Garden Updates

I am terrible about logging the dates I plant things-- heck, I'm lucky if I manage to remember what I planted where, let alone write down what day... But since I have spent a fair amount of time this year wondering what day I planted things last year, I am trying to keep better notes.

Last week I put up three walls of water, and this weekend I popped five tomato plants into them. There are six in them total, because I planted a tomato outside two weeks ago as an experiment.  The experimental tomato is still alive but hasn't grown much since I put it out there, so we'll see what happens with it. Last year the tomatoes and peppers that faired the best were the ones that almost died for one reason or another-- strange but true.

I also planted a second round of peas this weekend-- the original peas I planted a month or so ago are four inches high. I rigged up the pea trellis too, so it's ready when they are big enough. I replanted a couple of grape vines that grew up in the middle of what I am turning into a tomato bed, and wasn't sure what kind of roots they were supposed to have when I dug them up, so that's a bit of an experiment too.

We still have a ton of tomatoes in the windowsill inside, and some struggling eggplant and peppers--that are only an inch high and not yet sporting real leaves. I might have to replace them with starts unless they grow exponentially between now and two weeks from now when I want them in the ground.

The strawberries have a whole ton of flowers, which has me so looking forward to June and fresh strawberries in the yard! The one downside of the community garden was having to make a trip to collect our goodies-- this year we'll be able to run outside and grab a few strawberries to put on our granola- fun!

Moving into the new abode

Today was a big day in the life of our ten week old chicks--they moved into their own house! After 6 weeks in the house, and 3 weeks in the garage they moved to their sprawling new coop and run.  We have been letting them frolic in the yard for a couple hours a day and they have been migrating toward their coop pretty frequently- checking it out and inspecting M's handiwork?

We "put them to bed" a little while ago and I felt bad shutting them into their house for the night.  I'm not sure why since it's essentially the same as shutting them in the garage in their brooder box... but they are all tucked in and hopefully figuring out the new roost as I type.

Lately, in Photos

the coop, nearing completion

rhubarb, 5 weeks

 the onion patch, 3 weeks or so

strawberries!

kohlrabi from last fall, transplanted from our community garden. now 4 feet tall!

walls of water- warming up for this weekend's tomato planting

the nonedibles are happy too!

Check these things off the list

Friday 4/9: Planted a zillion onions. French onion soup in July anyone?; garden bed prep, weeding, continued
Saturday 4/10: Planted herbs from seed, planted thyme and sage starts (in containers for the patio); battled the ivy in the yard for a good number of hours; coop continued- getting closer to the final stages...; repotted some cramped tomatoes
Sunday 4/11: Battle of the Ivy continued!; planted wildflowers along the fence and on the side of the house in two spots; planted jalapeños from seed, got the hanging chick feeder rigged up in the brooder box (they are constantly turning the on-the-ground one over now...)

Whew. Need a nap just thinking about the weekend!

Small Car, Big Plans

This weekend we yet again tested the capacity of our little Honda Civic, unintentionally. (Sidenote: we wish we had been chronicling all the days we've proven that you can in fact fit more than you would think into a wee auto. Like the *large* gas grill we scored for free. Or 2 months of backpacking gear and food PLUS two friends...etc. etc.)  We went to the Feed & Seed store to pickup the next stage of chicken feed, and got the "while we're here" bug, and ended up buying a bale of hay. 

I had no idea just how large a bale of hay is, and the only place it fit in our car was in the backseat (and just barely fit there!).  That left me and Mark and Stella Dog with all of 2 options- the front seats or the trunk. So we all got in the front.

And Stella Dog, little shadow dog who loves to be in the middle of everything me and Mark related, was quite happy to ride the ten or so miles home in my lap!

Onions, Dill & Tomatoes

Today was a "surprise sunny day", so Stella Dog had the pleasure of following me around the yard observing various garden projects while pleading to play fetch instead. I got another 6 feet of garden space sort-of-double-dug and amended, and a TON of onions in the ground. Not so much on purpose, as because I dumped the entire bag out without realizing how many baby onions it contained and didn't feel like packaging any back up... so we'll probably have more onions than we know what to do with come a few months from now.

The tomatoes are SO happy in our sunny kitchen! So happy that many of them needed a second transplanting to provide for more space. Got that done today, and shortly I'll have to decide just how many tomato plants I'll put in the ground. The rest I'll give away because tomato starts are in high demand with my gardening friends.

One of the things we're missing from our last home is the herb garden.  I am slowly remedying that and planted some dill and cilantro seeds today. I've never had any luck whatsoever growing herbs from seed, but thought I'll give it another shot since I still had the seeds... and then buy some starts later on if this effort fails.  I planted dill and cilantro and chamomile today.

I also managed to accomplish a long list of indoor projects that I've been putting off week after week. I'm very happy to have the bathroom finally completed--new shower curtains and resurrected curtains helped take it from work-in-progress to Finished!

Here's hoping for sun tomorrow for coop building round 2!

When life gives you lemons...

Make limoncello!