Gathering of Thoughts

I keep kicking myself.  I was going to go to an auction on Saturday and I completely forgot.  You are probably asking what this has to do with the garden.  Well, it was a landscaping company's auction.  They had trees!  And I missed it!  Doh!  I didn't even realize I had forgotten it until Sunday when I was finally getting around to reading Friday's paper.  Oh man.

Such as life. It does save me money to not go but still... It would have been really nice to get our apples.  We want to start an apple orchard.  I guess we'll have to go about it some other way.  Of course we need to decide where we want the orchard first and we should probably dig out the sage brush.

I am about to go ahead and dig out my other four beds.  I'm seeing I'm quickly running out of room.  I still have about 20 tomatoes, 6 Brussels sprouts, several Walla Walla sweet onions, rhubarb, garlic, spearmint, lavender, sage, and I want to add a pumpkin area for the kids too.  On top or our stuff I'm doing a half share in one of our local CSA (community supported agriculture) farms.  I'm going to be canning like mad.  Yippee!!  I need to keep an eye out for a dehydrator too. 

A few supplies I need to get for the summer growing season:

A hot plate/burners - I have a flat top stove and it doesn't work for canning
Jars, lids, and rings
Dehydrator
Lid rack for my jar lids
Probably another shelf set up for the canned goods

With the CSA I can also get milk.  I don't know if we'll go in on that full time.  I'll find out if the kids and us even like raw milk before we dive in and/or commit to anything there.  There are also opportunities for flour, honey, meat, and fruit.  I'm thinking I'll like having this in addition to our own garden.  I'm also considering the Co-op that is trying to open in another little town close to us.

I'd better see if I can get some digging done this morning.  Also, I just realized that my husband had said he was going to work on putting the chicken coop together this afternoon.  I'd better get my cinder block set up for the feet.  I also need to clean up some more of the tumbleweeds back there and work on the new gate.

Changing weather

That snow moisture is helping us now.  It has turned hot.  I mean mid-70s pushing toward 80 degree hot.  You'd never know that 2 weeks ago we had 4 foot drifts of snow in the yard.

I've been planting like mad and need to plant more.  I  need to get my Brussels sprout seedlings in.  I don't think they are hardened off quite yet but I might plant them out with some cloches anyway.  I'll make them a mini cold frame.  I need to make sure to get the rest of the areas with grass seed watered today.  I got a good portion last night.  In doing so I also got the grapes, apricots, and ponderosa seedlings that just went in.  You can check out my other blog at http://lazymomgardner.wordpress.com for pictures of those.

I need to figure out what I'm doing with my gardens.  I have 20+ tomatoes that will need space, I want strawberries (I don't have them yet), and I want flowers and herbs.  I just need to figure out how it will all fit in.  Of course I need to get things like the strawberries.  I think I'll go see if anyone needs some strawberries thinned.

Double whammy

Last week we got hit with some pretty good winter weather.  Today we are getting it again.  My garden sure is loving the moisture.  I'm not sure how I feel about it.  I'm glad for the moisture but I am ready for spring.  We had some nice spring weather earlier and it gave me a taste for it. 

Now I get to wait.  I got grapes and an apricot tree in the mail yesterday.  I don't think I'll plant them just yet.  We got about 2 inches last night and it is still coming down.  I'm even keeping my oldest home from school.  Apparently the roads are nasty and there is just no point in putting us all in danger.

Competition for the Garden

In my back pasture is where I've seen them.  But the other day I saw tracks in the front yard too.  Guess I'm going to have to make sure to have deer resistant plants.