"Workable" Soil

It has been a long winter. We had record cold temps, record snowfall, and record duration of days below zero. So, needless to say, we are all looking forward to spring.

Chives are the first signs of life in the garden.

The signs of spring are evident in the usual places. The trees are budding and the birds' songs are those of spring. The back yard is a mix of ice and mud. March has been here in all of her early spring glory.

Workable soil.

Garden helper.

So I took advantage of the "workable" soil to get in the first seeds of spring this afternoon. By "workable" soil, I mean mud with a little bit of ice that I needed to break up.

I plan to plant successive plantings of my cold-weather plants, every two weeks, this spring. Today, the high temp was 41F and we're expecting another 8-14 inches of snow over the next two days. So it seemed like a good time to get the first seeds in.

I put in seeds for radishes, lettuce, spinach, corn salad, rutabaga, beets, bok choi, onions and peas.

 I haven't planted shallot sets before. So I thought I would give them a try this year.

I'm Back

After a long hiatus, I am back to my blog. Since I last posted, I have moved and, for a time, didn't have a garden. This weekend, my husband build me a raised garden bed and I am back to gardening.

The garden bed is filled with garden blend soil, a combination of topsoil, manure and compost. It is 18" high, by 4' wide, by 12' long. It is located in the sunniest spot in our yard.

Today, I planted three chive plants that had been awaiting homes and eight cloves of garlic. I don't know what variety the garlic is. It is a hardneck that came from the farmers' market. I planted it to the west (right) of the chives. I had some garlic scapes and cloves from the year before last. They were all dessicated and I don't believe they are viable. So I threw them in to see what would happen. Probably nothing, but, at worst, they'll be compost.

Lettuce Out, Tomatoes In?

I Was Wondering

If 

lettuce gets bitter 

when it gets warm 

and tomatoes prefer to be planted 

when it gets warm

does it follow

that tomatoes should be planted

when the lettuce gets bitter?

Tomato Day

Even though the nights are still getting cold (40-50F), I decided to put my tomatoes in the ground. Last year, I tried some fancy pants "heirloom" varieties of tomatoes. I was disappointed. They were not disease resistant and did not produce well. It might have been the weather last year, but, with my limited garden space, I decided that I wanted something more reliable. So I put in two 6" seedlings:

1) Better Boy - "vigorous vines yield tasty tomatoes with excellent disease resistance. Indeterminate plant produces a continuous supply of fruit until frost."

2) Champion - "provides high yields of very sweet, solid meaty tomatoes. Disease resistant. Indeterminate vines."

How did I forget last year that seedlings go on sale after Memorial Day. Note to self: Buy plants the weekend after Memorial Day. 33% off! 

I have put in some annuals as well:

1) Stock - Harmony Mix

2) Marigold - French Dwarf - Safari Mix (this one has a pretty orange and yellow petal)

3) French tarragon

4) Vietnamese Coriander (Rau Rahm)

5) Linum Perenne - Sapphire - pretty blue flower

6) Sweet basil - genovese

7) Thai basil

8) Greek Columnar basil 

9) Lobelia - Regatta mix (pink, purple, and blue)

10) Petunia - hurrah blue (that really dark, velvety purple)

11) Fenugreek

12) Phlox subulata - creeping phlox - candy stripe (pretty pink and white petals)

13) Thai hot pepper

The little thai pepper is sad. I think the plant actually shrunk since I planted it two weeks ago. Maybe it likes warmer weather. And I've nearly weeded the Vietnamese coriander out multiple times. It looks like a weed. The fenugreek looks like alfalfa so I have to resist weeding that one, too.

Learning about Trees and Shrubs

We're thinking about buying our first home. As a gardener, that means my options have expanded to include trees and shrubs. So I got a book and I'm starting to teach myself.

Enjoying The Rain

I planted more lettuce on 4/11. It has been raining off and on for the last three days and I'm loving it! Thank you, God, for watering my seeds. It's especially wonderful because the water systems aren't up and running in the garden yet so I would have to carry all of the water from my house to the garden.

I also planted some pac choi and beets. I included this picture so I remember where I planted them.

Garden Bees

Late March Gardening

Lettuce and pea seedlings. They're happy. I got lucky when I planted them. It was warm and it rained and has been raining off and on since then.

Our garlics are happy.

My eternally happy Dianthus isn't looking so happy now. There is green at the tips. But, usually, this is the first and greenest thing in my garden. Did it not like the mild winter?

Morning Glory seeds on the bricks. This is (hopefully) exciting. I'm hoping that there will be lots of volunteer morning glories this year.

Oops! I guess I missed the dwarf irises this year.

If you asked me when asparagus came up, I would not have guessed, "between the crocuses and the tulips/daffodils." I'm always learning. This isn't my asparagus. It's the neighbor's.

