Happy 1st day of Spring

Whew! Finally got a half way decent day and some time to play outside.  We got the garden most of the way staked out, got my compost area fenced in, and I got two big beds (5 feet x 28 feet) cultivated and ready to plant.  I have four more big beds to prep.  I don't think I'll need/want them this year so they'll probably get mulched or cover cropped for next year.  I do need to figure out where I'm going to put my asparagus.  I found asparagus starts the other day here in town so I bought them.  I also found onion sets and shallot sets.  Those won't be as tough to figure out where I'll put them since they aren't perennial.

The wind blew like crazy today again.  Not the 40-60 mph we had on Sunday but it blows here.  Pretty much all the time.  Some folks say it is seasonal but I think the only thing really seasonal is that the winds get stronger in the spring.  This semi-flat country just doesn't have anything to block the wind.

I need to count the number of tomato plants I put in.  I know I have somewhere around 20 starts.  I'm also trying Brussels sprouts again.  We'll see if I can get them through the heat enough to produce a decent set of sprouts.  I have kale and garlic up.  They are in the containers I had at our rental.  I don't see any carrots yet but both containers with kale are showing green and the lone garlic shoot is about 2 inches tall.  The garlic was a clove I was going to cut for making dinner and I saw it had a big sprout so I planted it in a container I had sitting there with just dirt.  Guess we'll have a little garlic anyway.

I'm excited now that I have beds ready.  Now I can get figuring where I'm going to put my herbs as well as that asparagus.  I'm debating rhubarb as well.  I'm not a huge fan but it goes nicely with strawberries so I might.  I'm also going to put strawberries in. I suppose I should order my stuff one of these days.

Critters

It seems as if our new place comes with a pile of critters.  Namely mice.  They've gotten into my bird seed and it appears that one crawled into my husband's car and got eliminated the other day.  I'll spare you the gory details but it wasn't a pretty sight.

We have deer which will be interested in my garden.  We have birds too.  Lots of birds.  We are starting to see some Blue Jays now in addition to the little finches and Robins.  If we get cats to help control the mice we'll need to put the bird seed up higher so the cats can't hunt the birds quite so easily.  Also, I spotted what I'm pretty sure was a coyote in the back pasture.  He was far enough out and I only caught a glimpse.  We really need to get some binoculars.  We used to have a pair somewhere.  Maybe in the last few boxes I'll find them again.  I think we got rid of them though.

Garden beds are getting dug this week.  During Tom's spring break he'll work on my paths.  I'm excited to be getting this garden going.  It is going to be quite a bit more real estate than my last one.  I thought we had a big garden before.  I got out the measuring tape yesterday.  My back fenced area is 40 feet x 40 feet.  My main focus area is going to be a 30x40 foot area.  We have two trees and a sandbox that is interfering with my planning.  I want to keep them but they are stalling me when it comes to planning around them.

I need to figure out where I'm going with my laundry too.  I think we'll start with an umbrella type clothesline and see how that works.  I've always just stretched a line from a house or tree to a fence or another tree.  There really aren't any trees or fences to stretch a line here. 

My list of tasks that need done early this year:

Dig beds
Put in clothes line
Plant grass seed
Plant flower seeds
Grub out sage brush in front yard
Build path for front walk/door
Get side yard ready for chickens
Repair/replace front gate for side yard
Replace gate from side yard to back garden
Repair fencing around garden in a couple of places
Get latch for walk thru gate to back pasture

A plan

I have little birds that come to eat every morning just outside my bedroom window.  It always happens about 6:30-7 a.m.  Somewhere between 10-30 of them come in, eat stuff from the ground, and then they fly off.  I want to get some seed to set out for them but I haven't remembered while I'm in town.

I've begun my garden planning in earnest now.  I'm going to work off the four-square plan.  Beds surrounding the perimeter, four beds in-between paths that cross in the middle, and a center piece where the paths cross.  We are thinking with all the birds up here that we want a bird bath for our center piece.  The trouble I'm having at the moment is deciding what material to use for my pathways.  Gravel, brick, cedar mulch, or grass?  I like the feel of grass and the look but I don't like the amount of water it takes.  Gravel and brick are fairly expensive and labor intensive to put in but don't take water to maintain.  Cedar mulch isn't as labor intensive or expensive but in the long run it probably is as expensive since I would have to replace the mulch every year.  The nice part there is that I could change my mind easily about the location of my paths.

I need some pallets for my composting area too.  Or to buy a composter but I think I'd rather have three bins going.  I'm noticing with my little compost that is out right now though I am going to have to get serious about fencing critters out.  Even if that critter is my own dog.  He is a pain about getting into stuff like that.

Once I get compost set up and my path material decided on then I can really go to work.  I've started to dig beds a little.  It looks like I have some pretty decent dirt.  I will amend it some with some manure since the previous folks so kindly left us lots of straw and manure.  Some people wouldn't be happy about that but I am.

