Garden Update

Last week I put out the first of my tomatoes and peppers (and basil):

• 3 Roma tomatoes
• 1 Poblano pepper
• 2 Anaheim peppers
• 1 Sweet Basil
  

I currently have blooms all of them! As always, my family is racing to see who gets to eat the first tomato! I say I'm gonna win!!! : )

Yesterday, I planted some flowers around the garden:

• Marigolds to attract the pests away from the plants
• Assorted marigolds and daisies to attract polinators

Hahaha... we'll see if that works... planting flowers to both shoo away and attract bugs!

David planted his loofah sponge and Elizabeth planted her birdhouse gourd assortment. Hopefully that will be a fun project for them to watch grow. I let them pick out of the catalog & that's what they came up with!

This morning I planted beans - pinto and black - into the garden, and started some more seeds in peat pots. We need to do some work to the fence around the garden, so I really don't want to plant the other stuff out there yet. The chickens have started scratching. There's no point in planting just to have it scratched up.

The guineas, at least one of them, has started laying. The guinea book says that the hen will find a secluded spot to hide her nest of eggs. Well, our birds never have read that book. We find another egg almost every day, never in the same spot (not even the same general area!), and only once was it hidden. I left the hidden one for a few days to see if she'd start a hidden nest. Nope. We ate the first few, then I lost track of what day the new eggs appeared. I think I'm going to try collecting them together in a nest box for the guinea and see if she will eventually start coming there to lay... but I kinda doubt she'll do that.

Guinea Eggs

Other things going on outside and in the garden:

Jalapenos in the "nursery"

Radishes & Carrots

Onions... probably about time to eat some green ones

I hope that's Key Lime Lettuce

Arugula looking much better after the goat attack

Rainbow Swiss Chard

I didn't plant this, but isn't it pretty?

Hollyhocks & Larkspur coming up, inspired by Georgia O'Keefe

Standing Cypress Seedlings

Blackie, the one who ate so many things in the garden

Raspberry Autumn Sage is blooming.

I've got sprouts!

Friday, March 19 - I dug a new bed in the garden. I hate hearing all those Bermuda roots as the shovel goes into the earth.

Onions are happily growing. They'll be thinned for some green onions before long. Then hopefully the larger ones will grow better than last year. This bed will have more dirt in it next year.

My little strawberry plant is coming back after being eaten by the goat. Hopefully there will be enough time to make me at least one berry before it gets hot???

Garlic is growing back after being eaten off by the goat:

The angled piece of cattle panel is what I grown my tomatoes on. Last year, it was in the bed on the right. I thought I'd move them this year. I've got 3 Romas getting a head start indoors in pots. I'm still trying to beat my sister to the first tomato... I decided to do mostly Roma this year since they had such good flavor last year, produced heavily, and are good for canning & freezing sauces. I just don't think I can say no to the yellow pear, though...

Monday, March 22 - NEW SPROUTS SPOTTED!!! Rainbow Swiss Chard is really prettier than it looks. I love the crimson stems on the tiny sprouts!

This was in the area where I planted spinach. I've never grown spinach before, so I don't know if that's spinach or a weed coming up.

Radish seedlings appear to be forming true leaves!

That, my friends, is a cockleburr growing amongst my radishes. At least it was.

Tiny carrot sprouts are beginning to peek through!

There were a couple of these in the pot where I planted peppermint seeds. Could it be?

I also have peppers growing in the house - 1 poblano, 2 Anaheim, 9 jalapeno.

I know my mulch is pretty rough for starting seedlings. I should have scrapped it off a little better. And for those who were concerned about the goat eating my garden, we picked up a roll of fencing. Now to find the time when Dad's home to work on the fence.

For the Growing Challenge - strawberries, garlic, spinach, radishes, carrots, peppermint and poblano peppers are new to my garden.

2010 Farm & Garden Report

Wow, I can't believe it's March already! Today I spent some time looking back over my 2009 Garden Log, remembering what worked & what didn't. I participated in the 2009 Growing Challenge: Seed to Seed and failed at it, because I ended up not saving any seeds from things I grew! I did, however, grow new things from seed that I'd never grown before, so all was not lost. And we're still eating salsa that I canned last summer with my abundant crop of tomatoes & peppers! Now on to this year... and this year's Growing Challenge!

We had a devastating start to the year and I didn't get seeds started indoors like I did last year. Back in January, I received an order garden tools - fertilizer makers! This is what they look like now:

Really, I wanted them for the eggs, but the droppings are already going into the compost bin, so I think they will be beneficial to the garden, too. And they look so pretty!

I got straight run, mixed lot, so I don't really know what all they are yet.

I do know that this one is an Easter Egger - she's gonna lay those pretty blue & green eggs:

We had some rain the other day that resulted in a magnificent rainbow!

Click to enlarge. And a pretty cool puddle, too.

Your husband may bring home flowers... but mine brought home plants! Yeah, baby!!!

He brought me jalapeno seedlings. Wow, that's gonna be a lot of peppers if they all survive!

And a strawberry plant!!! This is it before Blackie, the goat, ate it. It's coming back, though.

He brought some arugula. This is it before Blackie ate half of it.

And he brought me some broccoli! This is one of the plants before Blackie ate it. I hope they come back... Strawberries, arugula, and broccoli are new plants for me to try.

My fall planted garlic is coming up. This is after the goats ate the tops.

There's an overview of the garden area for this year. On March 9, I planted seeds for radishes, carrots, assorted lettuces, spinach, chives, Swiss chard, peppermint, and sunflowers. I have never grown radishes and never successfully grown carrots, spinach or chives.

My pretty little helper:
I also dug, lined, and mulched for a new bed beside the arbor. I think this will be where I put this year's cukes.

Dad rented a Ditch Witch to run the drain line from the water softening system across the garden. Here it is coming down from the garden:

Another trench for a another line that I'm not exactly sure what to call.

Dad did a little witchin' of his own to find a buried water line. It's amazing to me that this works!

Back to the garden today - radishes are sprouting already!!

My purple allium bulbs are coming up!!!

We got the pansies on clearance last week. They're a bit wind blown right now, but still pretty.

The cone flower I dig up from the ditch last summer has survived!

My grape hyacinths are just starting to bloom, but you should see Grandpa's! (hey, Grandpa, maybe you should blog!)

And this blows me away - This Swiss chard was planted from seed on February 2, 2009! I never pulled up the stalks after it "died" and now it's sprouted new leaves! Crazy!

My first iris bloom from my Grandmother's iris:

This is where Rebekah watches the gardening when it's too cool for her to be outside with me:

Well, that was a hodgepodge of information, but that catches me up on what's going on outside so far this year!