What's Growing On at The Plots mid-April

I've been spending a lot of time at the plots on the weekends. Due to the weather, some garden is behind compared to last year.....but, it's looking good and I'm happy!!!

View from the front left

Bed #1 with newly planted Broccoli and Garlic in the back

The Broccoli was planted over the weekend and it's looking good!

I put the pots around the plants to protect them from the windy weather we were having

 

All of the Garlic came up.

It's not as tall as last year. But, that's due to the dry weather. I'm sure it will catch up with some nice rain and warm weather.

 

I've been working on the Raspberry Trellises

It's hard to see from this pic. I'm adding some T's and wire to the posts to support them. I will finish them up this coming weekend.

Blackberry & Raspberry Bed

I've planted onions around the edges of the blackberries and in every location that I have room. Hopefully we will have a good onion harvest this year.....unlike last year

The Jersey Supreme Asparagus is coming up!

It looks like we will be having some asparagus for dinner this week!

 

The Purple Passion Asparagus has yet to pop up

 

I finally made a decision on Tomato Cages.

These are from Burpee. They had great reviews and I got a great deal! I found a coupon code for 25% off and then another coupon code for free shipping! I purchased 18 cages for around $200.

These cages are 5' tall before you put them in the ground and they fold up!

I hope they work as well as the reviews say they do!

There are Snow Peas & Snap Peas planted in two locations. They've all popped up since the rain!

The Strawberry Bed has been cleaned out.....

and they're looking good!

 

Another view of the plots.

You can see some additional Broccoli plants and onions planted in Bed #5.

I stopped by the plots on Monday and saw this pretty Bluebird. I think I spent 15 minutes taking pictures of him. He's a beauty!

 

I also took about 100 pictures of the Community Garden. Most of the gardeners have their plots ready to go. That's another post! 

  

Decisions, Decisions.........

It's that time of the year....time to make decisions! My seed inventory has been done for a couple of weeks now. Then I had to decide what seeds I "needed". Once that was done. I placed a couple of small seed orders. Which should have been enough. Then I started reading everyone's blogs. That got me thinking about some other things that I "needed" I mean "wanted". So, I placed just one more small order. Hopefully, I will have enough will power to stop! But, you all know how this is! Maybe I should join or start some type of group.....Seeds Anonymous????

This week I have been updating what varieties I am going to grow and how many of each I should plant. This leads to.....how am I going to fit everything in??? The next thing that came up is my tomato supports. The way I support them at home, doesn't work at the plots. So, I need to come up with something better. That got me doing some on-line research on tomato supports. There are a lot of great ways to support tomatoes. But, I really need to come up with something that won't take me forever to build, doesn't cost a fortune and is easy to store.

So far I have come up with two different supports that I think will work.

This one has really peeked my interest.

It's made out of PVC & Conduit.

 

I also really want some of these

Yes, the Texas Tomato Cage!

I know they are pricey.....but, "The Italian" got me the pressure canner for Christmas.....and maybe I can out live them and make the investment worth it!

 

So, what have I decided???? I think I'm going to buy one 6-Pack of the Texas cages and make some of the supports out of the PVC. I guess I better see how much they are going to cost to make first!

 

If any of you have any great support ideas....I'm open for suggestions!!

 

How's your garden planning coming along????

 

The first Soil Blocks & Blogger Issues Update

For all of my fellow blogger buddies, I still can't comment on many of your blogs. Things were better for a short period of time yesterday. I was able to post a comment over at Veggie Pack's blog. Then things went bad again. I even tried using one of our newer computers. Hopefully, this issue will be resolved soon.


Update: I just discovered a way around the Blogger comment issue. I logged onto the internet in Google Chrome and everything works fine!

Now let's talk about some gardening! I finally got around to trying the new soil block maker that "The Italian" bought me for my birthday. I ended up purchasing a soil mixture on-line for my initial blocks. There are a few reasons for this decision. One, the garden centers around here are only open on the weekends right now and most likely won't have what I need in stock to make the blocks. Two, I wanted to see what the consistency of the mixture should be. Lastly, the cost of purchasing all of the ingredients would far out weigh the cost of buying a pre-made mixture for the small amount of initial blocks being made. I am however planning to purchase all of the ingredients for the big planting as this will be the most cost effective way to make a lot of blocks.

The blocks were extremely easy to make. I just combined the mixture with some water, let it sit and made the blocks. For any of you who are going to start making soil blocks this year, you can go here or to Johnny's site to read and watch some good videos on making the blocks.

This isn't the best picture...but, I didn't feel like uncovering them and taking more pics.

After I made them, they were covered with plastic and another tray. I will check on them periodicly to see if they need water. Once they germinate, I will remove the tray to allow light in.

