Winter holds on?

Winter came back this week, making it uncomfortable to work outside so not much got done this weekend.  I did however get something done outside Sunday afternoon.  Mainly out of necessity.  Two of our dogs have been digging holes in my onion patch looking for the bone I buried (in the form of bone meal).  So I looked in the shed and I did have a couple of partial rolls of chicken wire and luckily I had one that was long enough and fenced in my onion patch.

 

All but one of my tomato seedlings have sprouted (one cell did not germinate at all).  But since I planted two seeds per cell, I have plenty extra to transplant to the empty cell.

 

I am again struggling with the pepper seeds.  I have them in the peat pots and in an old baking pan on top of the warming mat.  I have been watering them twice a day and I have only one germinating so far.  Two years ago when I first used the mat and a plastic six pack, I think I had them all germinating in 10 days (today is day 15).  Which just makes me more frustrated because I have poor luck getting peppers before September.  And I have been trying to grow early varieties (but you can't get them in the store as plants).

 

And the family is busy next weekend (at least Friday and Saturday) leaving me to work outside but if you look at the forecast... I will be working inside again instead of outside in the rain...(I know its still several days away and it will probably change 6 times before Friday, but its still depressing).

week 2 Part 2?

As expected I never did make it outside on Sunday.  There was just too much to do inside that needed to get done.

 

As you can see I have a golden retriever.  We also have two other dogs.  Late last Spring we adopted a beagle puppy from a beagle rescue society.  And right before Christmas we inherited an older corgi mix dog from a friend of the family who had a stroke and could no longer take care of the dog (my wife and I were designated godparents a few years earlier).  So every night is a three dog night (pun intended).  Anyway, Saturday evening I had to chase the two smaller dogs out of my onion patch SEVERAL times (luckily I hadn't planted the onions yet).  Apparently they were looking for the bone I buried.  But of course they didn't find one but they dug a bunch of holes and found only BONE MEAL!  Sunday I kept checking on them and it appears they either got the message to stay out of that garden or they got tired of trying to find the bone?  I was thinking that if they were in it again on Sunday I may have to put up a better fence around the onions.

 

The daffodils are in a strong bloom right now and the forsythia are starting to bud.

 

Next time I am at the farm/garden center to get dog food, I will also get a couple of air filters and a new blade for the mower.  Since I use my mower to mulch leaves, the blade is always worn down enough to make me think that sharpening isn't really an option.

 

This next weekend I hope to turn the veggie garden, plant the onions and mulch some more leaves piled up in various places in the yard.  If I get a nice evening I may get an earlier start but I have some indoor repairs to work on this week as well, and the weather looks to be cooler again so an evening outside appears unlikely at this point.

 

On the agenda as well this Spring...

 

We got a new well installed back in November and I need to get some topsoil to fill in the truck ruts.  That will be the next priority after the radishes and spinach are planted.

 

I need to get on the roof and clean the gutters and replace the hardware store gutter covers which work fairly well but some of them are old and need replacing.  I don't think the gutters are too clogged.  They were once before, and it was then that I noticed that the gutters would drip for several days after a rain.  They aren't dripping like that now.

 

My tomato seeds are starting to sprout.

week 2 part1?

Week two and I am sore already.  Not sure if I will do much (if anything) tomorrow.  Couldn't get started until the afternoon today but I feel good about what I got done.  I bought some bone meal and added bone meal, wood ashes and leaves to the onion patch and turned it.  I bought the onion sets yesterday on the way home from work.  I might plant them tomorrow.  After that I ran the mower over the leaves that fell in the veggie garden.  Pull, pull, snap went the mower cord. So I had to fix the mower first.  I thought that running the tiller after that would be too much.  After that I had my son help me take down the Christmas lights off the front of the house. Then I raked out most of the leaves from two flower beds and mulched them fine and then bagged them and put them in the finely mulched pile (to be used as mulch and fertilizer). Then my body had had enough and I stopped for the day.

New Season 2011

Yes, it has been too long. I have another hobby and that has taken the place of writing.  I have been researching the family tree but the garden has started its call.

 

Yesterday was my birthday and on Saturday my wife and I went to the Philadelphia Flower show.  I have wanted to go for years and finally did.  Now that I have done it, I don't have to go again.  About half was displays and the other half was vendors.  It was crowded especially when people have to take a picture of their friend in front of some flowers etc and you have to walk around the person who has backed up to take their picture. Grrr.

 

Sunday afternoon I did work outside for a little while.  I went around the yard and picked up the branches that fell during the winter.

 

Then I came inside and started the tomato and pepper seeds.  I started three varieties of peppers (New Ace, Fat N Sassy, and Parks whopper).  I planted the seeds in the cardboard/peat pots so I won't disturb the roots when I transplant so I can just plant the whole thing.  The pepper pots are sitting on a seed growing heating mat and under a grow light.

 

I have four different varieties of tomatoes seeds planted (Celebrity, Early Girl, Juliette and Park's Whopper).  They are also in peat pots and under grow lights.

 

Next weekend I hope to get started in the garden and till it and maybe even plant onions.  I have to get the onions first as well as a large bag of bone meal.  I already have three 5 gallon buckets of wood ashes (from an aunt and uncle).  I think I even have some left over from last year.  So I will add wood ashes, bone meal and composted leaves to the garden and till it.  This year I have a composted pile of leaves that I didn't use last year so I may use that instead of the pile of finely mulched leaves.  Speaking of leaves I have plenty more to pick up.  I wish I had one more weekend last fall to clean up the leaves and of course the winter winds brings in a bunch more.  I have some daffodils wondering when I am going to take off their blanket of leaves.  I also have some in bloom up next to the house.

 

I did hear the spring peepers one night last week, so its not too far away now.

Notes for June 28, 2010

Yesterday I picked my first green beans of the season and planted the third.   Picked up storm debris (Thursday evening knocked off the top of a Sassafras tree).   Finished mulching the vegetable garden.  I had to wait until the rest of the tomatoes and cucumbers were well above the ground.   I have cucumbers beginning to form.   Transplanted four volunteer tomato plants into places where others along stakes were not growing as well.  The volunteers were at least twice the size and most of them had baby tomatoes already wehre the "replaced" plants didn't even have flowers yet.   I have cosmos that I planted along the veggie fence beginnning to bloom and some of my sunflowere are about three feet tall.

Notes for June 10, 2010

Last weekend I picked the last of my spinach since it was producing more pollen than leaves (that and I needed the room to prevent shading of other plants).  I also staked all of my tomato and pepper plants.  None are tied yet but at least the stakes are there so I won't damage the roots if I were to put the stakes in later when each plant needs a stake.   Then I started mulching.  I mulched again on Tuesday night since it was pleasant outside and I wouldn't sweat to death.  I got all of the vegetable mulching done that I could.  I have to mulch the rest when the plants are big enough that they won't get buried after mulching.   Yesterday we got some rain and this morning I emptied 0.45" from the rain gauge.

Notes for June 1, 2010

Saturday I finally got out to the garden.  I planted tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers.  I also planted a second planting of beans.  The cucumbers I started from seed and I think I lost only one plant while transplanting the cardboard pots (I heard the stem go snap as I planted it).  I planted about 32 of my own tomato plants and I planted about 24 more of the volunteer plants.  I really had to, the volunteers were about 3x larger than my plants.  I had only one pepper plant germinate so I ordered some online to get the shorter season variety.  I had to do alot of weeding before I could get any planting done.  I ended up working about 4 hours after my body said stop.   I picked some more spinach too.  I finished picking the radishes last week.   Now I have lots of mulching to do.