My favorite farmer’s market seller of seedlings is up and running for ordering online and scheduled pickups. My aim is for next Saturday to buy and add a few things.
My Christmas Cactuses are gearing up for a second bloom.
I took home a few office plants for the duration. These are doing well and look great where I put them. Already scouting for plants to replace them when the need to be returned. LOL.
Everything in my containers except the oregano is looking great so far. Harvesting a ton of chives, nipping buds on the sage daily and the garlic gloves implanted are growing well. The big surprise is the tarragon. I planted it last year for the first time. It is growing well.
We’ve been suffering through a bit of a cold snap here in Central Missouri this past week. We’ve had near freezing temps every night, and several that have fallen below freezing. It’s delaying the morels popping and wrecking the fishing - very annoying!
Mrs. Augie is picking up some bedding plants at the local nursery this morning. The garden is still too wet to get the tiller on it, but that won’t be a hindrance for this stuff.
Following last year’s bumper crop my drupes have decided to take this year off. None of them even tried to bloom. Just as well, as the blossoms would have been frozen anyway. The pears are blooming nicely, and probably far enough along that they won’t be affected by the cold nights. The apples are loaded with buds that are just starting to open. Jury is still out on frost damage to those, but the temps haven’t dropped below 28°F so I think they will be ok.
It’s looking like most of my landscape plantings around the pond made it through the winter in good shape. The bald cypress and pawpaws are leafing out nicely, and there’s a ton of new growth on the red lobelias. The buttonbush is just starting to show some bud swell. It’s too early yet to know if the milkweeds made it.
All my tulips and daffodils were covered in snow this morning.
Ugh.
My seedling trays are full of little seedlings!!! It’s so exciting to count them as I walk by :)
One of the squash varieties, Sweet Meat Oregon Homestead, has such big leaves that they keep shoving the dirt out of the pot as they emerge. I’ve never seed cotyledons that big before! At least twice the size of the other squash, and 4x the size of the melons. I’m curious to see if the true leaves are that much bigger too.
I finally got my wheat seeds in the mail. 4.5 pounds of spring wheat and 5 pounds of winter wheat. The place I ordered from was so swamped it took them 4 times the usual time to get the order shipped. I keep seeing that as a good sign, lots of gardeners stocking up! It does get inconvenient though.
Meat processors keep shutting down due to the virus. I almost have my isolation/maternity hutch set up for the chickens. I don’t have permission yet to expand my flock, but I want to be ready when I do.
Off to plow, hopefully! It’s windy out but warm, and the ground is finally dry enough.
NW, We’ve had warmer weather this Spring. So, I’ve cut a few asparagus stalks, parsley over wintered and so did a kale.
Last Fall our garden club had a speaker on seed saving. She brought in a “Moon and Star Watermelon,” and we all took some of the seeds and tried to save them for this year. Found them in the bottom of my basket and put them in pots...up they came...what do you know I did it right. I don’t really expect watermelons to ripen at my altitude and temperature. But, I’ll give it the gardener’s try.
Apropos to the meme: don’t put potato sets in plastic bags, even if they have been treated with sulfur dust: they can still mold. We’ll see if they recover or not; still able to get more Kennebecks & Nordlands, if needed; the russet Burbanks are fine, in a paper sack.
Pea seeds from 2 weeks ago are just beginning to germinate, thanks to the return of frigid weather; I uncovered a couple of seeds to check whether they were okay or not.
Naturally, no beets of carrots after only a week.
The leeks in the coffee cans are beginning to emerge; the cat grass in another one is already about 2” tall.
After work today, I spread fertilizer in the potato furrows. Supposed to get showers tonight & tomorrow, which will water it in ahead of planting Wednesday, after work: New Moon. More rain on Thursday, to water them.
My scarlet runner bean seeds arrived this week, so I have everything planned on planting on hand now. 65 of them should be just about right for 50’ of 8’ garden fence.
Greetings from southern New Hampshire!
I repaired the rat damage in the duck coop. I want to try an electronic pest controller. I hope it works.
I am almost finished with the front tree bank...which is a strip of woods between our front yard fence and the road. Today, I installed the Cyclone Vacuum interface on the John Deere 318 tractor put the Cyclone back together. The motor started on the second pull! I vacuumed up the leaf piles by the driveway and started vacuuming leaves around the roadside flower bed and along the fence line. I am over half-way done. I had to empty the cart, and decided to bag it for today.
Household Six has started some seeds. I will start some this week, and will start tilling raised beds.
All the flower beds are cleaned out. I am a bit ahead of curve, this spring, in spite of a couple of snow falls in the past week. Damned Global Warming!
After cleaning up all of the worn out weed barrier fabric my bones said no to the 5hp Craftsman tiller.
As I was backing up to get ready for the third pass I noticed something moving on the ground. I tilled up a baby western painted turtle on the previous pass. We admired the little guy for a few minutes then turned him loose in the pond.
We set all of the bedding plants that Mrs. Augie bought on Saturday. Cabbages went in the ground, and the rest of it went into pots.
I've come to grips with the fact that I'm not going to get this garden converted to raised beds this spring, so it will be business as usual for another year. I've been struggling to make a decision on how to construct the beds. I want something that will last, and not break the bank to build. The more I think about it the more I'm liking the idea of using poured concrete. That would be a one and done deal.
Anyone have a good recommendation for an inexpensive fertilizer for tomatoes and peppers?
I am presently using “Dr Earth” tomato and vegetable fertilizer but I am quadrupling, or maybe even more, my tomato and peppers this year and the Dr Earth is expensive.
It is about 60 bucks for a 12 lb bag.