March 28, 2014 - A New Season for an Old Garden

Yesterday my son-in-law, "Bigfoot Bryan", came over to help me by rebuilding the box in "The Kennel Garden".  It's the one with the frame that gets covered with netting to keep the leaf miners off of the beets, chard and spinach.  The box has always been larger than the framework, and difficult to keep covered.  It's fixed!  I picked up a few yards of netting, and had planned on getting the remaining spinach, chard and lettuce planted and covered today, but it's raining.  That's OK, we really needed the rain.

The garden looks quite bare.  I do have a bed of lettuce, 4 beds of onions, 2 beds of potatoes, a wide row of snap peas and a row of sweet peas planted on this side, as well as a garlic bed that was planted last fall and is looking great. .  There is also another bed of spinach on the other side of the garden, next to the shed, that may end up being transplanted into the kennel if I don't have enough netting to protect it where it is now.  I haven't picked any of my overwintered spinach yet.  I'm not that fond of the tough winter growth that it's showing right now.

There are just a few seedlings ready to set out.  They are perfectly happy living on the patio for now.  The large container is my own personal little salad garden, where I hope to be able to nip off a few leaves to add to my meals.  I put a few sweet onions in it for a bit of extra flavor.

 Inside, the plant window is getting full!  I hope I don't have to pinch those tomato tops, but there's not a lot of room left for them to go up.

 I have tomatoes.  Green, but they're at least setting fruit.

 The overwintered Happy Yummy Sweet is loaded with at least a dozen full sized peppers.

 Sweet peppers have all germinated and are just getting their first true leaves.  I was late with the tomatoes, but I pre-sprouted the seeds before planting, so I have 100% germination.  Well, close...one plant has failed to show so far.  Those KFC Go Cups are fantastic for growing the seedlings, two plants per cup! They are extremely strong, unlike the flimsy plastic 4/6 cells.  Leeks are growing in the background.

I'm just planting a few (6) broccoli this year, as I'm the only one who really likes it.  Everyone wants cabbage though, so this is just the first round of 12 cabbage seedlings.  Germination was 100%, and I think I planted them about 4 days ago.

And so begins a "New Season for an Old Garden"


14 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Or is that 'you GROW girl'? LOL! Couldn't resist. Granny is pretty awesome isn't she? ;-)

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  2. My ghod your grass is so green! Mine is brown. Iowa, at least this part, is brown as far as the eye can see and it's a bit depressing. I WANT GREEN GRASS! Your pictures look like Mike's when he takes care of the seeds. Mine (posted on my blog today) look NOTHING like that. He's due home in an hour, hope he's not upset with me.

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  3. Wow tomatoes setting in March. That must be a really nice window. I don't think I've ever owned a good plant growing window. I keep thinking of ripping out our fake gas fireplace and putting in a big bank of pushed out windows. Then I could grow things there. Ah the dreams. I doubt it will ever happen though. It would be cool as it would look over the garden. I could put a chair in there.

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  4. Your lettuce looks yummy, Granny! I have some seedlings, but they are tiny.

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  5. The garden is looking great! Thanks to Bigfoot Bryan for fixing that box! Wish I had a good place to grow plants in the house, I keep trying with grow lights etc but it just isn't the same. I am so ready for some good tomatoes!

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  6. Wow, you are doing great growing things inside. I have never tried that, I might just have to try that next year. I did go today though and buy some veggies. I still have the ones growing from seed, but there is a great feed store near us that has heirloom varieties of veggies and since i didn't start everything from seed, I figured this is the next best thing. They'll go in the raised beds either Sunday or on a special day off next week.

    Yay for gardening!!!

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  7. Wow Granny! You are ahead of me! But, your weather has been much better then ours. I think you are going to have a great garden this year!

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  8. Tomatoes!!! Inside!!! Seriously!!! Ok, you've thrown down the gauntlet: I'm growing tomatoes next Winter inside!

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  9. Wow, Granny! You are growing now! I am so happy to see the small, green tomatoes already from your early plant and the Happy Yummy must be happy to produce so many fruit.

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  10. I am happy for you that you have a lot growing! And green tomatoes in the house! You are my garden incentive! I went out in my ear muffs and winter jacket today and planted onions! I think nice weather has forgotten where IN is!! Nancy

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  11. Look at the great starts you have! Awesome!

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  12. Your seedlings look great + tomatoes this early! I just have my seedlings starting:-) You always have such bounty:-)

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  13. Seriously?!? You've already done more than I will probably get done all summer. Way to slow down, Granny!

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