Fluffing and buffing the garden...

I finally got out to the garden today to rake back the mulch and see how things were underneath. I found happy earthworms, and soft, workable soil. We're still get temps down in the 30's at night here, so I'm not planting much yet, but I did get the spinach seeds stuck in the ground. The patch of dead leaves there between the rock and the house is where I planted the spinach, in about a 3' x 4' plot. I'll put wax bush beans in the long skinny part next to the side walk, and kohlrabi in front of the rock. The pile of leaves will get tucked back over seeds once I plant. I'm hoping the spinach will have a chance to get established before squirrels or bunnies find it. 

That same small area supported three tomato plants that got pr

etty big last year, and a bunch of melon plants that stretched over the sidewalk. This walk isn't used much, but I had to keep pulling them back so the nice man who mows our lawn wouldn't have to fuss with them. We got six delicious melons, and enough tomatoes to make a large pot of sauce, plus the ones we ate. 

This is the asparagus bed I put in last year. We let it get established, didn't pick any of course, and mulched with kitchen waste and leaves. I fluffed the mulch today, an

d peeked to see if any asparagi (if asparagus means the whole lot of them, then

 asparagi would be individuals, right?) were

 poking up through the dirt.

 I did the happy dance when I found two little white nubs about an inch up! Now I'll have to watch them, so we don't miss out on the short crop this year. Next year we can pick the full 6 weeks... sorry the photo was a little out of focus. I was shooting on telephoto setting, the wind was picking up and I was trying to balance while squatting next to the bed. Not the prime conditions for close up photos...

Incidentally, I know it's asparagus season, because it was on sale at the store, so I got some. The bottoms were a bit woody, but I steamed it upright with a foil tent around it till jus the tips were tender. I melted butter on the serving plate, gently rolled the spears over in it to coat, then squeezed a little key lime juice over it. The lime juice gave it a sweet tart flavor and a beautiful top note in the first taste of it in my mouth. Loved it! Now I'm really impatient for our own...

I'm really going to have get Sweetie to help me measure the other spot for the "End Garden" meaning the one at the end of the garage, just past the asparagus bed.  We have the property stake to go by,  and I don't think the next door neighbor will fuss if I'm over just a bit, but I was brought up to respect property lines and not intrude, even if its only a foot of lawn space. We'll be talking to him before we break ground anyway. I'm concerned more about how much space I'll actually have so that I don't try to plan too many plants into it. 

We have a large space of lawn on the other side of the house, but it's shaded by two 60 foot maple trees. Eventually they will come down because they are beginning to deteriorate and their trunks don't appear to be very healthy anymore. We've had to take another one down already, and found it hollowed out by ants, which we weren't thrilled about. This side of the house where I'm planting gets sun most of the day with no shade, so I have to make the best use of what I have. I've thought about putting containers all down the drive way, because the garage has it's own drive way and we don't have to use this one. Sweetie began to object when I suggested this, siting water consumption, outward appearance, etc. I decided not to push it...

Tomato and Pepper seedlings

I've got the peppers and tomatos started reasonably well, but they are sitting near the end of the grow lights, and the plants are reaching for the light. I'm thinking about putting both light fixtures up on this shelf, or trying them on the lower shelf. They are right on schedule though, about a week and half since planting.

I've got one mixed packet of sweet bell peppers, one packet of sweet banana peppers, and one packet of Biker Billy Hybrid hot peppers. For tomatos I went with Sweet Millions and Roma, both of which I have had great luck with in the past.

I'm not expecting to transplant anything until close to Memorial Day weekend. Sweetie (that's the guy partner) and I discussed the options of removing sod and using it other places in the yard or just getting a serious tiller to bust the sod on the new plot for us. We're all about gardening with less physical labor, since he works a very physically demanding job all week and I have knee problems that get aggravated when I try to dig "just one more shovel" too much. I have done a good amount of double-digging, and I don't find it exhilarating. Anyhoo, the verdict is still out on the sod.

