It's coming at us fast now! Fruit tree buds are swelling!
In proof-reading this post before publishing it, I find I used the word "hopefully" five times. Normally I would find this irritating, and change a few of them, but the word "hope" feels very apt for a post about spring, so I've decided to leave them all. Hopeful am I!
I lost all tree fruit to a late frost last year, so this year I am making plans to wrap this peach tree if that happens again. I really want some peaches! I got precisely zero last year.
I got going much earlier on my seedlings this year than last. Hopefully, I'll get more peppers, eggplant and okra. Last year I got almost none of those three crops.
I put a lot of my seeds directly into peat pots. The soil has a nice hit of organic fertilizer mixed in the bottom two inches, transplant mix with added calcium in the mid level, and seed starter mix for the top inch or so. Once the true leaves start coming, I'll fertilize with an organic liquid fertilizer. Hopefully, I won't have to transplant the seedlings into anything larger before they can go right into the ground. Perhaps this is all the wrong way to start seedlings, but I have the indoor space (because I need so few), so I thought I'd try it. I have ordered another two levels of grow light shelves, will put up a cold frame to house any seedlings that are raring to get out of the house, and won't have to transplant very many things into larger pots. We'll see!
Flowers in bloom
I saw my first bee yesterday! That's always an exciting moment. It means it's finally time to start cleaning up the edges of my vast property. This should take all of twenty minutes to complete, but I will let it go for another week to be sure the bees are all out and about.
The bee was buzzing around back in my second year scilla expanse, where even the lilies are pushing up out of the ground. Hopefully, the lilies are coming up early enough to triumph over those awful scarlet colored beetles that leave the lilies with holes seemingly made with a school teacher's hole puncher. They'd been so damaged last year, despite my heading out morning, noon and night to pick the beetles off, that I feared the lilies wouldn't come up at all.
I continue to wage war on vinca, which was everywhere when I first moved here. Vinca is very pretty, but very invasive. I pull great swaths of it up by the roots every spring and fall, to make room for more desirable plants.
I hastily planted pulmonaria last fall when someone gave me a few spindly and suffering plants. I didn't think it would survive, but apparently I planted it in a suitable place, because it's multiplying and blooming well.
Hip Hip Hooray for supermarket Hellebore! I bought one two years ago at the local Tops, and that thing is very happy where I put it, my first bloom in spring.
Here are shots of all those flowers, and of a couple others as well:
The shot below probably looks like nothing to most of you, but I am very excited about what's going to happen there soon. I weeded the slope around the planter, leaving little more than dandelion, which should bloom very soon and make the slope a big bee magnet. Once the dandelion is done blooming, I plan to harvest those roots, cover the slope with fresh soil, and plant strawberries all over it.
Behind the planter are Jerusalem artichokes, two varieties of poppy, and burdock. Those reddish plants to the right of the planter are second year cranberries - I got half a dozen berries last year, and look forward to more of them this year. There's eyebright and thriving bee balm on the left of the planter, and red raspberries just off stage right.
The holly on the right, alas, will be leaving. I want to plant asparagus along that back fence. Any tips on how to get the roots out? Will a pick ax and well-placed body weight get the job done?
Below is my tiny vegetable plot in its entirety. The raised bed on the left is all prepared (peat, compost, composted manure, and earth worm castings) for my spring plantings of onions, carrots, beets, arugula, lettuce, radishes, and whatever else I think of. The middle bed has herbs in the front (which will be moved closer to my kitchen door), and garlic is coming up great guns in the back. The bed on the right will be a modified hugelkultur mound. I'll have a yard of lovely amended soil delivered next week, for this bed, my planters, and Strawberry Fields.
I was astonished at how much food this little yard produced last year, despite abject failures with peppers, eggplants, and okra. It's time to get excited about the bonanza I'll be getting this year, now that I know more, have started my seedlings earlier, and am gonna pay closer attention to nutrients and pH.
