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.

False Spring

I know it isn't really spring being the 12th of February but we hit 55 degree F today. Our snow is gone (has never really showed up) and we had spurts of great sunshine. Oh it was nice to have sun. It has been very gloomy lately and I've missed the sunshine.

I went out and cleaned up the garden from last fall. I never really cleaned up before winter. Our ground isn't even close to being frozen. A little too wet to till, but it won't be long if we keep having days like today. I will be happy to get out working in the garden again. Sure makes me a happy camper.

On to actual garden updates: Seeds are purchased. I didn't get a ton, but I bought more than I had originally planned. They are so hard to resist. The soil pods are soaking as we speak and I'll be starting my tomatos today.

My varieties this year: Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, Brandywine, a couple of paste tomatos (I don't remember which variety I bought this morning), and a tomatillos for my salsa. On a side note. I need more tomato cages. Good thing we have wire left over from the fence. I'll build 'em as needed.

I think I'll be starting everything else outside this year. Other than maybe one or two herbs. Haven't really decided there yet. We'll see how it goes with Bear getting into things. He really wants to play with the soil pods.

Weather

We haven't had much of a winter. Lots of rain this year. There are days like yesterday where the precipitation comes down as snow but it is warm enough not to stick. Bum deal. We really don't have any snow to speak of. The weather-man has been talking about numbers of 50-75% below normal snow pack. Kinda scary.

I wish we'd get some of the snow that is dumping back East. They are getting 18 inches plus at a time. Apparently this isn't normal for them. Schools are closing and stores are running out of food. I am fasinated by this. I don't understand not being prepared for winter weather. I know we aren't as prepared as we could be, but we would be okay for awhile. Little things like having powdered milk and flour on hand. Having a heat source other than electricity. Even if it is just candles or a camping stove. Those things make sense to me, but the running around in a panic like the articles talk about doesn't make sense. I assume most people aren't really doing this and it is just the media hype. They like to make a big deal out of a small deal.

Several years back there was a small washout of our road out by the highway from the high spring runoff. The "flood" encompassed all of about 3-4 feet worth of road and a couple of inches of water. This wasn't the case if you watched the evening news. Boy, the whole Valley was flooding and it was a big issue according to them. Funny, it never slowed us down.

At any rate, I'm hoping we get some decent snow between now and spring. The ground sure could use it. We'd rather not have lots of fires around next summer.

It has begun.

I've done it. I started my first seeds this evening. Walla Walla Sweet onions from seed. We tried a few last year and loved them so I'm doing a flat of them this year. Also, I'm trying out a soil pod/greenhouse set up. We shall see how it works. So far I like the lack of mess it makes. I'm still not sure how I'm going to do this with a toddler in the house. Might get interesting.

I'm thinking I'm going to only start a few things from seed early this year. I'm going to try direct seeding a lot of what I grow. I don't know if we have a long enough growing season but I'm going to find out.

Welcome 2010!

New year, new garden, fresh starts. Nice to have a clean slate. I'm planning away on the garden. I'm going to rotate the directions my rows go. Last year they ran East to West. Everything did all right but I think I may get more stuff in my garden if I do a North/South row that is shorter. I'm still planning on running my beans and peas along the fence that runs East/West though. Just on my North fence so they don't block the sun.

So here's my basic list of what I think I want in the garden this year:

Tomatoes: Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, and maybe an Amish Paste?
Tomatillos
Carrots: Chantenay and Danvers Half Long
Potatoes: Haven't picked varieties yet, but at least one fingerling type
Zuchinni: Green, Yellow didn't do so hot last year
Pumpkin: I have a sweet pie pumpkin seed but also I've composted several pumpkins that may or may not sprout on their own. I had a small decorative pumpkin come up last year this way. Obviously my compost doesn't get very hot.
Peppers: Haven't decided here yet either, but will do plants instead of from seed
Cucumber: Have Straight Eight and National Pickling
Lettuce: I like the mix of leaf lettuces
Onions: WallaWallas and red (I planted the reds last fall. We'll see what we get)
Beans: Kentucky Blues and Bush Blue Lakes
Peas: Mix of sugar and snow peas along with some regular shelling
Beets: Detroit Red
Turnips: Purple Top

I'm debating radishes with my carrots. I just don't know how many we'll eat. I also have lots of herbs I want to put in. I just haven't decided if they will go in my veggie garden or elsewhere around the property. In addition to the herbs Tom would like me to put in some hops. This way he may start brewing beer. That would be kinda fun. We have the cellar for it, and I can put the hops around the garage or along our fence. I haven't decided which yet. Also, I'm debating brussels sprouts and cabbage. Both take up lots of room and we don't eat that many of them. Plus my brussels sprouts didn't mature until almost Dec. Maybe a corner of the garden where they can just be ignored for the summer. They were delicious, but didn't yield much.

Anyone have any luck with copper to deter slugs? Beer traps work well, but I always forget to refresh the beer so they get really gross and the slugs quit going in.