April 6, 2013 - In the Garden


Yesterday it rained off and on, so I didn't spend much time in the garden.  I did move a grow bag to a corner by the shed, then planted it with some leftover seed potatoes.  I spent the rest of the sunny period edging, weeding and cultivating the rest of the flower bed around the patio, and putting another large pot there for a third cherry tomato.  I still have to add the 8' stakes to the pots for the tomatoes to climb.  Those have to be screwed into the patio beam.

Pots are in place for cherry tomatoes, the beds are edged and weeded and waiting for May planting time.

Today I planted 34 leek seedlings, 2 cabbage seedlings to replace the broccoli that survived the winter (the new shoots just bolted immediately) and a 6' long wide row of carrot seed mats (144 seeds) in a windstorm, fun!  I also removed two Shasta daisy plants that never were very pretty.  That gave me room to (maybe) plant another tomato when the time comes.

The leek seedlings are so tiny, not much larger than a blade of grass.  I have a lot of seedlings left for backups if these fail to grow.  I was surprised to see my first planting of potatoes breaking through the soil already.  Last year it was four weeks from the time I planted them until they emerged.  This year it took three weeks.

Red Norland potato plants are peeking out of the soil.

The Kennel Garden has green things growing everywhere!  I can even see the peas from my kitchen window.  There still is no sign of germination for the shelling peas.  I even dug around a bit and couldn't even find a pea seed.  I paid $4.99 for a packet of those seeds from Burpee.  I certainly wouldn't think every single seed would be bad, but it's never taken this long for germination to take place in the past.

The rhubarb plant I thought was dead lives.  It's looking quite healthy now.

The warm weather seedlings got to spend their days outside for three days, coming into the kitchen at night.  

Then it turned rainy and windy, so they are back in the bedroom under the lights.  It won't be long until I'll have to up-pot them.

We discovered another broken sprinkler line by the front driveway.  This was evidently another "oops" from the heavy equipment they brought in to demolish our septic tank and hook up to the city sewer.  It's in a real bad spot, wedged between the concrete driveway and the big roots of the pine trees.  We were kind of scratching our heads and wondering which of us had the stamina to dig it out, when Son John stopped by.  He had read my blog about the front flower garden and my disappointment in Son Scott and Grandson Kevin not helping, so stopped by to offer to dig the bed for me on Sunday.  He's a good boy, I'm sure he'll help us dig out the sprinkler line.


15 comments:

  1. Son John is such a good son! It's kinda like the children's story of the hen that wanted to bake bread but no one wanted to help her plant, weed, harvest, or bake the bread. But they sure wanted to eat it. You should remind your kids of their excuses when they want fresh produce this summer. :)

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  2. Everything looks so good. I hope your son does help you out! I called last week and they didn't have the potatoes in yet for me to plant and here yours are coming up already. Said they were expecting more cold weather. Will check again this week! Nancy

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    1. Nancy, I always try to get my potatoes in by mid-March. I was a bit late with one bed, but there is still plenty of time for you to plant them. I just like to get those extra early baby new potatoes! I can never leave the plants in the ground long enough for the potatoes to mature, but I can buy good *old* potatoes at the store!

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  3. See, this is why having lots of kids seems like a good idea -- GROWN kids!!

    (Of course, we're still in the thick of it.) All of your gardening looks great, as usual.

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    1. Yes, Stefaneener, that way you can play them against each other. See, there's a method to my madness!

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  4. I'm so glad one of your sons is going to help you out. You work so hard, and I know it's keeping you young, but geez, you really should be able to catch a break every once in a while. I pulled a bunch of Shasta daisies that I grew from seed out last fall, and I still have more, but I'm feeling a little wishy-washy about them. They're so annoyingly floppy. Your pepper and tomato plants are looking good.

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    1. Alison, I had grown these from seed also, but they never did get pretty like my old ones that I got from starts from my Mother's garden. It's too bad I didn't keep some of those, but they got removed to make room for the vegetable garden.

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  5. Your seedlings look wonderful, Granny. I'm getting everything ready for my garden beds here in S.C. and will have it all planted in a couple of weeks. I'm gonna utilize a bigger part of my land this year for growing more veggies.

    Last year I had 600 sq. ft. of gardening space. This year, however, I'll be planting 1,480 sq. ft. of gardening space.... I hope you're doing well! Greg

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    1. Greg! It's so good to hear from you! I hope you are going to get started on your blog again. I really would like to see your new larger garden take shape. I'm doing great. I'm about 25 pounds lighter than when you last saw me, which is a good thing. I really miss you and Jeff.

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  6. Wow Granny look at all that green. My garden is so far behind. I quit buying my pea seeds. I just save them. I don't however do it like I'm supposed to. I'm supposed to mark the best plants and save all the seeds from those. But I miss picking pea seeds until it is too late to eat them. So I let those dry out and save that seed. Hopefully I'm not selecting for peas I'll never find. I have such trouble with finding all those pods.

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    1. Don't you just love it when the green appears, Daphne? I wasn't even going to fool with peas this year, but Ed talked me into trying this variety (where oh where is Ed, Tales From the Mountainside? He hasn't blogged in ages, and doesn't answer my emails). I can buy organic peas so cheaply at Costco. Sugar snaps are worth growing though.

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  7. I had the same issue with my peas last year, I dug around and couldn't find any and thought the birds took them but they eventually came up, although spotty... another mystery! Seedlings look great!

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    1. Erin, they were planted the same day as the sugar snaps, you wouldn't think they would be that far behind them. I hope you're right, and that they do appear....someday!

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