It was such a beautiful day even the little daffodils were happy in the messy herb garden!
I cleaned up and re-arranged both cold frames. I moved some of the plants around and set-up two Kozy Koats in the right cold frame and four in the one small bed bedhind the cold frames. They will accommodate six of the early tomatoes. I will also plant four more early tomatoes in the bed covered by the greenhouse.
Right cold frame all cleaned up with some extra room for probably lettuce or spinach.
Left cold frame all cleaned up. I am going to sow some spinach in all of the empty spaces.
I took some of the straw off of the garlic and moved some kale to an empty space in the bed. The straw I got last year was not very good and I was getting weeds and grass growing from it. There are no signs of the peas popping up yet which are planted around the perimeter of this bed.
Kale moved to the garlic bed.
"The Italian" was out and about, so I took it upon myself to put the greenhouse up. I was going to wait for him, but wasn't sure what time he would get home or if the weather would hold out. Even though it usually takes two or three people to do put it up....I thought "what the heck, I can do this by myself"! As you can see it is like a pop-up tent. You have to lay it out and start by putting in two side supports on each side. No problem....I'll just go inside the collapsed greenhouse and put them in. Well the first one went in just fine. Then I realized that one of the velcro straps that you wrap around the poles was tangled in my hair! I managed to free myself with the collapsed greenhouse on my head and preceded to erect the greenhouse. After about 30 minutes of tugging, pulling and forcing the poles into their designated pockets....it was up!! As I sat on the steps to take a break.....guess who pulled up??? "The Italian"
"The Italian" staked and tied the greenhouse in place.
We usually put the greenhouse up about a month earlier. It will stay up until the danger of frost has passed, around May 15.
Wow, what a day! You accomplished a ton of stuff. Your Kale looks amazing. Mine's been out for 2 weeks or so, and does not look good. But it will survive. My Romaine which has been out with the Kale is doing surprisingly well,(they spent most of their time under mason jars). Our peas are not up yet either. I really like the garlic and kale arrangement. It's a nice looking space saver. When will you plant those carrots?
ReplyDeleteJody, that Kale was started inside in the beginning of November and put in the cold frame to grow a few weeks later. It has been loving the cold. You can't see in the picture, but I have some more space in that garlic bed where the leeks were growing. I plant something there too. I think that I'm going to sow the carrots somethime this week. The forecast looks good so far!
ReplyDeleteThe daffodils are beautiful! A sure sign of spring. It looks like you got a lot accomplished in the cold frames.
ReplyDeleteI had to giggle a bit with your struggle with the greenhouse. We had a screen tent that was similar in it's difficulty to pop up. I am not very tall and got myself tangled up in it more than once while trying to open it up on my own.
Rachel, I'm just 5' tall. I think the whole scenerio would have been a very funny video!
ReplyDeleteOK...Fess up! I have GOT to check out this "pop-up" green house of yours. Where'd ya get it?
ReplyDeleteEverything is looking great, Robin.
tami, "The Italian" got it for me for Christmas a few years ago. It's made by Flower House and mine is the Dream House Flower House greenhouse. I call it my Barbie Dream House since I never had one as a child. Just do an on-line search. They are sold by alot of different stores.
ReplyDeleteI just bought some walls 'o water. I'd had some before but gave those to Emily. Now that I have my garden again i figured I'd need some more. I really didn't think about putting them up early but that makes sense because they will warm the soil.
ReplyDeleteWhen will you plant your tomatoes? My Rutgers are looking very healthy inside which makes me wonder if they are candidates for moving out soon. I need to think about hardening them off if I plan to do that.
Wow, I cant wait to see those tomatoes go out. Everything looks good.
ReplyDeleteMarcia, I had read that you should put the water cloches up a week or two before planting in them to warm the soil. Our soil is quite warm right now. I really should check the actual temperature today though. Last year my early tomatoes were planted in the cloches and greenhouse bed on April 9th! Our last frost date here is May 15th. We will see how brave I am this year...maybe next weekend.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jane, I can't wait to plant those tomatoes either!
I hope you don't have bald spots in your head from tangling with that thing! And I hope you don't mind that I laughed with the image you described! :o) Funny!!!
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job!
APG, Nope, no bald spots...thank goodness! It's a good thing that I had my hair in a pony tail...or I may have still been trying to free myself when "The Italian" got home!
ReplyDeleteIt figures that he showed up right when you were finishing. Do men have some sort of internal clock to time this? :)
ReplyDeleteBet the greenhouse erection as a real Ouch moment!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see how those water tower things work for your tomatoes, I have always wanted to try them but I'll admit I'm scared LOL!
ReplyDeletePerdita, You may have it right...maybe men have some kind of internal clock that they aren't telling us about!!!
ReplyDeleteSue, I have to say that putting that greenhouse up was a challenge!
Erin, I used them last year and they worked great. I will do a post when I have the nerve to plant the tomatoes in them.
The bright Kozy Koats are cool!
ReplyDeleteI also have weeds/grass growing from the straw I used to cover my beds over the winter, which I just find endlessly frustrating. Brand new raised beds, and *I* introduced all these weeds. Arggg. I didn't know if all straw was supposed to be like that, but reading your post, it sounds like only the "bad" straw includes all these seeds?
Minji, This is the first time that I have ever had a problem with straw. This week I'm in search of some nice clean straw! I don't need to add any more weeds to the plots!!
ReplyDeleteThat pop up greenhouse is the bomb! Gave me a good laugh reading about your struggles to get it put up. :D
ReplyDeleteI'd like to know where you got that pop up green house
ReplyDeletetoo? and isn't that just like a man never around just when you need them,or is it women are impatient and want it NOW! :o)
Laura, the greenhouse really comes in handy at this time of the year!
ReplyDeleteGinny, I think that you are correct in saying that maybe I was just impatient and wanted it done now!!
It all looks wonderful...you have my admiration!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link to the seed mats. I am going to try that!