Notes for April 18, 2011

Last week on Monday evening, we had daytime temperatures near 80 and so it was just downright pleasant to work outside after dinner in the limited daylight. So I had a plan and I stuck to it. My plan was only to clear the winter wind blown leaves from another flower bed (since they were about 6 inches deep at one end). I pulled the leaves out and ran them over with the mower several times and then bagged them with the mower. I bagged three very heavy mower bags full. While I was clearing the leaves from the garden, I noticed our year old beagle playing around (on the other side of the fence from where I was working). When I looked a second time, I knew I had to investigate what he had.

He had this little two inch creature and was playing/toying with it like a cat. We think its a vole. Under the leaves were all sorts of habitat trails, so I gues I disturbed him/her from their wintering home.

Tuesday it rained and on Wednesday I emptied 1.0 inches from the rain gauge.

Friday I noticed the radishes starting to push up through the ground.

Saturday it rained and I emptied 2.3 inches from the rain gauge on Sunday. I also noticed the radishes were no longer pushing but were now exposed and the "pushed" ground was washed down.

Finally... progress

This weekend was finally productive...

Saturday...

Finally got the veggie garden tilled. Added 50 pounds of bone meal, 50 pounds of lime, 15 gallons of wood ashes and 340 gallons of 17 month old composted leaves.  Rototiller started on the second pull!

Sunday...

 I planted two rows of radishes, four rows of spinach and one row of romaine lettuce.  Since I went a little excessive with the leaves, I ended up having to sift the soil for covering the seeds otherwise the leaves would be blocking the germination.

After planting, I cleaned out the leaves from three flower beds and plan to gather up the leaves with the mower tomorrow.

Peppers are doing better

I was really getting started to get depressed and thought I was going to have to order plants again.  So I changed my methods and all have sprouted.  I was watering twice a day and I started to give up and said the heck with it and only watered once a day and the rest sprouted!  So now I have a pepper seedling growing in each pot!

Things are going slow...

The last few weekends its either been unseasonably cold or raining. This weekend I am under the weather (pun intended). So I am taking it easy on the laborious work still required to get my yard ready for Spring. Yesterday I did plant my onions but I still haven't tilled the main veggie garden. So much for early radishes.


Here are the daffodils that I transplanted along the back fence. Of course some of you might say there are still leaves to rake behind the daffs or a fence post that needs replacing.

Here are the daffs I planted along my veggie garden. The chicken wire in the front is the fence I put up last week to keep my dogs out of the onion patch. As you can see the veggie garden has been mowed and is ready for tilling.



Here are my tomato seedlings and my setup.

And here are my pepper seedlings.

Dismal, I know, but I have seven with growth (out of 12). Two have doubles, so hopefully I can transplant them. One of the cups you can read "NA" which stands for "New Ace" variety.

I am not planning for much today if anything but trying to keep from getting worse. The headache, stuffy runny nose is enough.