It has officially started...

I did the last tilling this morning and I started the real planting this afternoon. We'll see how many things the frost kills.

My planted list:

Peas
Beets
Green Onions
Carrots
Spinach
Lettuce

I have a small bed of onions going and my garlic is up as well. I still have 3 beds to plant but they will be planted later. I'm going to have a tomato/tomatillo bed, and two with more mixes of things. I have potatoes that have sprouted but it is a little early yet. We are still getting some pretty hard frost at night.

I'm hoping to do a little better with the keeping the weeds down this year. It will help to have the compost as it finishes. I'm excited for the season to be started.

March 21

Well it is officially spring. Sure felt like it yesterday too. We were close to 60 degrees F. and wonderfully sunny. Bear and I spent the afternoon in the garden digging up sod and planting onion sets. I still have more to dig up and more sets to plant. Hopefully they did okay with the frost last night. I'm not too worried. I have onions coming up from last year and I still have seedlings inside that are too little to brave the frosty nights.

I'm seeing that my tomato seedlings are getting root bound in their little soil pods. I'm going to have to re-pot. I'm not sure I have that many pots. I've ended up with a flat of 72 tomatos. I don't know if I'm going to have room for everyone. It really is only 12 plants of each variety. I'm hoping I'll get some visitors this spring that I can send some tomatos home with. That way I don't have to kill the poor little seedlings. I kill so many plants anyway that I don't like to kill any that are surviving their tenure with me.

I'm hoping in spite of the grey skies today it is warm enough to go out and finish up a bunch of my digging. Even though my hands have blisters and my shoulders are protesting. It all feels kinda good in a strange sort of way. I like the feeling after I put in a good days work.

March 12th

And the garden has the first tilling. We will borrow the neighbors big roto-tiller to break more sod. I'm expanding the garden this year. Not by a lot but I composted a corner last year that is going to be great soil. The sod is gone there but I'm expanding beyond that 3x3 corner. The tomatos and onions are doing well. Plus we got some more onion sets from the hardware store. Mostly the garden is going to be onions and tomatoes. I'll have a few other things but not loads.

Speaking of my tomatos I'd better go thin them while Bear is asleep. I don't want him getting the idea that it is a good idea to pull up my seedlings.

March

Already March. Wow. We never even got winter and it is almost spring. We've had temps in the 60s and the garden will probably get tilled this week(end). I can't believe we don't still have snow. The tomatoes and onions are up in their flats. I checked around the yard the other day and I found all sorts of plants poking up. Some sort of flower that someone other than us planted (Bulbs that come up first thing. Even before my crocus.), horseradish is starting to peek up, the irises are a couple inches tall, and the garlic has an inch or so. Also the chervil, strawberries, and chives are starting, but just.

I'll be amazed if we don't have a wicked fire season this year. I hope not for our area, but I do hope so at the same time. Last year there weren't many fires and business was awfully slow.