I really think that the blocks will save me a lot of time and space. I really hate everything involved in using plastic pots.

I will do updates and things progress. Now, get making those soil blocks!

Soil Block Mixture

Recently "The Italian" got me a soil block maker for my Birthday. Since I have never made soil blocks before, I started doing a little research on making a good mixture to make the blocks. Jody over at Spring Garden Acre also has a soil block maker that he has never used.

We would both appreciate a little expert advise on what any of you use or any tips on making the blocks.

Thanks a bunch!

Gifts for the Gardener

I had another Birthday this week and received some great gardening gifts! "The Italian" surprised me, as always. I had given him a list of a few things that I needed for Christmas and he got them for my BD!

One of Eliot Coleman's books that I did not have. This wasn't even on the list!

My first Soil Block Maker....I can't wait to use this!

I've been wanting to make cheese and heard this book has some good recipes.

I really needed a more precise scale for weighing the harvests and cooking. This is a small lightweight inexpensive scale that had good reviews.

I also found a surprise on the front porch!

This pretty box.....

With the cutest card....from my garden helper Sophia! Sophia has been my buddy since she moved here from Ghana. She has a natural talent for gardening and can tend to the plants growing in the basement and greenhouse better then our house sitter when we go away!

What a thoughtful gift! Now I have something to wash my dirty gardening hands with!

Cold Frames......observations

The cold frames are doing very well maintaining a good temperature. The lowest temperature that has been recorded is 27 F at night when the temperatures outside were in the single digits at night and only in the teens during the day for a few days..that's pretty good! The cold frames face south and do not have many elements creating much shade on them. On a bright sunny day when the temperature outside only reaches the 20's, I have to open them up to let in some cool air. I really have to pay attention when the sun is shining or they will climb to 70 F or higher in no time at all. I really don't want the temperatures to fluctuate too much and stress the plants.

Cold Frame Lettuce

When the cold frames are covered with snow, they usually stay around 37 F all day and all night. I think that this makes for happy plants. The temperatures over the next week are supposed to climb in to the mid 50's!! The higher temperatures in conjunction with the extended day light hours will hopefully get those veggies growing!! This year I will definitely get my winter vegetables planted on time and not in November!!





A radish showing a little red and some Arugala

 

I am not sure how much heat the rope lights are adding to the overall temperature inside the cold frames. I did however check the soil temperature on Saturday and it was about 45-47 F. The remainder of the garden beds are still covered with a significant amount of snow....so, you know the ground is quite cold.

A little more lettuce

Another observation that I have made is that a few plants in the cold frame on the left had some insect damage and there was little damage in the other cold frame. I had added some diatomaceous earth a while back and the munching has seemed to stop.

The Pak Choi that the insects must like as much as we do! The picture on the left is from the one cold frame and the picture on the right is from the other cold frame.

Pre-Sprouting Containers...a special thank-you to EG

I pre-sprout many of my seeds before I plant them. In the past I would put them on a damp paper towel, roll it up, place them in a plastic bag (left open) and put them on top of my radiator covers. This year, EG over at Our Engineered Garden sent me some great little containers for sprouting seeds. I have to say that they are working out great! I no longer have to open the bags and un-roll the paper towel to check on the seeds!! All I have to do now is open the containers!

In another day or two I will sow these and put them downstairs on the germinating table under the lights.

Thanks EG!!

This is What it is!!!

I thought I would wait 24 hours before I posted What it is!

I definitely thought that someone would figure it out.

I have to say that I really enjoyed all of the creative guesses...it was fun!!

What do you think this is??

Since a lot of you are snowed in, I thought that I would publish this post.

"The Italian" got me some really nice gardening gifts and gadgets for Christmas this past year. This was one gift that I did not post. I thought his wrapping was very very interesting :)

So.....what do you think this is???
It is gardening related.

Gardening Gifts

"The Italian" did good. He got me some great gardening gifts for Christmas! It seems like I need a new pair of pruners every year. I am really bad about leaving them laying outside and mis-placing them at least once a day! He got me two different types of pruners and a clip-on holder to put them in. I think he is hoping that I won't spend as much time looking for where I layed them down! We will see if you can teach an old gardener new tricks!

I'm not much of a book reader unless it is related to gardening. There were a couple of gardening books that I was interested in from Rodale. The Rodale Institute is about 15 miles from where we live and they have another organic experimental farm about 3 miles from us. They have some pretty good workshops scheduled for next year. I think that I may go to one or two of them.

As you can see, "The Italian Santa" also got me a great jams and preserves book! There are some really interesting recipes in it. I think this means...even more jams and jellies next year!