First Seeds of 2015

I started celery-tall utah, rosemary and parsley today.

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.

Lots more seed starting

Today I started Pumpkin - Gurney's Giant Magic, Pumpkin - New England Pie, Zinnia, Borage, Nasturtium, Forget-Me-Not, Echinacea, Blue Flax, Dill, and Pink Baby's Breath. If the pink baby's breath actually sprouts I'll be very surprised. I discovered the seed packet when I was clearing out space in the office for the plant shelves and it's labeled for 1999. I figured it couldn't hurt to try it and see if they do anything. :)

There's a lot of growth in the plants that have been started. Now if it would stop snowing and warm up I could get compost on the garden beds and plant the peas & other early plants.

Squash and Melons Started

Teresa gave me a great seed tray with coconut coir seed starting cells so I used those for the melons, and squash. I started Hannah's Choice Muskmelon, Melon - Minnesota Midget, Watermelon - Sugar Baby, Watermelon - Black Diamond, Buttercup Squash, Spaghetti Squash, Early Prolific Straightneck Summer Squash, and Broccoli - Summer Purple. Al requested the Summer Purple Sprouting Broccoli because it's supposed to be a little milder tasting than the head broccoli.

Tomatoes, etc started

Yesterday I started a whole bunch of tomatoes - Early Girl, Mortgage Lifter, Roma, Rutgers, Sweet 100, Green Doctor's Frosted Cherry, and Juliet. I started them in smaller cells than I have in the past so they'll all fit in one black seed tray and I'll transplant them as needed. I also started petunias - Celebrity Blue, Celebrity White, and Celebrity Red. Also started chamomile and marigolds. I'm trying Cathy's suggestion and starting the flowers in smaller containers with lots of seeds as she did with her marigolds last year. I'll separate and transplant them as needed. (The plastic part from the boxes of Girl Scout Tagalongs made great trays for the petunias!)

Some of the seeds I planted already are starting to sprout. I'll need to get the new shelf put together in the office soon so I can move the sprouted seeds under the shop lights.

Bell Peppers are sprouting

Sweet Marjoram sprouting

Most of the basil, thyme, cauliflower, broccoli, and marjoram have sprouted

More Seed Starting

Today I started Broccoli - Coronado Crown Hybrid (the one that earned Kaitlyn a blue ribbon last year at the Itasca County Fair), Cauliflower - Farmer's Extra Early, Cauliflower - Snow Crown Hybrid, romaine lettuce, sage, sweet marjoram, sweet basil, and thyme.

Broccoli, Cauliflower, Romaine, Marjoram, Thyme

Seed trays on top of the fridge to germinate

2014 Planting has begun!

The first seeds of 2014 are now started. Planted Celery - Tall Utah, Italian Flat Leaf Parsley, Eggplant - Twilight Hybrid, Bell Pepper - California Wonder, Habanero Pepper, Jalapeno Pepper, Poblano Pepper, Sweet Banana Pepper, and Rosemary.

Bell Peppers, Banana Peppers, Jalapeno Peppers

Eggplant, Rosemary, Poblano Peppers, Habanero Peppers, Celery, Jalapeno Peppers

Peppers

Lots of growth

Strawberries in the new pyramid planter

Oregano is going crazy

Marigolds & radishes

Cauliflower

Carrots

Tulips in the front flower bed

Tulips

Squash & herbs

Cucumbers and Trellis

I planted the cucumbers and put up trellises for the peas and pumpkins. It started raining again so I couldn't do any more.

This weekend I helped Cathy plant their herb garden. The squash and pumpkin that hadn't sprouted a couple weeks ago are up now.

Sometime over the weekend an animal dug up the habanero pepper so I'll have to plant a jalapeno there instead.

More Planting

I planted 3 hills of buttercup squash, 2 hills of spaghetti squash, 2 hills of summer squash, 4 hills of sugar baby watermelon, 8 celery, 8 banana peppers, 9 jalapeno peppers, 1 habanero pepper, 2 eggplants, basil, parsley, thyme, petunias, marjoram, nasturtiums, marigolds and borage. I planted a couple Roma tomatoes and marigolds in a big container in the corner of the garden.

Some animal, probably a squirrel, dug up some of the wax beans and lima beans I planted yesterday so I had to fix them.

I noticed some of the carrots, beets, kale, salsify, bunching onions, spinach, romaine, and Waltham 29 broccoli are sprouting.

There are a bunch more herbs and flowers to plant, but I'm exhausted and it started sprinkling so the rest will have to wait until next week.

Peppers Planted

The sun is finally out today! I planted 23 bell peppers, more marigolds, green beans, wax beans, and lima beans. I also put landscaping fabric where the watermelons and jalapenos will be planted.

Tomatoes Planted

It stopped raining for about 3 1/2 hours so I managed to get 28 tomato plants, 2 hills of pumpkins, and a bunch of marigolds planted.

One of the buttercup squash I started for Cathy sprouted Friday. We brought several plants up to Crooked Lake this weekend. I helped Cathy transplant several plants while Al, Dad, Terry, and Larry built a greenhouse instead of fishing Saturday. Temperatures there were in the high 20s/low 30s with snow and lots of wind.

Next year I'll start marigolds as Cathy did. She started almost a whole package of seeds in one small tray and then we transplanted them. It's a huge savings on seed starting mix and space under the grow lights.

We brought back a whole black tray of plants back home. A few of the tomatoes will be experiments in indoor gardening because they're too small to put in the garden and actually have them produce anything before frost. There's also a rosemary that's almost dead that I'll try to nurse back to health.

