year's plan and a look back part 3

Pest Control

Given the amount of posts I wrote with the 'pests' label I obviously need to take a more proactive approach toward pest management. I've been researching my options and right now I'm leaning toward neem. It also has the added benefit of stopping powdery mildew problems, which destroyed my cucumber plant before I even started this blog.

Final Thoughts

Without a doubt the biggest difference between this year and the next will be my timing. This year I started my seeds at the end of April, 2 months later than I should have. I could have bought transplants from a local green market, but I was really interested in learning about the process from start to finish and I liked having control over what went into the plants so I'm happy with my decision. Next year I'll buy seeds in February to give them ample time to grow into transplant size by the beginning of May. I'm also only going to buy them online since every seed packet I bought in a brick and mortar store were ultimately the only plants that succumbed to disease. I'm not use sure why that happened, but that's how it worked out.

Overall I'm very happy I got into vegetable gardening and can't wait to start again next year.