Planting started out in the garden

Yesterday and today I planted peas, some spinach, arugula, carrots, garlic, Walla Walla onions, red onions, white bunching onions, and romaine lettuce. I'm glad I waited to buy the red onion sets because I got them on sale today. Kaitlyn was a big help getting the raised beds ready for planting. She used the hoe to mix the compost into the soil while I finished mixing and smoothed the soil.

Hopefully what I planted will grow ok and not drown because shortly after finishing this afternoon it started raining really hard and it's supposed to keep raining for several days.

Transplanting & seedling report

Yesterday I transplanted 4 buttercrunch lettuce, 4 romaine lettuce, and 2 cauliflower farmers extra early to pots to grow inside. I moved the light above the eggplant up a little. More of the borage and some of the nasturtiums and forget-me-nots sprouted.

Today has been around 40 degrees so a lot of the snow is melting. They're predicting another possible 1-3 inches tomorrow night, but high temps this week are supposed to be in the high 40s and low 50s so hopefully the rest of the snow will melt and stay melted.

I don't think we'll convert it this year, but I found plans on how to convert to drip irrigation for raised beds so ideally I'd like to do that next year. I also found plans for making self-watering indoor planters out of 18-gallon rubbermaid tubs so I'll plant to make some to grow tomatoes and peppers year-round.

Strawberry Planter, Planting Templates, Garden Repair

Yesterday Al built a pyramid planter for strawberry plants that we'll put by the sinkhole and he cut boards for my hole planting templates. I bought some 1/4" dowels at Michael's and Al cut them to 1" lengths for the pegs that will make the planting holes. I measured and marked the placement of the dowels and Al glued them in place. Today the glue was dry so he attached the handles that I got at Home Depot. I also picked up some 6' bamboo poles for the pole beans.

Al with the 2nd layer of the pyramid

Al with the finished pyramid

Top side of finished planting templates

Bottom side of planting templates

Al and I teamed up to repair some of the garden beds today. On some of the black plastic edging he drilled holes and we attached the corner pieces with cable ties. We put stakes in to support a few other beds as well. The one that had bricks and plastic edging that the deer knocked over last fall we took apart and made a wood box support instead.

The new wood box support

I had to move the light above the cauliflower up since it's gotten so big. I'll probably have to move the lights up above the tomatoes soon too.

Buttercrunch Lettuce

Cauliflower, Broccoli, Basil

Pulled lots of weeds, harvested carrots & beans

I harvested a bunch of carrots, wax beans, and some peppers today.  There are still a bunch of carrots ready to harvest, but I'll leave them in the garden until we're ready to use them.  Al took Kaitlyn to Hazel's birthday party so I could get some gardening done.  I want to get as many weeds pulled as possible before my surgery on Friday.  I managed to clear the rest of the walkways and weeded around the beans.  The pumpkins are spreading out so far I can't get through the end of a couple walkways, but we can get around other paths so it's not a huge deal.  We should have some nice pumpkins from those plants.

Today's harvest

Cucumbers are planted finally

I finally got the cucumbers planted!  I was intending to fill in that last bed before planting the cucumbers, but it's been so hot I haven't been able to dig the soil in there.  I just decided to plant the seeds with the soil how it is.  Then after harvest I'll fill in that frame.  I also planted some sunflowers and dill down the middle of the bed between the rows of cucumbers.

Cooler today, digging soil

Luckily it cooled off quite a bit after the storms.  It’s about 60 degrees today so it’s perfect weather for digging, although it’s a bit windy.  The buttercup squash I direct seeded is sprouting.  I finished filling in the bed on the side of the garden by the compost, the first tomato bed, and most of the second tomato bed.  I was going to do more digging after supper but it’s so windy now I’m afraid something will drop on me.  The plan for tomorrow is to finish filling in the second tomato bed and try to get the other pepper bed & the cucumber bed filled in so we can plant the rest of the stuff that will go in those beds.

The frames are done!

I finished putting together the last of the frames for the raised beds.  Although the stupid wind blew my hair in my face as I was hammering in the last nail and I ended up hammering my finger.  Ouch!

The squash is planted and most of the seedlings are coming up nicely.

Pumpkins

Oregano & Dill

Oregano

Squash & Radishes

Pumpkins & planting boxes

We brought back a bunch of boards from Grand Rapids this weekend and Al helped me cut the rest of them to size.  George had a great idea to use stakes to support the places where the boards need to be joined so they stay in place.  It worked well.

The pumpkins are coming up!

Pumpkins

The last planting box frames

Raised beds & Asparagus

Yesterday I sank wide boards all along the back line of the garden and along the side by the compost bin.  Hopefully that will keep some of the animals from digging their way into the garden.  Of course I twisted my ankle getting out of the garden last night.  Ouch!

Today I finished digging dirt into the planting bed for the asparagus and got the asparagus planted.  I also finished putting the boards along the side of the garden by the compost.

I got most of the bed for the cauliflower & broccoli dug but my ankle & hand are hurting too much to dig any more today.  

