4.24.2012

it must be next spring

well there.  it's spring again!  after a totally weird winter where we got very little snow, we've had a totally weird spring, starting with heat waves, then cold spurts, then more heat waves.  my bulbs came up early, and i was so worried that all that money, time and effort spent last fall would be a waste.  but, as luck would have it, the hyacinth, tulips and allium are all gorgeous!  thank you white flower farm!

here's a shot as of last weekend:

April 2012

it has been so dry here.  lots of dusty weeding and de-leafing.  until a few days ago, we really hadn't gotten a good soaking rain.  we did two days ago and now that picture would look even more green - everything popped and perked up more!

no more planting in the perennial garden yet.  i mean, good god, it's only april.  also i'm waiting on hubs to finish some rock wall work so i can add some more soil to two of the beds.  

we did however get started on the veggie beds.  here's our basic plan:


can't exactly read the writing, but the pictures are helpful (?).  

i used the kitchen gardeners international garden planning tool.  it's free for 30 days, then cheap after that.  and the boy had a great time helping me plan out where to put stuff.  i had promised him that he could "have his own garden this year".  in my mind that meant he would get maybe 1/3 of one of the 8X4 beds we have.  somehow he got a full bed.  what can i say, the boy dreams big!  and if he eats the veggies from "his" bed, all the better.

row of blueberries at the road/front, strawberries occupy the back two beds.  the tomatoes (will be roma and slicers) are rotated back one row (i read that you should put tomatoes where cole crops were the year before).  upper left bed is devoted to greens (kale, lettuce, chard, and arugula).  upper right is the boy's bed.  he wanted carrots, beets, parsnips, cabbage, broccoli, cucumber, and bell pepper.  front left bed (right behind the bluebs) are the beans, peas, beets, and carrots.  then front right is a mis-match of turnip, radiccio, broccoli, cuke, onion, and melon.  we'll see what that one turns into, as only the turnip will be from seed, so everything else will be purchased as a start, and we all know how buying starts goes...  "i think i'll take one of these, and one of these, and one of these..."


sweet boy face

"mommy, i wanna make a funny face!"
we got the peas and beans in the ground.  a perfect task for small fingers and short attention spans.  i've never grown either before, so this should be good.  the boy was mashing 2 peas into the same place and calling them "pea friends".  how could i correct him?



there were high mowing organic brand "cascadia snap peas", fedco brand organic "oregon giant snow pea", and fedco's organic "tiger eye" dry bean.  i used teepees from last year's tomatoes (that i hated for tomatoes) for the 2 kinds of peas.  and since the beans are supposedly bush-type, i am trying tomato cages.  we'll see!  

i know, crap picture.  not even sure if i took it, or if the boy did.
around each pole is anywhere from 8-12 peas (depending on how many "friends" each pea had.  and i put about 6 beans around each prong of the tomato cage.  can't wait to see what pops up!

i also plunked in the greens bed, minus the chard.  (the planting guides i am following suggested beginning of may for seeding them.)  by then the boy was onto something else.  no pictures, but trust that i tried my best.  i probably way over-seeded the rows, so thinning should be fun.  there was plenty of seed left of all the greens to try another crop later in the season.  i think a july sowing is recommended for a fall crop.  who knows if i'll be up for that, as i will be 8 MONTHS PREGNANT!  bending over was hard enough at 5 months in.  i asked for a rolling sitty-on thing for my birthday.  i was told i could have one.

and because the hubs is, ahem, addicted to ordering fruit trees, we planted a crab apple in the front yard.  another stick in the ground!




just loves to help his daddy

the absent stick is an "indian magic" crabapple ordered from fedco trees.  to be beautious in 10 years...

loving that the yard is shaping up, and that it's so freakin easy this year to just plop our stuff in the ground without the task of making the ground plop-able first.  sighs of relief abound.

the hubs and i have vowed that 2012 is the year of "no new projects", just finishing up the 10% of every project we've ever started on this house since we moved in 7 years ago.  we'll see how that goes.

oh yeah, did i mention that we're getting chickens?  but that's not considered a new project, right?  ahem.



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