I'll be contacting some listers on craigslist for tilling services one way or the other. I would have preferred to have done all of this last fall, and tilled in some manure to rot, but time and money didn't work out that way.

I have a garden along side my house that produced a few cantaloupes and some tomatoes for us last year. That one was a whim, just poking a few seeds in for the melons, at first. Then my tomato plants that I planted in January when I was pining for spring and warm weather got stuck in the dirt too, and they made 'maters. I put our kitchen vegetable waste on the little plot, coffee grounds, egg shells, peelings, etc. I also watered with epsom salt solutions occasionally. I'll use this plot again, but I'll be planting things from different plant families there for rotation purposes. The planned layout includes sunflowers against the house, kohlrabi, spinach, some beans, and cilantro.

And now for something completely different!

For those of you just arriving here for the first time (uh, that would be everyone I guess) this blog is an offshoot of my first attempt at writing a blog. I realized I had too many topics going on in one blog, and decided to get more focused. So I made a new blog and will concentrate on gardening here, while my old blog, http://www.mysilverstreak.blogspot.com/ continues with a new storyline on my motorcyling experiences. Thanks for joining me here...

So much dirt, so little time...

I have a real job that would normally be 40 hours a week at this time of year sewing awnings commercially, but work is slow. Last week, I got almost 40, and when I have been laid off for a period of time, I forget some of my time management skills, or maybe just forget to use them. The week flew by, my house looks neglected (translation--wrecked!), and my to-do list is long.

Today, while there is light and wonderful sunshine, I'm going to begin cleaning out beds and laying out the area for the big new one at the end of the garage. There's a wonderful southern exposure all along that side of the house, unshaded.

I'm also going to check the asparagus bed and see what I might need to do to it. It's under a blanket of winter mulch right now. I densely planted asparagus roots last year, and by the end of the season, we had sturdy pencil-thick stems. My plan includes continuous mulching to keep down competing weeds, and blanket composting the bed, about which Ruth Stout has written in depth. I have used this method in the past, and support it wholeheartedly!

I tried the GrowVeg.com free trial to plan my garden spaces, and I love it. It's easy, illustrative, and gave me plant needs, planting dates, spacing distances, and the number of plants I could fit in the space I had in mind. I will be purchasing the subcription, because I can see myself using it to update my plots as I succession plant some things and to refer to next year. This is an awesome tool! It can be used to plan flower gardens too, but I wasn't doing that, so I didn't thoroughly investigate flower information in their data base. (I am not an affiliate of this product or website, and I'm not being paid in any way to say this.--BHD)

Outdoors, my irises and daffodils show serious determination about moving on to spring here in Zone 5. My daffodils took a hit last year as the village constructed new storm drains on our streets (we have a corner lot). A large dead tree bole, about 12 feet tall, left by electric company tree trimmers, had to be removed for the project. The guys running the dozers daily were careful about my daffodil bed after I explained what I was doing with that spot, but the guys doing the tree removal didn't the message. They laid the bole down on the bed, unknowing, since it was fall and the bulbs were dormant and nothing was visible topside. I came home from work and was aghast. I tactfully asked how long the tree bole would be left there, and they said until they were done digging out that section of pipe and could get the other machinery in to move it. They asked why and I told them, and they all looked at each other like their mom was about to tell them to pick a switch and bring it to her. They were very apologetic and most of the guys got very busy doing "stuff" while the foreman told me they would move the tree as soon as possible if I could show him where the flowers were...I was nice and told him not to worry about it, I was just being a mother hen about the daffs, but they were under the tree, but he couldn't have known that anything was planted there. Long story shortened, my daffodils poked their tips up right through the dirt this spring, thicker than last year. The tree bole had to weigh half a ton at least, but they appear to be unharmed.

My irises are indomitable as well. I grow them in several places, and follow usual care procedures, lifting and dividing the roots every two to three years when they get too thick. This is the year for that, once they are done flowering. So I will be expanding those beds too, in June.

Anyway, I'd better get to it, or it won't get done. I need some sunshine!

