Weather & Plant Update

It's been cold the last couple days but tomorrow to Friday it's supposed to be in the low 50s for daytime high temps so hopefully the rest of the snow on the garden will melt. I haven't gone out to look closely, but it looks like some of the chives may be up already.

I found instructions to make a handy template tool for making holes for planting in a square foot garden so I'll make some of those in the next week or so.

The plants under the shop lights are doing well and a couple of the chamomiles have now sprouted.

According to the county website the compost site opens for regular hours on April 15th so Dad will bring his trailer down on the 13th so we can get compost and woodchips the week of the 15th.

broccoli & cauliflower

jalapeno peppers

bachelor buttons

cauliflower, basil, lettuce, marigolds

eggplant

Easter Sunday

It's rather fitting that on Easter morning most of the bachelor buttons, some of the marigolds, and 3 of the 5 eggplants sprouted. We got home from celebrating Easter at Dianne and Craig's house and discovered another eggplant sprouted this afternoon.

Thunder

There was a lot of thunder and rain very early this morning. Grandma Olive once told me about an old farmer's tale that's mostly accurate that the first frost in the fall is usually about 6 months after the first thunder & lightning of the year. So we'll look for the first frost about September 30th.

Between the temperatures being in the 40s and 50s the last few days and the rain overnight most of the snow has melted in the back yard and the raised beds closest to the house are mostly uncovered.

Seedlings

More of the tomatoes and marigolds have sprouted as well as a couple petunias.

Seedling Maintenance

Most of the tomatoes are up now so I moved the trays downstairs under the shop lights. (I took the eggplants out of the trays and kept them on top of the fridge since they haven't sprouted yet.)

Some of the celery sprouted as well as a few marigolds and more parsley, sage, thyme, basil, romaine, buttercrunch lettuce, and peppers. One of the banana peppers is finally up! I started the chamomile and a bunch of bachelor buttons and marigolds.

More of the snow is melting today, but the beds probably won't be completely snow-free and workable for another week or two.

peppers

peppers

thyme

celery

tomatoes

more peppers

tomatoes

tomatoes

tomatoes & peppers under the lights

cauliflower & broccoli

Tomatoes

Some of the Rutgers tomatoes and more of the Roma, Early Girl, Mortgage Lifter, and Sweet 100 tomatoes have sprouted.

Seedling Progress & Snow

The cauliflower and broccoli are starting to get their second set of leaves. More of the peppers have sprouted (none of the banana peppers yet). Also some basil, parsley, thyme, sage, buttercrunch lettuce, marjoram, and more romaine is sprouting. There isn't much activity from the celery and onions yet. Luckily I bought onion sets so if the onion seeds don't sprout it won't be a big deal. Menards didn't have red onion sets  so I got white and yellow.

A few of the Sweet 100 and Mortgage Lifter tomatoes came up over the weekend.

Hopefully the weather will cooperate this week and melt the snow so  can prepare the raised beds in the next week or so. Unless something drastic happens it doesn't look like the salsify will get planted on April 1st as planned. It may be closer to the 10th with the peas since there's still about 6 - 9 inches of snow on the raised beds.

An Early Girl and a few Roma tomatoes sprouted today.

Sage & Parsley sprouts

Romaine lettuce sprouts

Basil sprouts

Marjoram & Parsley sprouts

Peppers

Cauliflower & Broccoli

peppers

Sweet 100 tomato

Mortgage Lifter tomato

More Sprouts

More of the cauliflower, broccoli, and peppers are sprouting. One of the romaine lettuce is sprouting.

Sprouts & Making Pots

More peppers are sprouting as well as most of the cauliflower and some of the broccoli. I moved the peppers, cauliflower, and broccoli downstairs under the shop lights to make room on top of the fridge for the tomatoes.

Kaitlyn helped me make pots out of newspapers.

I started the tomatoes and some of the marigolds. I put the eggplants in the tray with the tomatoes since they haven't sprouted yet. I still need to start 31 more marigolds, but I have to get more seed starting mix.

cauliflower, broccoli & eggplant

broccoli & cauliflower

bell peppers & jalapenos

Peppers

Some of the bell peppers and jalapeno peppers are starting to sprout!

bell peppers

jalapeno & bell peppers

Al brought home some daffodils. It's so refreshing to see some blooming flowers since there's still snow outside!