2014

And the season has started! The greenhouse and seeds have been ordered and I will be working out the planting schedule and how best to get seeds started.  Brain plan is to get most of the early spring crops started as soon as possible (peas, chard, spinach and whatever else we have) so we can have an early crop and then get the tomatoes, tomatillo, sweet peppers, bell peppers and all the rest started and the garden ready for planting.

Im on the lookout for organic or non-treated straw bales to use as a border (raised bed) that we will have planting soil in the middle.  The thought is this will be much cheaper than a bunch of lumber normally used for raised beds.  I also want a few strictly for growing squash, no dirt between, just prep the bale, plant the seeds, water and watch them grow.  Ive read in a few places that bales are a great growing medium for squash and as we had issues last year Im up for trying something different.

Plants are in

The strawberries are in.  The first 10 at least.  Im hoping to get maybe a few more.  The 10 I got almost filled the place I had for them, two more would complete the area.  To many more may not grow too well.  I don’t want them too crowded.

if you look closely, you can see the beginnings of a few strawberries

Worth 1000

Pictures taken around the house during planting months are such a help when thinking about where to plant what when the time comes.

Last summer I took pictures throughout the day on a wonderful sunny early July day. I attempted to take pictures every 4 hrs so I could see where the sun was and be able to add up total sun hrs for various locations.

Unfortunately July is all I got and I blew off getting any pictures for the remaining of the year.  Adding to this, with the removal of all the blackberry canes, I have much more light to areas that were either inaccessible or too covered for planting.

I am lying in wait now for sunny days where I am able to capture sun in the yard.  This year Im hoping to get days in each month from April to Oct.  This way when planning gardening spots next year I am more prepared.

Finally Planting

Home Depot has a wonderful sale going on this week, Bonnie garden plants 5/$10 so with fresh home grown strawberries in mind, I nabbed 10.

We have a wonderful high raised garden bed just outside the kitchen that we grew a small patch of edibles last year that will be perfect for berries.

While I have grander plans for strawberries that includes building of gutters into elaborate shapes it just isnt in the budget this year.

Neither is straw gardens or the “perfect” raised bed so along with the strawberries I got some garden landscape timber (also on sale at Home Depot) and compost to liven up the dirt.

Today will be spent getting fingers dirty, garden areas figured out for this year, strawberries planted and starters started.

More Fog

Can you believe we are back to freezing fog?

I have my containers for peas and the dirt to plant them in.  My aunt came over this week and we discussed a good place for them to grow.  For now they will be placed by the house where they can get most sun but I may be able to grow more later in the season by moving the containers to a much shadier spot but still by a warm building.

I hope to share pics of the after plantings later.

Oh the colors!

Oh Ive got my want on bad!  Ive had the Excalibur 9-tray dehydrator on my oh-gotta-have list for a while.  Then blog surfing this morning and someone pointed out that Excalibur had a glorious 5-tray in red.  Oh my!!

Then I I went to check out their site and found that yes, they do have the 9-tray also in red!

Of course the difference between the normal (black) and the new colors is about $100 and nothing to sneeze at I do love the color!

Spring Peas

Im planning on getting a crop or two of spring peas planted this coming weekend.  I think all I need are some buckets, but may be able to just use the containers Ive got and not have to spend any $$.  That would be a bonus.  My MIL gave me some containers last year that large bushes came in for her landscaping.  They should be large enough to handle at least two pea plants a piece.  My thought is to plant two this weekend and two next weekend and so on for the next month with the hopes of a nice continuous harvest of eatable peas for late spring/early summer.

Thinking outside the box

There are times I wish my grey-matter thinking werent so dang black and white.

Here I am wishing/wanting/hoping to have a spring garden going.  And eating all the fresh veggies just that much sooner than the ending of summer.

My garden is not anywhere near being ready for any kind of planting.  So finding ideas like this

I have a bunch of containers that were waiting for later in the season but I can definitely use a few of them for early spring planting.

Peas and possibly broccoli – Here I come!