Spring is here!!!.....well kinda :) **UPDATE AND GIVEAWAY

It's here, It's here, It's here!! It was so warm today...for Nova Scotia spring....Haha. It was 17 degrees :) What better way to spend our first warm day, than inside gardening... Haha. That's right, we spent this beautiful warm day mostly indoors. :( On the plus side, we planted over 200 seeds! Wow! And that's not even half of what I plan to plant. We planted 29 different kinds of tomatoes, peas, beans, squash, watermelon, and others.

The girls LOVE to help with absolutely anything we do! They have been waiting to garden since I bought my first seeds about a month ago! We found a great deal on 200 little plastic cups to start the seedlings. The best part is they are reusable until someone cracks them :) Yay, sparing the environment! They were the perfect size too. For the seedlings that need some extra time, we will move them up to a red solo cup before they go outside(will probably do this for the various squash and melons).

This is the clean version of the floor during our gardening...Haha. Madison has this curse, where if there is ever a cup in front of her, she can't help but spill it! No joke. She must have knocked over at least 4 or 5 cups :) Between the two of them though, this pile was so much bigger. Bill was about to vacuum under the table when I decided that the floor needed much more dirt than that! I accidentally dumped the bag of dirt off the chair and made the pile huge. I should've taken before and after photos. 

We still have quite a few things I want to plant. I can't wait for fruits and berries to start being sold so we have a fully loaded garden. Last year, we bought a pear tree, a plum tree, and an apple tree(all multi-variety....so they can cross-pollinate), 4 blueberry bushes(also multi-variety), and 3 strawberry plants(not sure if they will come back this year). We built 7 garden boxes and set up an awesome herb garden. :) This year I am hoping to build a few more boxes and possibly a decent sized greenhouse(that may not happen this year though). Money doesn't grow on trees, but if it did I would plant those too!

This is a bowl of something Madison is growing. I say "something", because we have no idea what it is...Haha. She found these seeds on the floor where some of my open seed packages were spilled. She found a bowl, filled it with toilet paper and watered it for a few days, then it started sprouting. Tough little seeds :) We added some soil to them so they can start their root system growing. I can't wait to find out what they are. Bill and I both guess it's tomatoes :) 

And there you have it! 200 seeds! In cute little cups, labelled, and ready to transplant(in a few weeks). I can't wait! This is honestly one of my favorite times of the entire year! I really hope that the girls gain the same love for gardening as I have. It feels so rewarding harvesting all your own fresh produce. They love being able to go outside and just munch on stuff from the garden. We plant at least 30-50 beans/peas and 10 cherry tomato plants, because the girls will sit there ALL day picking them and eating them while they play.

Well what more can I write about his.....? I guess I'm done until they start growing. I will update as we see some sprouts and get ready to transplant outside. :) Until then, I will have to find something else to write about. Where will I find inspiration?!?! Haha. Oh yeah....my crazy life :)

The girls Youtube video-Planting seeds with Mads'n'Ayles - take a look, they are pretty silly!

UPDATE: WEEK 1

They have started to pop up!!! There are so many little sprouts already. One trick I forgot to mention is that when I initially plant the seeds, I make sure to use warm water. Not lukewarm but actually warm. I feel like it gives the seeds a feeling of summer...Haha. 

The beans are rapidly growing as you can see. They usually take 5-10 days to sprout, but these ones are about 8-9 inches tall after 7 days!! I swear it was the warm water. 

And here are Madison's surprise seeds :) Any guesses yet? They are definitely an edible plant. I rubbed a piece of it in between my fingers to see what it smelled like. I'm pretty sure I have the answer but you should tell me in the comments. 

Giveaway: Let's make this fun! If you subscribe to my blog and guess the correct answer (What are Madison's surprise seeds going to be?) in the comments, you will be entered into a draw for a $10 gift card of your choice(provided I can buy it in my area...Haha). Make sure to write your name in the comments if you are posting anonymously. If this has a good turnout, I may do more giveaways in the future :)

UPDATE: WEEK 2

Wow, did they ever grow this week!! At least one of everything we planted has popped up now. We had a few duds in the batch, but not as bad as I expected. We planted 200 and only lost 30 :) That doesn't include the beans that Baylee ate all the tops off after I switched them into bigger cups. Luckily they all came back. She really does love her vegetables....weird dog!

After 2 weeks of growing, the beans are now about 18 inches long. They are growing like crazy now!! And look at all the little guys grow too.

I decided that yesterday I needed to transplant a bunch of seedlings into bigger containers. If you look at the picture above, you can see how little room their roots have already. The small cups I used were a great idea for planting a lot of seeds and not thinking they would all grow, but since they all did grow, it's just seems like I added a step that I didn't need to.

I love all the green!! It makes me feel like it's not freezing cold outside. If it was warmer, these guys would be out there loving all the rain.

Here it is!! 2 weeks growing these surprise seeds! I wonder what they will be??? Make sure to leave your guess(and your name) in the comments and subscribe(and verify it with the email that will be sent afterwards from FeedBurner). I can't wait to send out my first giveaway!!!! :) Good Luck guys and thanks for reading!