I had the same batch of sprout seed for way too many years.  They were losing viabilty and only about 50% seemed to be germinating.  It was time to buy new ones.  Of couse, I did a google search, and what I found was Sproutpeople!  Yum!  Here are the sprouts I received in my order (I’m a llittle in love with the bokeh in this photo, btw.):

They are the Spicy Salad Greens mix and Nick’s Hot Sprout Salad.  I also bought a Brassica Sampler too.

Here is what the Spicy Salad Greens look like when sprouted:

This is the second time that I have made these. The first time I used 3 tablespoons of seeds and that was way too much! I’m going to put some on my salad for lunch today and we’ll have some with our dinner salad tonight.  This was only 2 tablespoons of the seed mix.  I would say that they pretty much all germinated.  One downfall of this mix is that some of the seeds are very tiny and get washed out through slots in the bottom of the seed sprouter.  I think I may need to pick up some cheesecloth for the first rinse or so.

Hey – so this makes 2 blog posts in one day!  Well, the first one doesn’t really count because it is just for weather documentation purposes so next year when the weather rocks, I can compare and contrast.  Like for example, this was last June and hopefully will be next June too.

As always, I’m going to try to get back to blogging more even if it is just a photo here or there.  Maybe I’ll even have some knitting or spinning to show soon!  Have a great day and and thanks for reading!

June sky: clouds of gray

I wasn’t going to blog about the weather but then I decided that I need to write at least one post for historical information.  I just took this photo out my back door at 7 a.m.  This is pretty much what our sky has looked like everyday this month.  The last day we had a truly sunny morning was June 8.  We did have one morning last week with a couple of breaks in the clouds.  Overall though, dreary has been the predominant theme; sometimes with rain and sometimes with fog.  There has been no severe weather–not really even a scary thunderstorm and certainly no earthquakes, hurricanes, or tornadoes.

I was looking forward to June seeing as each of the previous months didn’t have much good weather to boast about either.  I was ready for really building up my hand-dyed roving inventory.  My plan was to dye at least 3 to 4 days a week.  I think I may have dyed only 2 or 3 times this month! July and August–I’m counting on you!

The weather is not doing much for bringing on the joy of summer vacation either.  Yesterday was the last day of school and it was rather anti-climatic.  It is hard to get excited when you can’t even imagine what it would be like to go swimming or even for a bike ride!  Agent J has had her last 3 softball practices canceled due to rain.  Agent K who has a job picking strawberries keeps coming home waterlogged.  When I talk to my dad every morning, the featured conversation is “yeah, it’s raining again…”  People are running out of clever and sarcastic things to say about the weather on Facebook even!  Sunshine – we need you back!

No sunshine for solar dyeing

Clouds, clouds, clouds...

I’m using the self-watering garden boxes from Gardener’s Supply this year for the first time. So far they rock.  Check out these “then and now” photos:

Flower box May 10:

Flower box June 10:

(The hummingbirds really like this one.)

Herb box May 10:

Herb box June 10:

(I have a feeling these guys are stretching to reach some light)

I’m also trying the self-watering hanging pots and Dave has more window box shaped planters in his salsa garden.  We are also using the self-watering container mix from Gardener’s Supply too. Organic for the herbs and veggies and regular for the flowers.  So far I think these are worth the price.  They are well made and seem to work very well.  The brackets on the window boxes are very strong and of good quality.  The key will be seeing how these hold up from year to year and if they are easy to clean out and reuse without taking too much time in the fall.

This is the outer view of the herb box on June 3 (ah, sunshine, where did it go?):

The color I bought was Loden (I think, maybe it is bronze, now I can’t remember). I would have preferred Terracotta, but it was out of stock at the time I ordered.

So, to sum it up:  Love the container boxes, would recommend them, wish the weather was better (as per usual)…

Thanks for reading and have a great day!