More pictures of the garden

First of all, here's my mystery plant.  I have no idea what this is.  I don't know if this is weed, or a volunteer of something worth keeping.  If anyone out there in the blogosphere knows what this is, please let me know!

AAANNNNNDDDD..... Here's the garden.  On the left are cauliflower plants and baby beet plants.  Next is kale and red romaine, interspersed with onions.  The second picture has broccoli in front and tennisball lettuce and baby carrot plants. The third picture has my Winter Marvel butter crunch and the mystery plant/weed.  The open space to the right of the Winter Marvel will be Giant Caesar lettuce -- one of my favorites.  The fouth and final picture shows my bean/tomato tower which will have pole beans on two sides and cherry tomatoes on the other two.  Behind the tower are 2 squash plants (two stils protect by cut out milk jugs), and there are baby radishes around the milk jug furthest away from you in the pictures.

Those are grass clippings around the broccoli and in the base of the tower.  Great mulch/weed barrier.

A close-up of the rasdish seedlings around the squash plant.  They'll be harvested well before the squash takes over the space.

I've been a bit frustrated with the bell peppers I've started from seed.  All germinated, but keeping the seedlings alive long enough to grow a few more pairs of leaves has not been easy for some reason.  I don't remember having this trouble in the past, but.....   Here's one of the Purple Belle pepper plants that is doing well.

Here's my new project -- a new bed for tomatoes!  18 cinder blocks loaded on to a cart, then into the car, then out of the car and around the back of the house.  I broke down one of the compost piles and partially filled the bed.  I need to get some composted cow manure, and then I'm building my tomato frame out of bamboo poles a la Kevin Lee Jacob's technique.

I'm not a big tomato fan -- there's a mild allergy which runs in the family, and I suspect that's part of it.  But my husband and my youngest like tomatoes.  I'm going to plant Pink Brandywine heirlooms, and Hungarian Heart.  I already have the cherry tomatoes on the tower, so I haven't decided what other varieties I'm going to plant  I'll have room for 8 plants.

I'm also going to put in a smaller bed for one raspberry and one blackberry plant.  I'll let you know how that goes!

March Came In Like a Lion.....

.....is it really possible that Spring Break is only two weeks away?!?!  It seemed much farther away than that as we moved 7 inches of snow off our driveway, and piled it on the remains of the 5 inches that fell last week, and still hadn't melted.

The garden is still buried, just under even more snow.  I had worried that we weren't having a wet enough winter, but I suspect we will go into spring with plenty of moisture.

My winter sowing jugs are buried, too, but I suspect they enjoy that lovely blanket of snow providing a thermal layer.  I can't wait till I see some evidence the seeds are sprouting.  

So.....time for more indoor stuff!  I repotted many of the seedlings I started inside, and thought I'd put away the germinator.  The one down side of my germinator is that it is designed to hold a big tray of seedlings -- 50+ seedlings.  But since things don't germinate at the same rate, I always ended up having to shift stuff around.....and it just seemed inefficient.  I discovered what I think is a better way by repurposing something which had been sitting around the house for years, unused.

For Lent this year, the small group ministry coordinator arranged a project called 40 Bags in 40 Days. Not a new concept, so if you Google it, you'll find lots of similar projects and suggestions all over the interweb.  In a nutshell, the goal is to declutter one's life by doing one thing each day of Lent (with Sundays off).  Each day, the goal is to get one bag of stuff out of one's living space.  That can include trash, recycling, things to donate, things to sell --- anything.  We gave a Facebook page for the group, and we post pictures and updates every day of how we're doing.

During one of my purging and tidying efforts in the kitchen I found clear plastic cups, and aluminum foil loaf pans with clear plastic lids.  HMMMM....the plastic cups were PERFECT to put the cucumber seedlings in -- nice and deep for both a good root system, and to add soil on the top to keep them from having spindly stems.

The loaf pans were the perfect replacement for the tray in the germinator-- each loaf pan holds 8 of the larger seed starting pellet things which expand when you add hot water.  The lid makes a perfect mini-green house, and 8 is about the right number of seedlings I need of most varieties.  Once one pan is ready to move from the germinator to just being under the grow light, I can start something else if I want.