Unseasonable Temperatures

We've had highs in the 70s the last few days. It's lovely, but very unusual for March. We didn't get much snow this winter and are badly in need of rain/snow.

The garlics are an inch or more tall now.

I planted seeds in the greenhouse and garden, including: lettuce, spinach, corn salad, miners lettuce, dwarf pac choi, turnips (greenhouse), beets (outside), and peas.

Unfortunately, I don't have access to water yet. So I watered the greenhouse plot, which was dry to the point of being dusty, but didn't water the slightly damp soil outside. The weather forecast has rain for the next five days, so I think that should be fine.

First Flowers

The crocuses have started to bloom in the garden:

Bulbs Sprouting

It has been in the 60Fs this weekend so I went out to look at my garden. Sure enough, the first bulbs are breaking through the soil. Surprisingly, the tallest bulbs are the fall crocuses. Also surprising: my eternally happy dianthus is still pretty brown. Usually, it is the greenest thing in the garden this time of year. But it's been an odd (read: warm, dry) winter.

February Gardening

I dreamed about sun the other night. In my dream, the sun was bright and hot. It is a sunny day today and the sun is dim and warm. So I will continue to dream of tropical beaches and summer-to-come.

But, in the meantime, there are signs of life inside.

I was afraid that I had permanently harmed my amaryllis last year. It spent its summer inside in a sunny window instead of outside in the garden. When the side shoots erupted, but the central bulb didn't, I was afraid that it didn't have enough stored energy to sprout. But, mid-week, this week, the center shoot erupted! You can see the grey-browns of winter outside. I am looking forward to a bright, red, cheery amaryllis.

Petunias delight me. I like their color, their smell, and their desire to bloom always. In some way, I am even charmed by their sticky little stems.

I bought myself a bouquet of color. It is the antidote to the brown-greys of winter and good medicine for the winter blues.

New USDA Zone

The USDA has revised their zone map. Most of the Twin Cities are now zone 4b.

http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/?loc=interstitialskip

Garlics In

The garlics went in yesterday.

We planted:

1) Music

2) Inchellium Red

3) Big Unknown (one that we've had for a couple years and don't know what it is)

I was sad to see that someone helped themselves to my cabbage. In a little garden plot, you only get so many cabbages.

One of them was gone and another had all the leaves trimmed off. Garden pests!

Kohlrabi.

Freeze Warning

It has been a tough summer for plants. I haven't had a single red tomato this year. But the peppers did well. Now we have a freeze (not just a frost) warning tonight. That's early!

http://www.startribune.com/local/129747843.html

STRONG CANADIAN HIGH PRESSURE WILL SETTLE OVER THE AREA TONIGHT... BRINGING A COMBINATION OF LIGHT WIND... A CLEAR SKY... AND WELL BELOW NORMAL TEMPERATURES. A WIDESPREAD FREEZE APPEARS LIKELY WITH LOW TEMPERATURES IN MOST LOCATIONS BETWEEN 25 AND 30 DEGREES. TEMPERATURES WILL DROP INTO THE MID 30S IN MOST LOCATIONS BY AROUND MIDNIGHT... THEN SUB FREEZING TEMPERATURES WILL BECOME LIKELY AFTER 2 AM.

I covered up the tomato and the flowers. I harvested the basil and the peppers. We will see what the night brings.

It is a beautiful night out. Cool. Crisp. Almost full moon. The morning glories are in full bloom. I especially like the blue ones with streaks of white on them. I will get more of those next year.

Blue Moon Gladiolus is Pink

This is the picture on the package:

This is the flower that is growing in my garden:

Beautiful, but not what I had expected.

Bonnie Best Tomato

I removed dear Bonnie Best from my garden today. She looked so beautiful when I bought her at the green house. But one leaf turned brown and the rest followed. With so many varieties of tomatoes to try, I think this is not the most disease resistant.

Fall Seeds Planted

I planted my fall seeds. Some should have been planted in July. But I figure late has better odds than never.

Pac Choi -Ching-Chiang. 40 days. "Dwarf."

Chinese Cabbage - Soloist Hybrid: 40-50 days. "Baby." Recommends planting indoors in July and transplanting in August.

Beets - Merlin: 55 days. Neon-colored red. Recommends planting in July.

Kale - Wild Garden Kales: 30 days. An array of Siberian kales. Recommends planting in June-July.

Lettuce - Arctic Tundra Blend: 50-75 days. A blend of the most winter-hardy lettuces. Recommends planting in August-Sept.

Spinach - Bordeaux Hybrid: 40 days. Recommends planting in July and August.

Thirty Minutes Later

Downpour

I went out to take pictures and got caught in a downpour/thunderstorm.