On one hand, it's so wonderful to see the signs of life and know that spring is around the corner. On the other hand, money is so tight this year, I won't be able to buy any plants at all. Since we moved two years ago to a newly constructed home, I'm trying to establish a new garden, but with no money to do it, it's pretty sad looking. I really miss my old garden!! Actually, I miss everything about my old house.
Hey all. Well, last weekend we began cleaning up the space from the winter "sleep-over" (we always cover the garden with pruning and leave the plants from last year on the ground to protect the soil from the climate here). Moving the compost pile over to the starter hot bed that is too close to the stone wall to produce well. And today we went and bought 4 kilos of starter potatoes as well as seeds galore, cucumbers, carrots, radishes, spinach, beets, peas, beans, lettuce, zucchini, marigolds, allysium (those two are great for pesty bugs you don't like-- and they smell good too!). Have leeks and onions growing "wild" in one starter hot bed to transplant later on. Also have comfrey (yes, we eat comfrey here, cooked with potatoes, it's quite good). Tomatoes and peppers I'll buy plants once the spring has set in. Oh yeah, dug up all the strawberry plants and cleaned them up and fertilized the bed (poop tea, made from barn swallow poop that my resident swallows always leave on the floor under their nests in the workshop and corrals) and replanted them. We had a terrible invasion of subterranean field mice last year, I'm an organic gardener so no poison put out, and they kind of left the garden a bit of a disaster. Only problem is, now we've bought the seeds and are eager to get to work on the garden, it's going to rain all weekend! And we both work during the week so only have weekends to get big jobs like preparing the garden done! So it will be limited to seeding the flowers in pots and if there is a bit of a dry spell, at least raking away some of that dead plant matter so the space is ready for the hoe. peace, revel.
Yesterday, I finished getting all of the pine needles raked away from the edging of the fence line, and then took my little green cultivator and till up the dirt along the fence. I planted more of the irises that my neighbor (Joyce McGregor) gave me, and then planted some lettuce and spinach seeds along the edge. I started some tomato and squash seeds, and this time, I also am starting my sunflowers inside the house, and not putting them outside until they are big enoug that the squirrels eat them.
I bought early and late cabbage plants and a truckload of compost yesterday. I've got to get to work unloading the truck and planting the cabbages today. I don't know where I'm going to put them all.
It looks like winter might be thinking of calling it a season here, at last. Although it's in the 20s here today, and it's supposed to snow, the snow is not expected to accumulate, and we've just had a few days of above-freezing weather, which put a dent in the amount of snow on the ground. I still have a few feet of it where my garden would otherwise be but I expect it will be gone by the middle of April.
I finally got the truck unloaded and the cabbages planted. I didn't have room for all the cabbages but the new strawberry beds were pretty sparse so I moved a few strawberry plants and planted some cabbages there. A few of my potatoes are peeking through the ground. I expect to see asparagus any day. I hope everyone's gardens are getting off to a good start. I wish we had a neighbor that wanted some irises. We must have a thousand and they need to be divided.
I wish I was close enough to get some irises from you ! I have some that Joyce McGregor gave me, but I think they are mostly one color, a light lavender blue. They make such good borders, and are so beautiful when they bloom. I would love to have some of the specialty colors; but they are $4-$5 for each root, and that is a lot of money to be spending on something that is not useful for anything except looking pretty. My asparagus was new last year, and I only have a few (will order a few more this year), but it has started to sprout, and is about 6-8" tall already; so yours should be up soon, too, Sheldon. My little peach tree that I got at Lowes (on clearance) last fall has about a half-dozen pretty pink blossoms on it; so I may even get a few peaches this year. Ina and I went garden-shopping while she was here visiting, and she got me some nice blackberry bushes; which we will plant along the front fence. I can pick both sides of the fence, and it gets sunshine; so it should be a good place for the blackberries. The ground has tree roots there and it is hard to dig through those, so Bobby will make me some bottomless planters to put the blackberries in, and then they can spread out their roots in between the tree roots.
I just got back from Yvonne Smith's home in AL yesterday, and my place is blooming all over the place. I have some flowers and veggies showing a lot of promise.
Spring is here but the ground is still cold, to cold to plant anything. The night time temperatures are still low. We may not be able to plant out side before May. I have a few plants I bring indoors for the cold weather that I would like to put back out side.