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!!!!

Seedling Update and Baby Figs

I don't think I posted here that we bought a fig tree back in October and have been keeping it inside. It started out as a stick, then got buds, then leaves, and it looks like now it's starting to make a few little figs!!! How cool!



On the seedling front, I got another batch started today. Longkeeper Winter Storage tomatoes; San Marzano tomatoes, a roma-size variety of tomatoes for canning and sauce; A hot pepper mix that I picked up in the grocery store - it'll be interesting to see what we get! Celeriac, a new crop for me this year. Listada De Gandia eggplant and Black Beauty eggplant; Hybrid pickling cucumber which I grew last year and which did great, as well as Ellen's Family White pickling cucumber. The seeds all came from SESE. I will be ordering another set of heirloom tomatoes from The Tasteful Garden soon too. I LOVED those last year.

Still not sure how I'm going to get the light to go around for all that.

It's chilly with a wintry mix of precipitation today and tomorrow, but after that we'll be sunny and clear and in the fifties from Friday until Tuesday. This is my weekend to get out in the garden, hoe up the weeds, shore up the fence, and start breaking some new ground. I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!

Seedlings

I am so happy that it's almost March!!! It's getting about time to get outside and get the garden ready. I ordered my seed potatoes today, three varieties - Red Caribe, Russian Banana Fingerlings, and Yukon Gold. The Red are supposed to be really early potatoes, I expect to be eating the fingerlings through the summer, and the Yukon Gold, which are supposed to be good storage potatoes, will hopefully take us through the winter. Last year the fingerling potatoes were SO GOOD, I've hated buying potatoes this winter, and have often been disappointed.

Indoors, I have a sweet potato vine growing inside, sprouted from one of our Beauregard's this winter. It looks fantastic. I think I will leave it in this pot all Spring and see if I can't harvest some potatoes out of it. If I can, then I will see about keeping some sweet potatoes going inside all the time.



I have my first true leaves on my broccoli sprouts now. They're doing pretty well. I've been misting them every day. Some of them are looking slightly yellow to me, but I mixed up a little fish emulsion and sprayed them with that today. Hopefully they'll perk back up.

Here's my little seedling set up. I have 13 broccoli plants, one lone cauliflower seedling, one lone brussels sprout seedling, about half a dozen red acre cabbage seedlings and probably 8 or so early jersey wakefield cabbage seedlings.

It's getting about time to start some tomatoes and peppers, eggplants, cucs and squash, but I'm concerned about having the space for them under the grow light. I'm going to think about that...

Broccoli Babies

So far so good. I've thinned a little already as some were growing right on top of each other. At the moment I have 14. No sign of the cauliflower or brussels sprouts coming up.

I'll be starting some cabbage and celeriac soon...hopefully this week.

After that, it's tomatoes, peppers and eggplants...

Broccoli seedlings are up!

Here's the good news - the broccoli sprouts are already up!

Bad news is that some of them are moldy....they got too wet. I'll watch and see what happens. Maybe they'll be all right....

Winter Wonderland...

What better time to be thinking about planting then when I can't even see my garden because of the snow? You can barely make out the very tip of the fence. This is the biggest snow we've had this year so far.

Based on the garden plan and my estimated planting dates, the first seeds that I need to start are the broccoli. They'll go in the ground around mid-April, and I'd like to be setting out good, strong, big, healthy plants. I'm shooting for twelve.

It would appear that in one of my fall cleaning frenzies I threw away all of the little black seedling pots I had accumulated last Spring and Summer, so my first order of business was to figure out what I was going to start these little seedlings in. I came up with this.

Last week I dumped what was left of a bag of garden soil on the deck (frozen solid with clump of ice included) into my canning pot and added some cold perlite. It's been sitting inside ever since to warm up.

My husband brought the seedling starter mat in for me that had ended up back out in the shed, and I moved a table into the dining room so I had somewhere to put all of this apparatus. I cut the bottles down, cleaned them thoroughly, and punched a few holes in the bottoms for drainage. I mixed up my soil and perlite, which was nice and warmish and moist, and filled the pots.

We put the seeds in liberally. Since I want a dozen plants I'm shooting to end up with two good plants in each pot, four in the large pot.

I put thier Ziploc bag tents over them, placed them on the plugged-in seed mat, and walked away. I'll check them daily until I start to see seeds coming up. Hopefully by next weekend I'll be moving these new little babies under the aerogarden light, misting them every morning, and starting something else on the mat - cauliflower and cabbage, I think.