Garden report

Onions are up...a few
Peas are starting to come up.
Lettuce you can see...came up a few days ago.
Haven't seen any carrots yet.
Maybe cabbage...maybe weeds...we'll see.
Haven't seen broccoli yet.

It's coming, but it's just been way to cold.

Sounds like the tomatoes may have frozen, too. :(

Spring Planting

We've had a really cold spring and so we are about a month behind planting...but we finally got started on Friday.

April 17 We planted:
100 Red Onions (1.59 a bag of 100 G.Seed Store)
400 Yellow Onions
We would have planted some sweet onions, but they were not available this year.
Chard-4 feet
Lettuce-salad blend-12 feet
Broccoli (new this year-15 feet
Cabbage (new this year)-8 feet
Early Frosty Peas-2 long rows
Sugar Pod Peas-3/4 short row
Radishes-mixed in with some of the lettuce
Carrots-2 varieties...Nantes and a new one that is round like radishes.-1 long row
Red potatoes

The ground was pretty moist from all the snow and rain we've been getting, so we rotatilled the ground, sprinkles fertilizer where the rows were marked to go, furrowed a row, planted seeds, buried and packed down with a rake.

Onions:
We were able to plant about 100 in a small row. We planted them 3-4 inches deep and 3 inches apart.
We leave 30 in between rows to allow for easy rotatilling and because we have a huge garden space, so we can allow for walkways.

Chard...I don't like the stuff, but my dad does. It plants like lettuce.
Lettuce...1/2 inch deep, fairly thick seed
Carrots...1/2 inch deep, fairly thick seed
Peas...1 inch deep, seed 1 to 1 1/2 inches apart
Broccoli...1 inch deep, seed 1 to 1 1/2 inches apart
Cabbage...1 inch deep, seed 1 to 1 1/2 inches apart
Potatoes Cut potato seed so that one good eye is on each part. Plant 4 inches deep, 1 foot apart.

Update on my Tomato and Pepper Starts

A picture of our tomato starts taken last Sunday (April 12)

and one had a blossom!

And my peppers aren't as big, but they are doing well.


My mom's spare bedroom looks like it has been an awesome place to do some starts! Thanks mom!

Artichokes

I have never grown or eaten a fresh artichoke, so it's another new experience. I planted 4 seeds in a milk jug on March 26. I think I added too much water so I took off the plastic wrap 2 days ago to let some of the water evaporate.

Herbs

I planted my parsley on March 26 in some recycled containers. I am planting cilantro in a pot that I have today. I added some compost that I got as a free sample at the Home and Garden show to the used soil in the pots, so we will see how that works.

Raspberry Starts

I have this fantastic neighbor a few doors down that has offered me lots of flower starts. She was also kind enougt to offer Raspberry starts. I picked them up on the 28th of March. I got half of them planted in the ground that night, but didn't have time to finish getting the spot ready...then the weather turned really nasty for a week, so I didn't get the other half planted until this Monday, April 6. I kept them in John's fishing cooler for a pot with a little dirt and lots of water in the hot tub room. They started turning a little green in there so the second half of my row looks a little ahead of the first half, but that's ok. I'll let you know how they progress.

Starting Tomatoes and Peppers

I started these seeds the first weekend in February.

Varieties I planted: Rutgers tomatoes, Fireball tomatoes, Roma tomatoes and bell peppers
(I got the seeds on sale for 11 cents an envelope in January at Kings)



I bought special starter soil and a seed starter box. I also tried an egg carton. My mom tried milk jugs with the tops cut off. Next time I won't spend much. The recycled milk jugs worked awesome and the big bag of soil from Costco worked great, too.



I had planned to use the hot tub room to store the plants, but John was redoing the electrical work, so it wasn't a warm enough place this year...so my mom let me keep them out at her house in her spare bedroom. Once the seeds took off and got tall, she transplanted them (she's awesome like that) into cut off milk jugs, burying the plants up to the leaves. They look awesome now...I need to take a picture and add it to my blog.