Fixing storm damage

It finally stopped raining so I can fix the planting beds.  I think the peas & garlic will be ok after fixing the beds but a bunch of the romaine will have to be replanted.

I dug in boards along the back line of the garden to work as a retaining wall & to keep the animals out.  Also started putting boards along the side by the compost pile & tree.  That will have to be finished tomorrow since it started raining again.  I also tripped getting out of the garden & twisted my ankle & hurt my right hand so I won’t be doing any more gardening today.

More Garden Work

I pulled some more weeds and dug enough to fill the planting boxes for the peppers, pumpkins, the small box next to the pumpkins, and about half of the box where the cauliflower, broccoli & celery will go.  I should be able to plant the broccoli and cauliflower in that box in the next few days.  It’s supposed to rain with possibly severe storms tomorrow and Wednesday, so those probably won’t be planted until Thursday or Friday (whenever the weather allows).

Kaitlyn helped me plant pumpkin seeds in the garden box.  We planted two hills with 4 seeds each.  Once they sprout I’ll thin them to the strongest two per hill.

Progress & Volunteer Plants

Spent most of the day pulling LOTS of weeds, including a whole bunch of dandelions.  Hopefully I got most of the dandelion roots since they had pretty much taken over the area where the onions were last year and the tomato beds are this year.  I thought we had harvested all of the onions last fall, but I discovered 3 onions so I pulled them & we’ll eat them as green onions in the next few days.   I finished putting the box supports in place for the asparagus so I can get that planted in the next few days.

Many of the peas are starting to come up.  As I was pulling weeds in the bed with the oregano I noticed several dill plants coming up that didn’t grow last year.  Since that bed is mostly herbs I’m just leaving them and weeding around them in case my dill that I intentionally plant this year don’t do well.  If they do, then I’ll just have extra dill. J

There are a couple Black Seeded Simpson growing out of the side of one of the planting boxes, but I left them for now.  I’ll harvest them when I put the newspaper and wood chip mulch down.  There were a couple romaine plants growing in the box where I’m putting the pumpkins, but I just pulled those with the weeds.

Peas

Peas

Arugula

Black Seeded Simpson

Oregano

Green onions

Progress

I made lots of progress so far.  The onion plants are planted, seeds for the carrots, peas, beets & various greens are planted.  More progress has been made on filling the frames with soil.

Lots of garden work

We made lots of progress on the garden today.  Al borrowed the wood chipper from Deb & Jim so he's chipping up a bunch of brush.  I'll used the chipped wood as mulch in the garden.

Oregano

Al chipping brush in the wood chipper

Kaitlyn is helping dig soil into the raised beds

Moving the chive plants

Kaitlyn with the chive plants

The first plants in the new raised beds

Kaitlyn helped me move some of the chive plants to the first raised bed so we can finish digging where the chive plants were.

Filling raised beds & seed report

Buttercup Squash

I dug more soil into the planting beds and cleaned up some more.  Kaitlyn is having fun collecting the rocks that I dig up. J  I finished the second bed and started on the third before I was too tired and we had to come in to eat & get ready for Girl Scouts. 

I planted cauliflower, and more habanero & jalapeno peppers, rosemary, sage and marigolds in seed trays.  I moved the seed trays with mostly herbs to the corner by the red onions to make room for the new seed tray.

Several peppers are starting to come up!

The buttercup squash and broccoli are really doing well!

Most of the tomato plants are up now & doing well!

Broccoli & Sage

Tomatoes

Tomatoes

Digging soil into raised beds

I started digging the topsoil from the walkways into the planting beds.  I’m glad it’s so warm so I have plenty of time to work on this because it’s A LOT of work!  I finished the bed closest to Jayne’s yard and got part of the next one done.

More seeds are sprouting

Broccoli seedlings

Most of the tomatoes are sprouting now above the fridge.  The broccoli is growing fast and most of the broccoli seeds that hadn’t sprouted a couple days ago are now up.  Most of the basil has sprouted. 

The Gurney’s order came today, well the seed part.  The onions, garlic, rhubarb & asparagus will be shipped when they’re ok to plant.  I won’t have time to plant the cauliflower today, so I’ll do that tomorrow morning.  I’ll bring Sean & Melinda’s part of the order out to them tomorrow and help Sean measure the garden so we can figure out a garden plan for them.

I worked on the frames for more of the planting beds.  Most of them are done now – just 4 left to go and then I can start filling them in when the ground completely thaws.  With the record temperatures we’re having it shouldn’t take too long.  It was in the 70s today!

Since it’s been so warm I thought I should check on the strawberries and sure enough, there are several plants up already.

Just before turning the grow lights off tonight I noticed most of the sage plants are starting to poke through the soil!

More progress on the raised beds

I built more planting bed frames just in time before it started snowing.  We only got a dusting, but it’s much easier doing the garden work without snow. J

Loving this warm weather!

I decided to take advantage of some of the warmer weather and start building the frames for the planting beds.  I’m glad I started early because these are harder work than they look.