A henless garden, 2019

[henless]

Congrats on the kale! Do you have milk jugs over them out in the garden?

Forgive me for not replying sooner. We have been so busy with Valentine's day, it has been unreal. I'm glad it's over.

I have them planted inside milk jugs. In fact, I now have brussel sprouts, dill and even tomatoes that have sprouted. All in milk jugs. Winter sowing. Trying it for the first time.

I got my potatoes planted yesterday. Red Norlands, Yukon Golds and some yummy red potatoes with yellow centers I picked up at the store. The Yukon's didn't make enough for the bed, so added the store ones to finish it out. I got both beds covered with leaves. So now it's just a waiting time until the last frost.

I trimmed back and fertilized my knock out roses. Those things have some wicked thorns. Also trimmed back my butterfly bushes. They never did die back this year.

Hope to do some more yard work tomorrow.

 

[baymule]

I totally get it. Our anniversary is on Valentines Day. We always go out to eat a day or two before to avoid the mad crowds. Then a week later is DH's birthday, so we will go out again, but no crowds!

 

[henless]

What's growing in the garden?

Asparagus is for sure! This big boy popped up last weekend right before our 20* cold snap. I ate him raw. I've got 3-4 more pushing up in the garden this week. They have a nice, nutty flavor. Nothing like the green ones from the store. I've never had a home grown green asparagus, so I don't know what their flavor really is.




My potatoes starting poking their stems up on Sunday. The 2nd set of sugar snaps are up about 2". The first set that I planted never showed up, so I replanted them. Need to put some climbing wire up for the 2nd batch. The tomato & pepper beds are cleaned out. Need to add some compost & coir to top the beds off then they will be ready to plant.

My spinach & turnips are already bolting! I noticed flower spikes all over them yesterday. Going to have to get the others out this week and cook up another batch of turnips. They sure do taste good. This time I will have turnip bulbs to add to them.

Strawberries seem to be growing good in their milk crates. I planted some pineberries in another crate. They have a couple of green leaves on them now. Never grown them before. Supposed to taste like pineapple/strawberry mix. We'll see. I hung my strawberry hanging baskets out on the front porch today. Anxious to see how they do as a hanging basket. I usually hang up some kind of flowers or green plants.

Rain, rain & more rain. We are so wet it is not funny. Reminds me how it was about 4 yrs ago. I had an in ground garden (back to Eden). It was so wet, I wasn't able to plant anything until May. I have standing water between 3 of my beds right now. I almost lost my mud boot in the muck the other day. It's also been pretty cold here. Waiting on Spring!

 

[baymule]

Fresh asparagus right from the garden has no equal. Delicious!

Despite the rain, you are making progress! We aren’t through mulching the garden yet.

 

[henless]

Despite the rain, you are making progress! We aren’t through mulching the garden yet.

If I didn't have raised beds, I wouldn't be able to do anything in the garden. If I had been able to plant potatoes, I'm sure they would have been rotted by now. It is just so wet, and we have more coming in the next 2 days. Luckily, we missed what came through today.

 

[baymule]

We had storms come through here, supposed to rain in the morning and clear off. Sunshine is predicted for 3 days!

 

[henless]

We ended up with 1/2" of rain today. The severe stuff petered out when it got to us. The sun will be nice, but it comes with colder weather. It's going to be back into the 30's for the lows.

 

[TwinCitiesPanda]

I spent a few hours after work trying to dig an ice ditch for all the water to run off and pushing water out of our garage, which is flooded 3-4” deep. And this is just from the rain, there’s still so much snow I feel like it’ll take weeks to thaw, then months to dry out.

 

[henless]

We don't get snow very often. When we do, it's usually 6" or less. I have to say, it gets old quick. Then like you said, once it melts, you have to deal with all the sludge until it dries up. I sure don't envy you snow people.



Not much done in the garden today. I did put up a trellis for my sugar snaps to grow up on. Glad I did, since they already have their tendrils out looking for something to snag.

Very wet since we had another storm come through early this morning. Doesn't look like we will be getting any rain for the next few days, so that is good.

DH & I are making changes to the chicken coop. That's going to be our next project.

 

[henless]

I had my first harvest of 2019 today. I needed to move my garlic chives, so I dug them up and split it into 4 plants. I put them in pots for replanting later. I cut off all the tops and brought them in to clean, chop & dry. They sure smell good.

Did some sloshing/slipping in ankle deep muck today. Added compost & coir to 2 of my beds. Worked it all in and then put my leaves back over the top of them. I will be planting warm season crops in them come April. Today was our average last frost, but I plan on waiting a couple more weeks. Last year we got hit with a freeze in mid-April.