Sprouts

We have sprouts. Pooka was so excited.She told me Rosebud, (Green Thumb's friend) was working really hard since Green Thumb was still in Hawaii for training. Some of these seeds have been in the dirt for less then a week, but they are growing quite well. I will say this year we broke down and got some seed warming mats since we do tend to keep the air temperature a bit cold for them. It looks like the seed mats were a good investment.

So far, I know the leeks and the snapdragons, tomatoes and broccoli have started, and I am sure more have started since this picture. The pepper plants which I always seem to struggle with are starting to show a bit of green. We turned the seed trays after this picture so they would start growing the other way. To be completely honest, I need to get in there and see exactly what is growing and make a note of it for next time. 

There may be more cold and snow in the forecast (and it is official, this is the snowiest winter we have ever had), but it looks like spring is starting in the house. Lets just hope it warms up enough to take things outside a bit during the day once we transplant into pots. 

Adding on to the garden

This is a project that we have been working on for awhile now. Mostly we had to wait on the weather and the rain.

In March Daddy went out and and turned the grass over around the shed. We had talked for awhile about making it another planting bed for Pooka's ever expanding garden. It sat there and sat there, and sat there. In all that time, I forgot to take a picture.

Then last Tuesday on Daddy's Mr. Mom day, he got outside and turned the dirt over again. He even got the sides put on the bed. Suddenly, it looked like a bed.

It looks like a garden bed

Daddy had added one bag of garden soil, in the side the tomatoes would live on. This helped it look a bit more filled in, but it seemed to need something

Future home of the tomatoes

But somehow, it still looked a little low on dirt. Very low on dirt, so Wednesday Pooka and I went out and bought dirt for the bed. I carried around 3 bags and put them in. Pooka helped me level it all out and she loved being able to "get dirty."

 

Adding more dirt with Pooka's wheelbarrow

After adding extra dirt, one corner looked right, and I had some tomatoes I desperatly needed to get into the ground. I was concerned they were getting root bound and too big to be in a small pot. Not to mention I had already had one of the growums tomatoes die in the pot, so I wanted to save the other 3. 

3 little tomatoes waiting for a home

We used our little speed square foot guide and dug our holes. But I will talk more about how we plant tomatoes another time.

Pooka digging her holes

Next thing you knew, I had 4 tomatoes in the ground. I think the 4th is a beefsteak, but the name came off the tag so I can't be too sure. Pooka called it the mystery tomato.

Finally we are in the ground.

We then added a small layer of mulch to just that corner. It was due to rain the next few days and I wanted to make sure they didn't get too much mud on their leaves since my reading said that can lead to fungus. We only mulched the corner we planted tho because we knew we would need more dirt for the rest of the beds. We just had to wait on the weather to give us another nice day that someone was actually going to be home.

Tomatoes all settled in

Friday night Daddy and I went out and bought more dirt and with everything else going on Saturday it was finally nice enough that Pooka and I went through and put all the new dirt in the beds.

Newly filled bed

A few of the beds had reclaimed soil in them from either pots that we think died off or from the seed starters after we removed the seeds. Thus this bed got some cinnamon flavorings in it. I wonder how that broccolli will taste when its grown.



At this point, Daddy wanted to mow the back yard so Pooka and I went out front to do some other jobs. We came back and Brother helped lay the mulch down in all the beds. Now we are just waiting on this unseasonably cold snap that is coming through till Monday so we can plant the rest of the beds. It is not suppose to get down to 37 in MAY. But that is another disccusion. I should have pictures of the new beds later today. We have been a tad thrown off with arrangements for Pooka's Great Grandfather. I am hoping to be back to normal later this week or early next week.



Spring surprises

It seems we have finally found the begining of spring. The air outside is 54, the sun is shinning the snow is finally melting away and we have plants out in the sun.

Plants enjoying the spring sun

This is only some of the pots and the ones that have been in and out a bit. The peas may even go in the ground as soon as Monday. Turns out those guys handle cold better then I thought, so might as well get them in and let them go to town.

Lilacs are alive...

The larger of the lilacs is happy and budding away. We knew this one would be strong and happy. The littler ones seem to have had a harder time with the winter, but I still hold out hope they will come back.

Strawberry are still with us

I went out front to check some things there and found that our strawberry plants had survived the winter. Not all are unscathed, and some had a nice coating of dead strawberry leaves but they looked really good.

Even the seeded strawberries are alive

I was even surprised that the baby strawberry pot we planted last year still had some signs of life with green leaves. Its only one or 2, but I am wondering if we can nurse it along and keep it. We did lose brother's strawberries as far as I can tell, but it is still early enough, I will let him pick something else to put in it. Who knows, maybe he will try blueberries or something.

Welcome spring, we have missed you.

Begining again

Well, I suppose its time to begin again this year. While this doesn't mean we haven't been doing some fun things around here, it does mean I need to actually start thinking about the science garden. I think after last year the expectations have been raised.

2012 Tomato plants

Now, I know I won't be able to replicate the 13 foot tall tomato plants (at least we hope I won't), but we are hoping for a good yield. Our goal has always been to at least get out of the garden what we put in.  As such, I have started a cost into garden spreadsheet as well as we are going to weight the harvests on my new scale that I got for Christmas.  Hopefully, this will teach Pooka how much food costs and will work on her math skills as well as finding a quantative way to measure what we produce.

This year we are also adding a few new beds. First, the front yard had these "professionally" landscaped bushes right in front of the house. We never really liked them because A) they were planted too close together and B) they had great big sharp pointy thorns that loved to get embedded in my feet since I am a barefoot kinda Mommy. As a result, in the fall, we tore them out and have been giving the soil there a rest before we plant our herb garden out front.  This should (in theory) cut down on the number of pots we have on the back deck.

Goodbye evil bushes...

We are also extending Pooka's veggie beds around the shed as more "landscaping" beds. Putting a 2 ft bed all the way around 3 sides of the shed should give us an additional 50 sq ft of veggie space. This will probably be needed after Pooka's birthday and all the new seeds she got.

What does all these changes mean? They mean that I actually have to plan the garden this year. No more flying by the seat of my pants, or in this case plants. (I know, bad pun). So while I bury myself in paper and plans and seed packets to figure out what we are doing, just know that Pooka keeps looking at her catalogs and asking "Mommy, can we grow this too, and this and this..." Then I look at her, and throw away all I have done, and start over with the new plant added. The things we do for children.

Some of Pooka's seed catalogs. They are still increasing in number