While I was doing all that, I rearranged my seed starting station, and moved things around so I can fit two trays under the grow light. I potted seedlings, and after a couple days for transplant shock, the cauliflower and broccoli look MUCH happier with their larger root space.

I also found a fantastic book on vegetable gardening on the bookshelf that I didn't even know I had!  I've been thumbing through it, and will look at it in more depth as I'm revising the planting schedule.

Speaking of, I gave up even looking at my original planting schedule.  LOL -- I oh, so, optimistically really thought I'd have stuff in the ground by now!  I'm just hoping that by Spring Break in two weeks, the weather will be hospitable enough that I can at least plant out the cauliflower, broccoli, and some spring lettuce.  I also hope the seeds that I already planted actually sprout!  Once I DO get something in the ground, I'll adjust the schedule.  I guess I better dig out my industrial strength eraser, and/or the White-Out!

I can tell I'm ready for some green and growing things outside -- one of my "bags" for Lent that I'm working on getting out of the house is a bag of odds and ends of yarn, and I'm knitting hats with it.  Right now everything I'm drawn to is in shades of green!  This is the Northern Lights hat from the original Homespun Handknits book.  The original color ways was in the shades of the Northern Lights (which you might have already guessed from the name), but I like it better in shades/tones of one colorway.  I'm really liking how this one is turning out:

If I Can't See the Garden for All the Snow, Is the Garden Still There?

[Photo taken from my bedroom window]

Last fall, all the prognosticators predicted a hard, cold, and snowy winter.  Until 2 weeks ago, we really didn't see that happen, and I had wondered if we were going to have any appreciable snowfall at all in East Central IL.  Two storms, and about a foot of snow later, obviously the answer was "yes".

The garden is blanketed in about 5 inches of snow at the moment, as are all my winter sowing jugs.  As there isn't much to do outside, I guess I'll have to focus on what I can do inside.

First, here's my little bit of impending spring:  red tulips I forgot to plant last fall, and sat in the garage until about 4-5 weeks ago.  I planted some outside in a planter (we'll see what happens there), and I filled my big planter with the rest after I brought it inside.

My husband just looked at me and asked, "Why do we have plants in the house?  Why can't we wait until it's spring outside?"  Silly guy.  Jim has never been a big fan of plants in the house.  Granted, with two 1.5 year old mixed breed dogs who constantly patrol the perimeter by running from window to window in the great room, I CAN see his point.  Woe be it unto anyone who gets in their way if they realize there is a cat within eyeshot of their look-out perches.  Nothing like having a 30 pound and a 50 pound dog both barrelling through you to get to a better vantage point.  Since they are 1/4 rat terrier and 1/4 Rottweiler, they take the defense of their territory quite seriously.

[Kaiju and Jaeger, keeping lookout from our bed]

So....inside gardening.

Most of the seeds I started inside are doing well.  I have cauliflower, 2 kinds of broccoli, jalapeno and habanero peppers, lemon cucumbers and Brown Russian cucumbers.  The bell peppers haven't done as well sprouting.  I need to rearrange my trays under the growlight, anyway, and I don't think I need the heated germinator anymore, so I may try starting them without the heat and see how it goes.  I'm debating whether or not I need to transfer some of these things into pots.  I think I will transfer the peppers, as they won't be able to go out into the garden for at least a month, if not longer.  The cauliflower and broccoli can go out as soon as it warms up enough again to work the soil.  I've been saving plastic jugs to make cloches, and have almost enough for all the broccoli and cauliflower.

And I got the latest catalog from The Cook's Garden in the mail this week:

This is my source for Brown Russian Cucumber seeds, and Collective Farm Woman melon seeds -- the only melon variety I've really ever gotten to grow successfully around here.  Both are Ukrainian heirloom varieties -- I guess I shouldn't be surprised they are hardy!

Other than that, I'm going back through my week-by-week plan, and erasing a lot.  I was overly optimistic about when I'd be able to plant things, I think.  I'm just going to have to take it one week at a time until I can actually get some things in the ground, and then I can do more long range planning.

All of this has made me think about getting information about the Master Gardener program.  I'd love to take the class(es), but really don't have time except over the summer.    I have a number of friends  who are Master Gardeners, so I'll have to talk to them about it.

Time to do more laundry, and figure out what remaining grading I need to do today.  Happy garden dreaming to you all!