Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Spring Cleaning, Spring Mess and Planting Peas!

It was a busy gardening day here at the home garden. Do you believe it was 74 today? The first thing that I did was clean up the cold frame beds. I moved some of the lettuce from the one bed to the other bed to make room for the carrots.

This is the Right Cold Frame Bed all ready for some carrots!
There is some Squire Kale, 2 overwintered Celery Plants and some Lettuce in the back. The greens in the front to the left is "The Italian's" Escarole.

This is the Left Cold Frame Bed.
There's a lot of lettuce in the front of this bed and one collard plant. I don't know how that ended up there. In the back is Lacinato Kale, Vates Collards, Lettuce and one overwintered Celery Plant. 

These babies where outside today soaking up the sunshine to get ready to be planted in the empty space in the middle of the left cold frame bed. There is some Dwarf Blue Kale, Red Russian Kale, Georgia Collards, Arugula and some Quadattro Stagioni Lettuce.

While I was playing in the dirt, I stuck the soil thermometer in the soil to see if it was warm enough to plant the peas. Yes!!! The soil temperature was warm enough! Since the extended forecast is calling for nice warm weather ranging from 60-70 during the day and in the mid to high 40's at night, the peas were going in!

Since there will be no planting of peas this spring at the plots, I have to use every square inch here at the house. First I took the netting off of the Garlic Fortress. I don't think the squirrels will try to dig up the garlic now.
I took most of the straw off of the garlic planted in this bed. The garlic germination is 100%! Then I put some supports along this side and planted Green Beauty Snow Peas

Next Bed #1 was cleaned up. 
At the far end of this bed is the overwintered spinach. There is an empty space in the middle for some cabbage and the balance of the garlic at this end. Most of the straw was removed from the garlic. 100% germination here too! Three sides of this bed were then planted with peas. Spring Blush Snap Vine Peas at this end, Alderman Shelling Peas along the left side and Sugar Magnolia Snap Vine Peas at the far end. 

As soon as the plots are ready........I can get rid of this...........

and this....


and this....along with a whole bunch of stuff stacked in the garage!

What gardening fun have you been up to???

20 comments:

  1. It was 78ยบ here today. I put together four new raised beds, filled them almost with soil, peat moss, and compost. I'll need to 4 more bags of soil to get them full. Then I started on the pond, trimming grasses, cat tails and cleaning out. I ran out of steam at 3 so will be back there the next time I can work outside. Maybe tomorrow after a doctor's appt, grocery shopping and a haircut appt.

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    1. It definitely was a beautiful day to get some gardening work done!

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  2. I'll be at a standstill until I get a few bags of manure, as I have depleted my supply! Oh, how I miss our little pickup. Husband will NOT use the new truck to haul cow poop :-(

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    1. I think I will be at a standstill for awhile too. Hopefully the plots will be ready soon!

      So, how are you going to get your poo??

      Hey, you should have told me about my typo! I was trying to make dinner and post!

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    2. I didn't see no stinkin' typo! I was too cold to notice.

      I can haul bags of poo in the truck, just not the loose (good) stuff.

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  3. This years weather for you is a far cry from last year at this time. We are going to have rain on and off for the next 5 to 7 days. I was able to get some more carrots and lettuce planted just in time. They grow so much better and faster with rain water.

    Your garden is looking good! :-)

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    1. Thanks Liisa, Boy, we sure could use some rain here. We hardly had any snow and not much rain. It's a good thing you got the carrots and lettuce in before the rain!

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  4. Hey Robin, You've been extremely busy with your gardening I see. Looks good girl! It was finally a beautiful day. Planted several different varities of lettuce in one of my above ground garden boxes. Prepped another for seeds tomorrow. Cut part of the grass on the property. Sprayed down the patio furniture and setup the patio. Cleaned out pots and prepped them for seeds. I have the remaining half of the yard to finish cutting. I had to finish up because it was getting to dark out. Have a good evening.

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    1. Boy, you sure had a busy day! I think that spring has sprung and we all have spring gardening fever!

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    2. Spring in my book is the best time of year. I love watching all the birds, taking care of the flowers and veggies.

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  5. Yhe only fun I had qas showing my spinach and pea seedkings the door. Yhey are now on the deck hardening off to be planted this weekend. Tomorrow I'll start chitting the rest of the peas for planting on Saturday. My goal in life is always to have my peas in the ground by St. Patrick's day.

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    1. I don't usually chit my peas. I did it once and didn't have much luck with them. I did use innoculant though. Saturday is my cat Alvin's 10th BD. So, I will be taking him to the groomer for a bath and a haircut!

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  6. It looks like you have been busy! I am hoping to get all my Spring seeds in by Saturday.

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    1. I still have a lot of cleaning up to do in the flower beds, compost, furniture and flower pots here at the house. Good luck sowing your spring seeds this week!!

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  7. Funnily enough I've been planting out quite similar crops - Kale, lettuce and I was just trying to find a space for some peas.

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    1. I guess that there is one time of the year when we are planting the same things!

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  8. We're hoping for a better pea harvest this year.
    I've been potting up perennial cuttings that I took last year.

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    1. I really hope that I get a decent early harvest of peas here at the house. Hopefully, I will be able to plant a late crop of peas at the plots.

      I have so many perennials here, I wish that I could send you some!

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  9. Great to read that you've got 100 percent germination. Growing peas around the box is a great idea. They will shade the garlic from the coming heat! We're hoping to get our peas in the ground this week sometime too.

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    1. Jody, I actually got more then 100% germination. There are 3 or 4 that are coming up as doubles. I have always grown crops around the edges of the beds here at the house. You can really get a lot out of a little space. Hopefully you will get your peas in and we will get some much needed rain!

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