Progress Report

First I want to say, the X-MAS decorations have all been put away!!

The first signs of spring are starting to poke through, these Hyacinths bulbs are a lot stronger than I thought. Last summer I covered this bed with commercial grade landscaping cloth, cedar bark mulch, and slate stepping stones. I kept the stones and landscaping cloth away from the foundation because that is where most of the bulbs are, but forgot about and covered over the few planted in the middle of the bed. I thought they would be goners for sure, until I noticed mounds in the middle of the bed and even a stepping stone that was lifted about three inches from the bulbs below. Who knew they were that strong. I was able to clear back the mulch and cut through the cloth to let them come through.

The seedlings are doing well in the TP tubes, just about everything has germinated, the watermelons were the last ones. They just started poking through the potting mix the other day

The tough part is I think I may have to thin them out soon

I also broke ground on the chicken coop today. I put in the footings which consisted of 4, 80lb bags of cement, 2 sonic tubes (cut in half to make 4) and metal braces to attach to the coops frame

Once the cement dries I will attach those 4X4X10 pressure treated landscape ties and can start building the coop on top. I knew the ground was uneven, but didn't realize how bad it was, I will need to bring a truckload of dirt in to bring up the grade

First outdoor project of the year

The temperature hit 50 degrees this weekend, which was just warm enough to allow the first project of the year to be completed.   The back of my property is a south facing hill, which gets all day sun and has always been the spot where I kept my compost pile.  I have never had any type of formal composting system, usually just 1 or 2 open piles, but I finally built something! A 3 bin system made out of galvanized wire fencing and metal posts that I bought at the local home depot.  I was a little surprised at the cost ($95), but it wasn’t too bad. Right now I didn’t put anything in the front of each bin, but may add something later…

Just fyi - I also tried the pull the X-MAS decorations out of the front yard, but the ground was still frozen so they will have to stay there for now.

Too many gray days

The days have been pretty gray lately so I moved my seedlings down to my makeshift grow table in the basement. I have three sets of TP tubes sitting on top of the fridge still waiting to germinate. Once I start seeing some green I’ll move them downstairs too

Progress Report

So far the seeds from the seed savers exchange are doing well, 21 out of 26 seeds have germinated. I have a 4ft Halogen light in the basement, but so far opted to keep them on a small shelf in front of the sliding glass door. Not sure which would be better for them? (Also not sure why this pic keeps posting sideways because it's not saved that way in my computer...oh well)

The kids planted their own TP tubes yesterday. We planted the below

3 - Japanese Climbing Cucumber

3 - Morning Glory vine

3 - Watermelon (Crimson)

3- Lupine

3 - Watermelon (Chris Cross)

3 - Large Cherry Tomato

3 - German Pink Tomato

2 - Pumpkins (seed dug out of last years Jack-O-Lanterns)

2 - Zucchini

2 - Peas

3 - Yellow Squash

3 - Roma Tomato 

and in case you were wondering, today's weather forecast is more snow!

Signs of life

Just starting to see some signs of life, eggplant came up first, and then the golden treasure peppers, then orange bell, that's it so far. I am a little worried about the TP rolls, a couple of them are starting to fall apart. I've never used them before so not really sure what to expect. Hopefully the stay together long enough to get the job done, at least they still give me a good laugh when I look at them, especially the ones that still have some paper stuck to them

After a few warm days I had a lawn sighting!

It's nice to finally see some green again!

My Garden

Backyard



The future home of my chicken coop (hopefully)

This is the tag that inspired me to buy my first and only apple tree, 4 types of apples on one tree I couldn't wait to eat those delicious apples

Going on year 4, here is my apple tree; it still has not blessed us with any of that delicious fruit



Moved my seeds upstairs

It doesn't seem like the top deep freeze is a warm enough spot for my new plantings.  It warms up when it runs, but since it is rarely opened it doesn't run as much, plus the basement is a bit colder than the main living area so I dusted off the top of the fridge in the kitchen and moved my newly planted seeds there.

The season has officially started

This is the first year I am starting the garden from seed and today I started my first seeds of the season. 

I purchased all of my seeds from the seed savers exchange. I learned about them in the same book I picked up my TP rolls tip from and they seem like a good organization so I decided to try them

I planted 3-TP tubes of each plant and placed 2 seeds in each tube, except for the hot peppers; I had 4 extra individual cells and placed 2 seeds in each. I am planning to keep the hot peppers out of the garden and on the deck.  I read there is a chance they could influence the flavor of the sweet and bell peppers, not sure how likely that is, but figured I better not take a chance since I am not a big fan of hot peppers to begin with

Planted today:

Orange bell peppers – 3

King of the North Red Bell – 3

Golden treasure sweet pepper – 3

 Hot Portugal Pepper – 4

Florida High Bush Eggplant – 3

They have been planted, watered, I put a plastic cover on them (not sure if that is necessary) and placed them on top of the deep freeze in the basement for some bottom heat. I even started a journal today to keep track of what I did so I can measure my success (hopefully) or learn from my mistakes so here we go….

My Garden Gnomes!

Getting ready to plant

I have been starting to pull everything together, I bought ,my seeds, a bag of starting mix, a T8 light kit, and have collected my TP rolls, a tip I picked up in a book titled One Magic Square, which I really enjoyed reading and learned a lot from. I just haven't decided when to start planting maybe end of Feb or early March, not really sure yet

Odd winter weather

last night we got heavy wind, thunder, and lightning, really strange weather for winter. Sadly, the snowman did not survive

Winter Weekends - Feb 2011

Trekking out to the compost pile has been a little tougher lately, the snow is getting deep and I can't see the actual pile anymore, but I’m sure it's there somewhere. Trying to make sure the birds are still getting enough food, but it looks like the squirrels are enjoying most of it. At least the snow lets me have some fun with the kids, we have a great sledding hill in the back and of course where theirs snow, theirs snowmen!