April 17, 2013 - Jack Frost Pays a Visit

We had a record breaking freeze last night, 23F.  Everything in my garden looks fine, except the potatoes.  Every single potato plant froze.  Surprisingly enough, it didn't bother the little marigolds at all.  I don't know how my neighbor's garden fared, I noticed he had most of his plants covered with buckets.

Today it was sunny and beautiful outside.  Not terribly warm, but comfortable working in the sunshine with just a sweater.  I did get out to do a bit of gardening.  We're not supposed to get any more freezing nights (I'm not holding my breath), so I planted a couple of 6' rows of Provider bush beans, just in case I get lucky.  I also planted 47 Western Giant onion plants, another 6' row of Ingot carrot seed mats (144 seeds) and a packet of Thomas Laxton shelling peas (only 3 of a huge packet of earlier planted shelling peas have broken ground so far).

Three new garden beds for bush beans, carrots and onions.  The sugar snap peas are beginning to climb their strings.

 The strawberries are growing well and loaded with blossoms.

 Spinach and lettuce  are getting some leaves almost large enough to harvest.  I noticed the square of carrots in this bed were beginning to emerge, but none so far in the main garden.  There are also seeds of spinach and beets that are just now coming up in some of the squares.  The three green plants to the right of this bed are celery that has over wintered.  I noticed one stalk that is almost big enough to cut!  I think it's bigger than any I cut last year.

 After I finished with my gardening, I began painting the new rain gutters to match the house trim.  It was warm in the afternoon sun, and the paint dried quickly.

My kitchen was turned into a painting room for the small pieces of rain gutter.

While I waited for paint to dry, I whipped out a batch of cookies for Big Dog.  Now it's time to whip up some dinner for Mr. Granny  :-)