Spring Progress

Garden life has been busy with hardening off transplants and getting them in the ground while keeping fingers crossed that this hot weather doesn't hurt my cool weather plants.  My spinach has been trying to bolt which is sad to see since my germination rates were so incredibly low with the Bloomsdale Longstanding (less than 10% of what I planted made it to plant phase despite great care).  The peas are all producing beautifully though and my onions, chickpeas, and broccoli are coming along quite well.  The green beans and black beans finally got in the ground on Tuesday.  I'm also finally getting to harvest some yummy items like young garlic, spinach, peas, strawberries, and a random volunteer lettuce plant that popped up!  Yum!!

This post is long overdue!!!  I got overambitious and planted a bunch of stuff during the warm streak in January.  Out of that, the peas and onions have done really well but it was pretty much a total replant of the spinach and beets.  I've got a good batch of cabbage and leeks in the starter station that are being hardened off and a weak batch of giant kohlrabi that have been unhappy since day one.  In the basement we've also got tomatoes (3 varieties), peppers (2 varieties), basil, chamomile, lavender, winter squash (4 varieties), and quinoa!  Outside, the garlic is also growing well along with the sunchokes.  I also just seeded (and reseeded a few) broccoli, arugula, sorrel, kale, and carrots.  There is something munching on the few baby spinach that made it through the horrible cold, so I'll probably be putting some row covers back out to shield them.  I need to get some pea trellises rigged up - I'm always late on these!!  Finally, we've managed to find a way to keep the dog out (aka a leash) but the cats have been using my raised beds as a litter box.  I'm testing the chili powder method (sprinkle it on the dirt, they lick their paws and hate it so they avoid it) but any other suggestions would be most welcome!!  Here are some pics!

First Spring Post

What a day!  I got took a gamble with this nice weather and put the onions, peas, spinach, an sorrel in the ground along with a layer of straw.  I've got kohlrabi, leeks, and cabbage started in the basement on heat mats.  I've started using egg cartons as seed starting trays and they work great so far because I can shut the lid when waiting for them to germinate to trap in moisture and then  cut the lid off and put it under the cells to hold water.  Once the plants get bigger, I'll transplant them to yogurt container.  Reduce, reuse, recycle!  I'm still waiting for my tomatoes from Park Seed, but I have everything else, although I could use some extra peas and spinach so it's off to the Local Matter's Seed Swap next weekend in hopes of stocking up!