Do-over

I can't believe I get a do-over.  I get to completely start a new garden again.  This means I can fix things I didn't like about my last garden.  I see that my new place is about 1000 feet in elevation higher than the old one.  That will mess with me a bit as far as freezes go.  Plus we're up on a hill that gets plenty of wind.  Hmmmm... That means I'm going to have to give the garden plenty of shelter when it comes to that.

I also really want to add a green house to this garden.  I've had a little porch greenhouse that works pretty well for starting seeds but I sure could use one that I could walk into.  I'm trying to figure out where the best spot for a green house will be.  Of course the South side of the house, but whether or not to put it in my actual fenced garden area or just outside that I'm not sure yet.  I suppose it will depend on what I end up doing for a green house.  I'd like to use passive solar heat for it and I don't want it getting blown over.  There is a spot next to my back deck between the deck and the central air unit that looks like it might work.  I actually set my pots of soil where I've started a few cool weather crops there while we are moving in.  The area seems pretty protected from the wind and it felt probably 10 degrees warmer than the rest of the yard.  And that was with no other protection.

I most likely won't order any seeds this year.  I have a pretty good stash that needs to get used and I'm swapping for a few others.  I may pick up some perennials at our local stores though.  Especially as the season comes to a close and they go on clearance.  By then I should have a pretty good idea of what the summer looks like at my new garden site.

I need to get a few things for my garden this year.  Some hoses mainly.  We left most of our hoses up in Montana so our renters could water.  I need to pick up some fittings to finish up building my rain barrel.  I have the barrel and my location but I need to be able to hook up a hose.

My to-do list for this month:

• Plan out vegetable beds in garden area
• Get those bed areas mulched with the hay and poop laying out in the corral area
• Get my rain barrel in position and the gutter set up for the barrel
• Get the fittings for the barrel
• Cultivate the bed on the West side of the garden fence so I can plant perennial flowers there
• Amend the soil in that bed
• Plant grass seed in front yard
• Plan out seating area by the kids' sandbox
• Plan paths through the garden- start collecting rock/flagstone to make paths
• Get more seeds started inside

Revival

Well, I haven't posted here for something like 2-3 years.  I switched over to http://lazymomgardener.wordpress.com/ for the most part.  But I think I will see about maintaining the both of the blogs.  I'm opinionated enough to maintain more than one blog right?  Okay so some of you may not know that, but you'll just have to trust me on that one.

I am about to start a new gardening adventure.  We are buying a chunk of property in Western Nebraska on the High Plains.  We hope this will be our forever place so I'd like to make sure our garden plans go well.  A few goals for this new garden:

establish perennial beds with herbs, asparagus, and rhubarb

establish an orchard with apples, plums, and maybe pears and apricots

eventually raise our own meat in addition to our own vegetables

eventually raise a few animals for the fiber as well

Right now we are in the process of making our land purchase.  We'll get moved into the house and get the basic vegetable and flower gardens planted.  Then we'll assess.  We have some travelling to do this summer so we'll hold off on getting any critters until after that trip.  This way we don't have to worry about someone to care for them.

Way behind

This will be fast. My garden is basically in. I have a ton of onions this year. I have about a 4 foot by 8 foot bed of them plus another probably 8 foot row of onions. I went a little crazy. I have tomatoes that aren't in yet, the peas are up, and I haven't been able to sort the lettuce, leeks, carrots, or radishes from the weeds yet. Soon I will plant the tomatoes, some broccoli, zucchini, and maybe that is it. Oh! And cucumbers if I can get some plants. I really want to make pickles but I haven't managed to get cucumbers to grow.

Also, I've started another gardening blog. The other one is a lot more formal and a bit more in the realm of a self-help type. At least I hope I can help someone out. I've always found that a lot of the information out there is a bit overwhelming and always seems like a person can never get it right. I'm hoping to change that. Anyway, if anyone is interested it is lazymomgardener.wordpress.com.

Off to bed so maybe I can get the zucchini planted tomorrow.

Tilling

I got the preliminary tilling done last week. The day before it snowed. Gotta love crazy spring weather. I got a few seeds into the cold frame. Yesterday I saw that a few were starting to poke above ground. I did plant some garlic the other day too. We'll see how spring planted garlic does. I see that I have some other garlic coming up as well. I'm putting grapes in this year. They are ordered, but I don't think they've shipped yet. I'm also hoping to put a real fence around the garden this year. Once that is up then I want to put a few perennial plants and flowers in as a border. Tom has issues with my lack of order when it comes to the garden. :) Maybe if there is a nice border and fence it won't matter so much what chaos is hiding inside. I'm itching to get my peas and lettuce planted, but I keep making myself wait a little bit. Besides I still need to get some Romain lettuce seeds. Tracy introduced us to homemade Caesar dressing and got us hooked. So, now Tom makes the dressing and decided he wants me to grow the lettuce. Works for me. What else? Onions, peas, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, radishes, and I might try some turnips, parsnips, and whatnot. I'm not sure though. Oh, basil, parsley, cilantro, sage, fennel, and mint. I might even try some celery this year. I do hope this year's tomatoes do better than last year. I got almost no sauce or salsa to put up this last summer. We might have one more jar of sauce. We've been pretty stingy with using it too. Off to get things done around here...