Um.....I was right about the rabbits...

I started moving some straw around in the garden today and I unearthed a rabbit's nest - IN THE GARDEN! That's not good. There were 4 babies. No sign of Mom. I suspect that Mom may not have been around for a few days, since I plugged up the hole in the fence. I took another walk around the perimeter of the rabbit guard and I don't see any obvious entrance point, and nothing else has been eaten.

I took these out of the garden and put them on a bed of straw at the edge of the shed where we have rabbits every year. Maybe they'll reconnect with Mom. Or maybe not. But it's the best I can do for them. I SURE don't want them in my garden.

Unwelcome Nighttime Visitors

A few days ago I went out to check on the state of things in the garden, and I was dismayed to find that something had not only been chomping on the leaves of my strawberry plants...



But had also gone fussing through my garlic....

And not only apparently ATE several garlic plants that had been in that muddy, track-marked spot above, but had also started to burrow there...

My guess is rabbit, especially as I know I have them in the yard. I poked around the fence some and I think I found the spot where they must have come in, some rabbit guard with about a two-inch gap between the bottom of the wire and the ground. I plugged it up and have gone around to inspect the fence perimeter. It all seems okay. There was no further damage the next night, so hopefully the buffet is now closed.

Of this I am exceedingly proud...

Here is my first set of seedlings, having already spent a few nights outside. They are Black Beauty Eggplant, a pepper of indeterminate variety, Red Acre Cabbage, cucumbers and 5 little tomato plants.

Inside under the Aerogarden lights I have a TON of curcurbits doing fantastic. Watermelon, muskmelon, summer and winter squashes. I will have plenty to put out on 1 May.

A definite goal for the next winter - to expand my seed-starting station to do more at one time...

What's going on in the garden this week....

A lot, actually! The weather has been just beautiful. My first plants from The Tasteful Garden arrived this week. The "test" peas that I put in the ground a week or more ago began to sprout, so I went ahead and put them all in. I'm going to try growing them up a bamboo pyramid. I can see evidence of kale and turnips sprouting - and I realized this week that one thing that has changed dramatically from last year is that this year I recognize when a seed that I have planted is sprouting, as opposed to just being a weed!

No evidence yet of the beets or turnips. Though I may be seeing my leeks sprouting. I put pansies around in various places, because they're the first flower available to go out in the spring, and because I absolutely have to have something blooming out there to soothe my soul.

The cauliflower I put in became a buffet for slugs immediately - no lie - OVERNIGHT.

After a day or two of this I went on a hunt for the little buggers and found and killed two. I also sprinkled a little salt on the ground around each plant. I may replace them. I'm going to see if they start to perk up any.

I started making the weedless gardening beds that I mentioned in my last post. And I've decided to really go for it laying down the stone paths. One thing I learned last year, when gardening with young children you just cannot do enough to make it obvious where little feet should be stepping and where they shouldn't.

Onions are still...onioning. I got a little concerned because they seemed to be getting yellowish around the outside, but the inner shoots still seem green and strong so I guess they're doing okay.

Ah, and here's the best part of the week. The Wall-E garden my daughter planted.

And finally, last but not least - brussels sprouts doing fine. They're planted in the same place as the cauliflower, but I guess the slugs don't like them. I didn't get any brussels sprouts this fall, so I'm trying again. Hopefully we can get some this summer.

To Till or Not To Till....That is the Question

My husband and I have been going a few rounds around here about whether to till up the new garden space that is currently grass. I got it fenced off this past week and he promised to till it by Sunday. He's a till and straight row kind of guy; while I find myself feeling increasingly wild and whimsical on the subject of gardening.

The truth is, I don't want it tilled. I've been doing some reading about all the benefits of NOT tilling or digging, and quite frankly neither one of us have any desire to be running off to the chiropractor, so no-till sounds like a good option to me.

I was doing some nosing around on the web this weekend and I came upon a blog called In Lee's Garden Now which was really interesting to me. And I kept thinking, Lee Reich, Lee Reich, why is that name so familiar to me?

Because I already own one of his books, Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden.

Duh.

Check out his website. His garden is GEORGEOUS.

So much so, in fact, that I bought his book, Weedless Gardening, and it arrived promptly today, autographed, no less, which was really nice.

I went straight to the chapter called, In the Beginning: Readying the Ground for a First Time Planting, where I found this comment - "On the other hand, a sorry patch of lawn will quickly expire beneath less than four layers of newspaper".

Boy is this the book for me.

Encouraged and armed with a book saying that this is the way to go, I headed outside this afternoon and broached the subject with my husband again, and this time he expressed his reservations, but agreed to let me go the "weedless gardening" route this spring.

Turns out the answer is "not to till", so I am psyched.

In preparation this afternoon, I gathered up a bunch of scrap lumber that had been laying around and started kind of marking out where I want to have paths and where I want to have beds for the large area of grass that will be potatoes, melons, peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, corn and lots and lots of flowers later this summer. I'm going to start bringing home materials tomorrow and working on one bed at a time, starting with the potatoes, which will have to go in about mid April. Gives me about a month to kill of the grass....

Still getting organized...

Got a few more things done yesterday afternoon. I started putting down some paving stones to make a clear path through part of the garden. Mostly these stones were salvaged from around other parts of our property where they were being used for other things that are no longer needed. It's crooked - but rustic. I think it'll be fine when things are growing in and around it. Now that I have these spaces defined I can really see how much room I will have for some beautiful flowers. There's going to be marigolds, nasturtium and petunias throughout.

By the way, that pile of straw to the left of the birdbath is mulching the garlic I planted in October, which came through just FINE under almost 5 total feet of snow this winter!!!!!


I also poked a few seeds in the ground. I have some planting date information indicating that some things should start going in the ground - carrots, beets, spinach. Because it might be a little premature, I just poked in a few seeds and I'll see what happens. If they sprout I'll poke in a few more. I want to do some succession planting anyway. Starting Wednesday night we're supposed to have some days of rain....

I picked up a few pretty things to put into pots on the deck. This is for my psyche.

Finally...Some Georgous Weather!!!!!

It was a spectacular weekend. It got up into the SIXTIES!!!

I was able to get tons done outside, getting the garden ready. For one thing, I took down much of the old fencing. I also repaired some of the fence. And I put up 100 feet of new rabbit guard around the area of new garden that my husband has promised to till up for me this week. You can see that it's going to be quite a big area this year. The bottom of the picture, where the newly fenced area is is where the tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, corn and melons will be. Total somewhere around 2400 square feet. About 500 square feet won't be planted till fall, when the fall brassicas will go in. At the moment it is planted with rye grass which will get tilled under this week. It's in the middle left of the fenced in garden space below.

This part of the garden is shaping up to be my favorite. I got beds ready with peat moss and manure compost for beets and carrots that will probably go in as seed beginning next weekend. The area inside the small white picket fence will be a strawberry bed, and we'll also be growing spinach in there.

I got some of the bamboo poles set up this weekend for trellising beans and peas and cucumbers. There are still some more trellises to go in.

You'll see I still have quite a bit of straw down. The area near the top of the photo is from this past fall's sheet mulching project. I'm not sure if it didn't work, or if it takes more than 6 months for all that to break down. There's still cardboard there. That's where the spring brassicas are going to go.

I picked up a few blooming things to put in pots on the deck, but I didn't get to that today. This week I still have some fence work to do, put up the rest of the bamboo poles, prepare the bed where I'll be planting onions and leeks - from seed - and hoping that they come up. :0)

Much happiness. Much exercise. Much sun. Much excitement!!!!