My friend asked me what to plant...

So I'm jabbering on the phone with my BFF who lives too far away to sit in her kitchen every day and drink coffee all afternoon, and she says, "I don't even know what I'm going to plant yet!"

She lives in a ground floor apartment with a small patio yard. She can have a small garden in the yard and could also have container gardens on the patio slab.

I suggested she use the price of vegetables in the store as a guide, then use what will grow here as a qualifier. Start with expensive things, like tomatoes and sweet bell peppers. Purchasing plants or starting them indoors from seed can shorten the growing time until they bear edible produce, so long season requirements aren't as much of a problem.

Of course, we try to grow favorites if they fit into the above criteria. Even if something isn't that expensive, it might just taste that much better fresh from our own garden rather than being shipped in on a truck underripe. I personally really enjoy yellow summer squash and patty pan squash, but some people can't seem to get rid of it fast enough. It's usually around $1.59 a pound most of the year here, so it's worth it to me to grow, but Sweetie fears it taking over the yard and having to eat it every night all summer long. Not to mention the neighbors avoiding us just so they don't have to figure out how to avoid accepting more squash...

I don't bother trying to grow things we won't eat enough of to bother with if I can't preserve it somehow. I also prefer to grow varieties that will produce enough at once to make at least a meal's worth or enough to freeze. Green beans come to mind. I prefer wax beans, and found a variety that is supposed to dump them on you all at once.

I love fresh carrots, but I have not found the right soil or prepared soil correctly to be able to get the carrots out once they have grown in. I think I have yanked more carrot tops out of the dirt and left more carrots in the ground than I have ever eaten from my garden. The ones I ate were delicious though, lumpy and odd shaped that they were.

Lettuce and spinach is a balancing act between warm enough to sprout, sunny enough to grow, moist enough to flourish and cool enough not to bolt. A good year is nirvana for the rabbit food lover, a bad year spells major frustration. I have become a fresh spinach fanatic, therefore I will attempt it once again.

Now I have to find someone with a proper tiller to break the sod on my garden plot. It's almost time...

Planting Update, amongst other things...

I have daylilies popping up all over the little dirt cubes and the cottage cheese tub I planted the seeds in. The first seedling to emerge stands over 3 inches tall now and is a deep healthy green under the lights. Lots of others followed quickly behind.

I also planted a flat of peppers and tomatoes. I chose a mix of sweet bell peppers, sweet long peppers, and "Biker Billy Hybrid" hot peppers, which appear to be a large jalapeno type. The tomatoes are pretty standard, Romas and Sweet Millions cherries. They have come up already after less than a week. I noted tonight that one of the bulbs in my light stand has burned out, so I'll have to replace it, but I may wait another week so I don't sunburn the little seedlings with too much light all at once. I would welcome other people's comments on their experiences with situations like this.

We're still having morning temperatures hovering around the freezing mark here, but the skies are usually clear and sunny (except on the weekends, then it likes to do the spring weekend cloud up and rain thing, sunny during the work week cycle just for us bikers). If it didn't take so long for me to thaw out, I would go ahead and ride the bike to work in 40 degree weather, but I have to be able to sew as soon as I get there...

I have one tip that I discovered several years ago that gave me miraculous results with my peppers and tomatoes. I read somewhere that watering with a solution of 1 to 2 tablespoons of epsom salts to a gallon of water after the regular watering would improve the plants overall. So I tried it. My pepper plants grew to about 30 inches tall and produced huge peppers with thick juicy walls, and the tomatoes just went nuts. Epsom salts is magnesium sulfate, which I guess would acidify the soil and allow the plants to take up iron better and probably some other nutrients as well, because they just took off. I've never had better results, even with Miracle Gro, and that works wonders too.

Still haven't knit anything in over a month. I have 8 batches of soap ready to photograph and list on the websites, and still need to write listing copy for four of them. I think about these things while I sew during the day, but when I get home, there're regular chores to do first, then dinner...time to make lists again.

Nite all, morning comes early.