One of the sugar baby watermelons sprouted over the weekend. I went out to check the garden and found that several of the peas, black seeded simpson, and arugula are coming up. Some of the onion sets are sprouting. 3 of the CDs came off of the posts so I retied them. The rhubarb is really taking off and some of the asparagus is growing well. Some animal, probably a squirrel, dug up a bunch of the new strawberry plants so I replanted them. Several others look like they're thriving and have leaves now.

Cathy gave us lots of landscaping fabric, so I'll use that in the walkways with wood chips instead of newspapers.

It's supposed to be about 70 today, 93 tomorrow, and in the 70s the rest of the week, so the soil should warm up enough to plant peppers and tomatoes soon.

New garden cart, compost etc

We bought a new garden cart at Home Depot for only $20. It's WAY better than the old one! It's much smoother to push, it holds more weight, and it fits between the rows of raised beds.

The new garden cart

Saturday morning I finished unloading the compost and filled in dirt in the strawberry pyramid. Al and Kaitlyn helped me move cinder blocks to the front flower bed by the tulips and put them along the edge of the bed. They also cleared leaves and weeds out of the flower bed.

Compost on the beds closest to the house

Filling the strawberry pyramid

Strawberries in the new pyramid planter

Tulip bed with cinder block edging

Yesterday I planted new strawberry plants in the pyramid. I also loosened the soil and mixed compost in 5 raised beds. I planted the onion sets and found out they didn't take up as much room as I had planned for them, so I planted extra bunching onions and carrots. I also planted garlic, beets, arugula, romaine and kale. (I only planted about half of the kale so there's room to start the rest the end of June.)

Apparently we need to raise the fence along the back of the garden because there were deer tracks through the garden and it looks like it got in at the back by the onions. After fixing the places where the deer stomped today, I planted cauliflower, broccoli, a marigold, buttercruch lettuce, and more romaine. Some animal dug up a few of the new strawberry plants so I replanted those too. I put up some CDs around the garden to deter the animals from going in there any more.  We'll see if it helps.

The squash and pumpkins sprouted yesterday so I brought them downstairs under the lights when I brought up the broccoli and cauliflower. Hopefully the weather will cooperate so we can plant the tomatoes on time because on the top shelf I moved the chain up as far as it will go and the tomatoes are right up to the light.  We got another shop light from Sue on Saturday too, so when we get new full spectrum bulbs we'll be able to use that for plants also.  The squash I started for Cathy and the watermelon haven't sprouted yet.

Cauliflower growing inside

Garlic

Cauliflower and beets

Broccoli

Marigold by the back fence

Animal dug up a strawberry plant

Seed Starting & Compost

I started the watermelon and all of the squash and put them above the fridge to germinate.

I hauled 4 cartloads of compost tot he garden and put it on the beds. The handle broke on the garden cart on the last load so we'll need to fix the garden cart and/or the wheelbarrow before we can move any more compost.

The rhubarb that I spotted a little nub the other day has sprouted further and now has a couple leaves.

Plants on growing shelves downstairs

More rhubarb coming up

We finally got compost!

Boy, what a difference a couple days makes! The temp was in the 70s Friday and yesterday. Today it was 80! We went to the county compost site yesterday and picked up a whole trailer load of compost and a small bale of straw. The guy working at the compost site (John) said he'd keep an eye out for any more straw and set it aside for me.
 

Kaitlyn loosening soil to plant peas

Kaitlyn shoveling compost

Today I put compost on almost half of the garden. I also planted peas, salsify, carrots, and the romaine, spinach and black seeded simpson that are in the center of the bed where the peas are planted. We're supposed to get lots of rain tonight and tomorrow so I didn't water yet.

Kaitlyn and I moved some bricks to the front flower bed where the tulips are starting to come up. After the tulips are done I'll build up that bed so people stop walking on it and I'll plant more flowers there.

Lettuce growing in pots inside

Rhubarb is coming up

Hauling compost to the garden beds

Compost on the garden bed

Kaitlyn helping in the tulip bed

Peas are planted and stakes in place

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.

Snow & indoor gardening

Between yesterday and today we got just over 11 inches of snow. :(  The compost site has postponed opening until Monday. With Al's work schedule we won't be able to get compost until Friday or Saturday, so hopefully the snow will melt before that.

Snow by 6pm. We got another 2" after that.

Add'l snow by 8am.

The buttercrunch lettuce is getting so big it's shading other seedlings so we stopped at Home Depot on the way home to get potting soil so I can transplant the lettuce to pots and just grow it inside. 6 of the borage sprouted today. I moved the light up again above the tomatoes that are on the top shelf. A couple more banana peppers and California Wonder bell peppers have sprouted.

Borage

Buttercrunch Lettuce

Romaine Lettuce

Darn Snow

It sure doesn't seem like spring yet. We got close to 6" of snow on Thursday and about an inch Friday. Today we had a bunch of snow and some freezing rain. One of these days it has to stop snowing!!! Because of the snow the compost site has delayed opening until next Saturday (4/20) so we'll plan to get compost and wood chip mulch then. Hopefully the snow will melt and the beds will dry out by then so I can plant the April seeds then.

Snow on the garden 4-10

Still snowing 4-11

Snow in the driveway 4-11

I never thought I'd need to use this in April.

I have several romaine and buttercrunch lettuce plants that are just about ready to transplant. The broccoli and cauliflower are just about ready too. I moved the lights above the tomatoes up several links.

Bachelor Buttons and Marigolds

Eggplant

Romaine

Buttercrunch lettuce, cauliflower

Tomatoes

Peppers

Plants under shop lights

Since it's been so cold I'm concerned about the borage, nasturtiums, and forget-me-nots actually germinating if I direct sow them so I started inside today in peat pots and put them above the fridge.