April 18th

Last of the onions are in. My Walla Walla Sweets from seeds were the last to go in. One of these days I'll get the tomatoes in. I can't get in too big a hurry though or else I'll kill them.

Garage got cleaned up enough to actually store some of these garden tools. Slowly working on plans for landscaping the rest of the yard...

April 17th

I did more planting yesterday...

Red Pontiac Potatoes
Brussels Sprouts
Cabbage

I'm trying to start the cabbage and brussels sprouts from seed in the garden. I have no idea how they will fair. The tomatoes in the green house are doing well. No black frozen spots at this point. My tomatillos are starting to bloom. Oops. I guess they got started too early. Oh well.

I also planted some yellow iris yesterday. My neighbor was dividing hers up. They also brought over a Snow in the Valley. That might not be the right name. At any rate it is supposed to spread and only get about a foot tall. I'm going to try to get that planted this weekend too. We are going to try to get it to hide the foundation along the road side of the house.

Been rainy and cold, but this weekend is supposed to be warm with a few showers. Mid-60s yesterday. Not bad.

April 10th

Planted another row of onions today. Just a basic yellow onion that should keep better than the Walla Wallas. Also, I spent nap time re-potting my tomatoes. Holy cow I have a bunch! I'm testing one flat of them in the greenhouse. It seems to be staying pretty warm (this is relative) at night in there. I keep forgetting to actually look at the thermometer. I have seeds germinating and leaves popping out on the lilacs that are in the greenhouse at any rate. It can't be too cold in there at night.

I'm just waiting on it to quit freezing so many nights before I continue planting the garden. I do wish I didn't have to work so much. I would get much more work on the garden done if I weren't working. Oh well. I will just have to enjoy my weekends.

Weather update April 5th

Rain, snow, and freezing weather. I knew it would do it if I planted seeds. I have a few calendula seeds coming up in a box on the south side of the house, but the garden isn't poking up yet. I wouldn't if I were them. We've had some strange spring weather. But my mom was just saying the other day that instead of "April showers bring May flowers" it is "April snows bring May rose." Seems like it might be the way it is going this year anyway.

Other than that my tomatoes need re-potted and all the bushes have leaves budding. I guess spring really has sprung.

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.