There's an awful lot to do, so I have hired a big, strong, strapping young man to come help out one Saturday soon. He'll help me get my deer and dog fences up, my squash arch and another raised bed assembled, soil put in the right places, and hopefully, have some time to install a new lock on my house's front door. Onward!
This is my entry to The Garden Hive's Monthly Garden Journal Challenge for April. Please come join us!!!
You sound full of vim and vigour and that's half the battle. Rain has stopped play on this side of the pond. We've hardly had a dry day since last July. Thankfully I have the greenhouse and the dome. Unless things improve drastically, I'll be growing very little outside this year. I'll be interested to follow your progress if you can actually get anything done with a young strapping lad about the place;)
lol. Oh I'll get things done alright.
You have a dome? I dearly wish for a greenhouse, and my daughter knows how to design and build them, but I have no good place for one in this tiny yard. I'm glad you do though, sounds like you will need those enclosures. I wonder if they reduce the toxins from chemtrails. Do you get poisoned from above often? We do.
It's chemtrail central here but nobody seems to notice. When I point it out to people they look at me as if I'm one of those conspiracy theory types.
I know. Me too. They say "those are just jet streams." I say, "did you see the sky yesterday? Pure blue, all day, no jet streams in sight. Did the jets not fly at all yesterday?" Now and then someone starts to think about this.
There is always so much to accomplish quickly just getting the beds ready for seedlings. It is nice that you have a helper to get prepared. A Strawberry bed is always fun, I used to have one but chipmunks and slugs were my battle. I have thought about doing them in a tower garden. Have fun gardening.
It's weird we don't have chipmunks here. squirrels, lots of those. Rabbits can't easily get into my yard, nor can ground hogs. I saw a few slugs last year though. Toads, I have lots of toads. I think they keep the flea and tick population down.
The toads love to eat slugs too. You should have a nice harvest of berries when they mature.
Good to know! Thanks!
Looking good! It takes a couple of seasons to get the soil right
Thanks! This will be year three at this house. I just put in whatever amendments I have on hand, and hope for the best.
Good job!. He who sows reaps the harvest!. Hopefully the weather won't be so disastrous. Good that you hired a young and strong helper. Keep going my gardener friend @owasco 🌶🍒🍋🌿🌱💖🍋🥰🐝.
Thanks, Gardening is a great way to spend time outside, rain or shine.
I start all my seedlings in the pots they will grow in. Many plants do not like their roots disturbed. I use 2 sizes of peat pots: 3" and 4".
I lost all fruit last year too, except elderberries. I've not seen my scillas yet. My lungwort got its first flowers a couple days ago. Your unknown looks like a sedum. How cool you got cranberries!
I know from my failed attempt to establish asparagus that you need a pretty deep well prepared trench for it. (It failed because this was once a major asparagus area, and the asparagus beetles ate through the row cover to get to it.)
Please send your strapping young man here! I could sure use him!
lol! I'm sure you could use an army of strapping young men!
Ah! So I didn't screw up my seedlings yet? They look pretty good. I have to snip off the extra seedlings in most of the pots today. That always pains me, but must be done.
Good to know about the asparagus, thanks. I'll get those roots out and fill in with the soil I'm buying. I put some in willy nilly when I first moved here, and it seems to be doing OK, but it's in a bad place, so I'll get to eat any of that that comes up this year. Won't be but two servings, at most.
I am excited about the cranberries. It's a very beautiful plant ground cover plant, even if I don't get many berries.
LOL, of all the things to get excited about in this post, I'm looking forward to more reports on this sign of progress:
Photos please :)
Good material for that romance novel you've been writing, eh?
I love seeing your flowers and baby veggie plants. You DO have your work cut out for you, but I know how wonderful it is to eat food that you grew yourself.
The trees are certainly starting to bud here and I just heard a few hours ago there is a frost warning tonight. I'm hoping all the important stuff survives.
I hope so too! I gotta get going on figuring how to wrap mine. They're not blooming yet, but will be soon. It was devastating when it happened last year - I was going to get a lot of peaches!
You're off to a great start!
I love how you set up a light indoors for early stage growth!!!