March 31, 2013 - Easter in the Garden

It was a busy day, between cooking the ham dinner (baked ham, scalloped potatoes, mixed veggies & coleslaw) and getting outside to enjoy the 75-degree weather!  I couldn't pass up such a lovely day in the garden.

The seedlings were still quite small, but with warm weather for at least the next week, I decided to go ahead and get the Hybrid Mix broccoli (5 plants) and Gonzales cabbages (6 plants) in.  They had been living outside for more than a week, so I think they will be fine.  If not, I can still direct seed them at a later date. Potatoes are planted to their left and right.

Next I planted 5 Golden Acre cabbages.

That leaves me with only a single flat of marigolds, leeks and leftover broccoli seedlings that are living outside 24/7.  

The next job was to trim back the Sweet Williams and hollyhocks, and get that mess all cleaned up.

 Then I pounded in the hose guides and defined my meandering garden path.  I hoed a few tiny weeds, and raked everything smooth.

It's all cleaned up and raked, from end to end.

After moving the old barrel to the corner of the fence, and filling it with good soil for future cucumbers, I did some daydreaming about how I was going to plant the East Garden.  I have decided to put a 16' strip, 2' wide, along the fence on the right.  That's where I can plant a bunch of my many, many pepper seedlings.  The corn bed will go on the left, approximately 16' long x 4 or 5' wide, with a path separating the corn and peppers.  There should be enough room at the far end for a couple of hills of cantaloupe, and the near end for carrots and bush beans.

I began running the garden twine for the peas, and got about half done before my back gave out.  There's always tomorrow.

The sugar snap peas are emerging nicely, but the shelling peas still have not broken ground.

I noticed the radishes I planted last week by the lettuce were showing, so I decided to plant another row bordering the parsnip bed.  I got about 62 seeds in this row.

I changed my mind on pulling some of the strawberries out of the bed to make room for the six new (different variety) plants I purchased.  Instead, I think I'll put them in these planters inside the Kennel Garden.  If I like them better than the old berries, I can root the runners and do a replacement later.

The raspberries are leafing out in this warm weather.

Flowers are blooming.


And the lettuces are growing larger.

My final gardening chore for the day was to heap composted manure all around and over the rhubarb plant, then make a little fence to protect it from the dogs.  It's not in the main garden, but next to the fence that keeps our dogs and the neighbor's dogs apart.  They love to trample that garden while sounding like they're all going to kill each other.

But......my work wasn't over!


The garden shed was a mess....again.  I cleaned it up, put everything away, swept it out, and it's lookin' pretty good!  Now it's time to sit down and relax with a cup of hot tea.


17 comments:

  1. You did all that and fixed Easter dinner as well? You are Super Granny!
    Enjoy that weather! We are still about a week away from consistent 70's. So much for living in the South!

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    1. Ray, we get a whole week of this lovely weather, but Thursday it goes back down into the 60s. I'll work my behind off for the next three days!

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    2. Yes, you need to with all the slacking off you've been doing! Sheesh, Granny! :)

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    3. I know, Langela. It's terrible to get so old you can't seem to accomplish anything. My youngest son had fits because I didn't have everyone over for Easter dinner. I told him it was because I was too busy and tired from digging out the front flower bed on Saturday, a job he had promised me he would do! I stuck to it, too. Nobody got invited for dinner, so now I think their noses are a bit out of joint.

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    4. They don't know how to have dinner at their homes? I come from a home where special dinners never happened. I have them here if I want them. Good for you!

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  2. wow you sure got a lot done. All i did here was watch the snow melt...LOL

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    Replies
    1. LOL, Mrs. P. That has to be even more exciting than watching paint dry :-)

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  4. We're still in the 40s for highs. Looks like we're going to try for the 50s this week, though. Between the kids looking for worms to take fishing, and the chickens taking dirt baths, my three raised beds are almost finished getting dug up. I just need to haul in some compost and dig it in. After all, I need to replace all the dirt flung everywhere by the hens. They aren't neat when they bathe!

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    Replies
    1. Langela, our ten day forecast is saying 70s to mid 60s, so that's looking real good. Nights in the 40s with one 38. I don't have a lot of digging left to do, my little electric rototiller can handle it quickly when the time comes. Not much left to plant before May 1, but if the weather holds I might put in bush beans a bit earlier.

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    2. I was thinking, "Wow, May 1st. That's so far away." Then I realized that it was only a month. Ugh!

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  5. I'm in awe of how much you got done! Wow, you really were very, very busy.

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    1. Anke, my body is in awe that it got done! I think I was walking a bit crooked last night :-)

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  6. Oh wow 70s. I get 60s today, but then we get back in the 40s for a couple of days. Tuesday night is predicted to be 23F. I ought to protect my onions that I planted. I think I have to wait until Thursday to plant my carrots and lettuce. Your garden is so much farther along than mine is. But coastal gardens are like that. We don't get as cold in the winter, but spring takes a while to warm up. We can be in the 60s when an hour inland can be in the 80s in the spring.

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    Replies
    1. Daphne, we usually get some really cold weather in April, so the 10-day forecast is really looking great with one low of 38 and the rest of the night temps in the 40s. My onions (and everything else) survived a 20 degree night about a week ago. The only thing I had covered was the lettuce. The onions are just beginning to show new growth after their initial die back.

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