Some photos

Here are a couple of photos of what's blooming.

More planted, more to go! And I saw some new flowers!!!

Yesterday I did some tilling.  Yes, I know you Back to Eden purists are cringing right now, but I did it anyway.

I did get about 1/2 a row of stringless stringbeans planted and a few lettuces I had growing in pots.  I plan to start some more and have a rotating crop.  Some didn't germinate.  I guess that is a good thing, then they aren't all coming in at once.  There is NO way to preserve lettuce and we can't eat all of it at once.

I planted today some spinach and the rest of the baby bok choy.  I tried some over a month ago and only a couple came up.  Crossing fingers I have better luck this time.  The ones that did come up I see are being eaten by something, so I am going to break out the DE and dust the dickens out of them.  And I found some slugs, baby slugs, but still....they'll be getting the treatment too!  *evil laugh*

I noticed this morning that my peas looked like they were either getting new growth or some flowers.  This afternoon I can confirm they are flowers!  That means peas around the corner.  This variety is called Strike Peas.   I purchase a lot of my seeds local from Amish farms.  They told me the must be staked.  I did some research on the internet and found they only get about 2 feet tall and staking is optional.  Hmmmm......I went the optional route!  Why not and see what happens.  They did only get a little more than a foot tall and seem to be ok so we are going to let things be for now.    I can do a fall planting and maybe stake them...or not...

I will have pictures to post later.  I must run to a baseball game for my son.  That's been my life lately.  So, check again tomorrow....I'll have more growing updates then.....

Radishes are up.....

Our frost date was this past weekend.  I never trust those dates and for good reason, two days later we had a frost!

The potato plants took a little hit.  Yukon golds more than the others.  I believe they will be ok.  I did hill them once already before the frost hit.  Strawberries made it with no damage. 

Here is the first veggie that I planted from seed this year.  These are Saxa II radishes.  They say they are ready in 18 days but these took about 6 weeks.  Maybe it was a bit cool for them to get started.  I also have some baby bok choy that I planted around the same time.  Most of it didn't survive but I think there are a few still going.  I'm going to plant more so no worries there.

First Vegetable - Asparagus

We have had some teetering weather here lately.  Some days warm, some cold, too cold for me, but, one sure sign that the weather is changing is this:

My first asparagus stalk has come out.  This was April 14th and now there are several more coming out. 

At first when I planted them I thought I may have sentenced them to doom.  I didn't plant them deep enough.  So I piled on some dirt and then some wood chips once I cut the ferns down.   Looks like all is well, thankfully.     I can't wait until I have enough for dinner!

Next post is a video of the garden so far.......stay tuned!

End of winter? Let's hope!

Boy has it been cold.  I don't think Old Man Winter wanted to give up his grip this year.  We got a snow storm on March 25!  And it's almost April 1 and I haven't even gotten my seeds started yet!  This is probably not a bad thing since it's not warm enough to get them outside anytime soon.  If it runs a little later in the season it's ok.  We stay warm here in Pennsylvania until sometimes late September.

So where are we with the garden?  I have my mulch moved to the garden area.  See post below to see my huge loads of FREE mulch!  I contacted my local appliance store and they saved me some cardboard boxes.  Apparently I'm not the only one that has figured this method of ground + cardboard + mulch = an awesome garden bed!  At any rate, I'll take what I can get. 

I have most of my garden layout done with the Mother Earth News Garden Planner software.  Check it out here: http://gardenplanner.motherearthnews.com/gardenplanner/gardenplanner.html

I am going to deploy a  mix of the Back to Eden method and square foot gardening.  Now I know the SFG method is for small spaces, but I need to pack a lot into my space.  I am hoping this works out!    I'm sure it will be ok and I'm worrying for nothing.  But like my dogs, the garden is a part of my family! LOL!

This year I'm going to try and film at least once a week to show you how things are going.  Maybe more depending on what is happening.  There is going to be a lot of planting and such the first few weeks but then it will die down until we get into harvest.  I'm planting a lot of tomatoes this year and hope to make quite a lot of tomato sauce to can.  I'll bring you along on this journey too. 

Oh and my asparagus isn't up....yet....and the strawberries look like they are starting to come back and I can see some new growth.  It won't be long and I'll be up to my ears in both of these!

I have lots planned for this summer....stick around!

Got mulch?!?

I was fortunate enough to find a tree crew, which I call my orange truck guys, who could deliver some wood chips for free!  Unfortunately, they couldn't get the trucks with the booms to the back of my property, they felt it was unsafe because the path to get there had an incline they had to ride along.  So they dumped them in my driveway.  Two loads and 40 yards total!  Holy cow it's a big pile of mulch.

(40 yards of free mulch)

I will have to move it with the tractor but hey it was free right?!?

So what am I going to do with all this mulch?  Well, I'm planning a modified Back to Eden garden of sorts.  A few posts ago I mentioned that I had expanded my garden.  It will now include a 60' x 60' bed along with the original 25' x 50'.  I share with my neighbor so don't freak out and think it's all mine!  LOL! 

I have already placed mulch from a previous load of free chips (sadly that pile is almost gone!) between my rows of strawberries and over my asparagus patch.  The rest are for the garden.  I'm combining square foot gardening and Back to Eden gardening methods.  Since my plot is huge and raised beds are just not in the budget I am going to have to compromise. 

So the plan is to plant my plants in the square foot method and then mulch around them creating a semi Back to Eden faux raised beds.  The pathways are going to have to remain uncovered unless I can be fortunate enough to get more wood chips.  The only things I won't be covering with mulch are the potatoes. They get their own special treatment of straw mulching.  I did this last year and it worked fabulously.  I never watered the potatoes, they stayed moist because of the straw, and digging them up only required pulling the plants and moving dirt with my hands. 

In the 25' x 50' plot I will be attempting the 3 sisters method.  I know, a lot going on in my garden but how else to learn what works!  I will have corn, Missouri Wonder pole beans  and pumpkin, cantaloupe, and maybe some other winter squash in here.  I may put some teepees with some cowpea variety.

So it's an experiment.  I have a ton of varieties to grow, just see my seed hauls!  I think a mix of these gardening style methods are bound to work.  It can't hurt to try, right?

Stay tuned, it's almost time to start seeds indoors.  I almost can't wait!

Seed Hauls - Baker Creek & Victory Seed

I have begun to order my seeds for my 2013 garden.  There is so much going on with the holidays and everything that I just haven't kept up with my blogs.

I'll backtrack here...some exciting changes have been made here at the "farm".  We now have chickens!  I'll be posting more on that soon....

Until then enjoy the seed videos!