All Plants on Deck!

Well, the cold ones at least. Today I planted some cold vegetables as it is the season. And it's fun to do new things and I've never grown anything cold.

It's pretty up and down weather wise here in Chicago. Last week we had nearly 80 degree days, nearly every day. Chicago's become so spoiled and now we're expecting the temperature to hover at around 40 degrees at night. That's pretty cold after some nice, sunny days.

But that's how Chicago rolls: it builds up your spirits only to crush them. How we carry on here!

With cold weather comes cold growing vegetables. The plants on the list purchased today were:

• Kale
• Broccoli
• Buttercrunch lettuce
• Romaine lettuce 

We initially bought chives but had a bit of a roly-poly (pill bug, or Armadillidum vulgare) problem, which as it turns out, are pretty good and nearly harmless. They excrete nitrogen into the soil; hey, that's awesome. But they like to eat dead plant matter, which I'm expecting a lot of. And when you watch 10 fall out of the cup and then see at least five more all wedged up near the roots, you just have to wonder if you'll have an infestation. After all, the chives were to go into the earth box: a plastic box that's kept really moist and pretty dark.

That, to me, is just begging for an infestation of pill bugs. A quick did you know fact: they're more closely related to crabs than they are to insects. Weird.

The earth box planting went off without a hitch. We didn't re-use our soil and we didn't buy a replacement kit. We just used the same Happy Frog fertilizer (it's organic!) that we used last year and bought Baccto potting mix. 

These guys look a little sad, but I'm expecting them to beef up as the spring rolls on. At least we won't be short of salad this summer. 

I'm excited to see what will come of this. I hear Kale is super good for you (high in beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, calcium and more) and I want to start eating healthier and not have to buy produce packed with pesticides and junk like that. 

And hey, it's good to be back writing on this blog.

Till next time, ya'll.

-RC