Spring Progress

The eggplants are looking luscious.  The Purple Beauty Bell peppers are doing well and I ended up with two extra spares to give away.

From the tomatoes, the Blue Beauty seeds all germinated, and I have at least one out of three from all the other varieties with old or saved seeds. The Dr. Wyche is the last to try to live, but those seeds are the oldest.  Time for new ones next year. I filled my extra seeding spaces with Barlow Jap seeds and as usual, every single one sprouted.  The last one I tried to ignore but it tried so hard to live I felt guilty and transplanted it too.  So everyone in the family can have more than one this year.  Next week these two flats are moving out to the cold frame.

In the garden on Good Friday I planted peas, carrots, and more lettuce.  I have Nasturtium and Zinnias germinating in the cold frame and the cold frame lettuce had to be moved outside to cooler climes.  The asparagus is beginning to sprout.

Next week it's time to start squash and melons on the cold frame.

Spring Fever

I brought the potted catnip out of the garden shed and there were just enough fresh green leaves to get a kitty with cabin fever really excited.

22 days later... the eggplant seeds are still slowly coming to life.  One.  By.  One.   3 of the 5 varieties have produced teeny tiny little seedlings.  Eggplants are so sluggish at this stage.  This morning I started my tomato seeds and I'll bet in two weeks they will have out grown the eggplants.

The weather is beautiful now and I'm tempted to plant peas.  I think I will wait until Good Friday which is my general rule of thumb.  I haven't seen a single forsythia bloom which is another good benchmark.  My lettuce seeds in the cold frame are popping out with cheery little green leaves.  So Tiny!  Hard to believe how many salads they will produce.

I've done a cursory exploration of the perennial beds.  I lost one primrose and maybe a holly hock but everything else seems to have made it through that brutal winter.

Lettuce look forward to warmer weather

This is the sort of cold frame I would expect Tim to build

Today was a beautiful Marchish day.  No matter that it is April.  I spent some time getting into shape with some light gardening: filling pots, a little mulching, a little composting.  We turned the compost pile in preparation for a new load of horse manure.

I have some eggplants up and the peppers are just showing some green loops in the soil.  I planted lettuce in flats in the cold frame to be transplanted outside.  This year's varieties are Crispino which is a head lettuce (I tried a pack of Burpee Iceberg last year and they were NOT head lettuce) Baby Romaine, Ruby & Emerald Duet which is a butterhead and my favorite leaf lettuce blend from Renee's seeds which has Speckled Troutback, Blush Butter Cos, Red Ruffled Oak and Devil's Tongue.  I think my favorite from that blend is the Speckled Troutback which you would like if your taste's lean towards the butterhead type.  The overall blend is mild but colorful and not as challenging to the taste buds as some heirloom greens can be.

I'm looking forward to loads of lettuce and will be direct sowing some seeds very soon.