Harvest Monday.........3/28/2011

Spring may be taking it's good old time settling in this year....but it sure looks like it has sprung in the cold frames! The lettuce is growing nicely and there is plenty out there for some nice salads this week. The rainbow chard is absolutely beautiful! This is my first time growing it and am very anxious to try it. The collards and kale look very happy as well.

This week I harvested about 6 oz of Arugula from the cold frames and the last of the overwinter leeks from the garden.

We used the Arugula in a pasta dish with chicken, sundried cherry tomatoes, white wine & garlic. It was absolutely wonderful! I got the recipe idea from reading a post of Villager's last week.

There's quite a bit arugula in the cold frames ready to harvest. I will give those plants a good haircut this morning as soon as it warms up a bit. The temperature outside is a nice balmy 25 F at the moment!

The last of the overwintered leeks were harvested. They weighed in at about 6 oz after they were trimmed. I made leek and potato soup using a little wine in the recipe this time as suggested by Sue. It was a great dinner with some nice crusty bread!


Stop by Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday to see what's going on in gardens around the globe!

Working in the cold at the plots

The temperatures yesterday and today only topped out at about 39 F and it's a bit windy. The sun has been shining and since the downstairs refrigerator contains

75 Strawberry plants in the one crisper drawyer

and Aspargus roots in the other crisper drawyer

and the Broccoli and Cabbage looks like it wants to be planted

and there are Raspberry Canes hiding in a dark part of the basement!

I thought that I better get over to the plots and get some work done. I bundled up in layers and spent a few hours there yesterday and today. It really wasn't bad and I did manage to make some progress.

Yesterday I turned in the manure and compost in Bed #1. This is where the Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower and Brussels Sprouts will be planted.

Then I planted 80-90  onion plants along the front edge of the bed.

Today I turned over Bed #6 which is 3' x 32' and will contain the strawberries. Once the wind dies down, in a day or two I will add peat moss, sand and manure to this bed.

After I finished working on the strawberry bed I started to install some bunny fence along the front of the plots. I found some clay dirt in the back where the compost bins will be located and thought it would be good to compact along the fence. This is where the Asparagus will be planted...so I need to get the fencing in and beds prepared this week!



Sometimes you just have to hang more Lights and...

take over another area in the basement!! Since "Old Man Winter" has decided that he wasn't ready to leave yet and my tables runneth over, I thought that I better find some more space in the basement for the seedlings.

The previous owners had left an old plastic table here that has come in handy at times. It's in the tool area of the basement near the boiler. So I cleaned it off and hung another shop light over it. That area of the basement is warmer then where I have the germinating tables located.

This table will accommodate 8-10 flats! When the warm weather seedlings are bigger, I will just move them here!!

Just when you think Spring has Sprung

you wake up to SNOW!!! Yes, it is snowing outside! "They" said that we might get some snow....but, "They" are usually wrong!

This was yesterday

This is today!!

It's a good thing we put the tops back on the cold frames last night...just in case of an ice storm!! I had planted some new lettuce and spinach seedlings in them yesterday.

Chives in the herb garden

Tulips in the herb garden

Does this mean that I have to clean my house today??

Planting Peas and My Tables Runneth Over!!

I was planning on sowing some of the peas here at the house on Sunday. After spending most of the day at the plots I decided to soak the peas in a Vitamin C solution and sow them on Monday. I read that it has been proven that pea seedlings treated with Vitamin C will grow 40% higher. The root length, deeling weight and germination are also greatly enhanced by doing this. To make the solution, dissolve 150 milligrams of Vitamin C in two quarts of water and soak the peas in it for 12 to 48 hours. In the article that I had read the woman then pre-sprouted the peas before coating them with inoculate and planting them. There was no way that I was going to pre-sprout hundreds of peas seeds!! Well, it was so cold and damp yesterday that last night I decided to roll them up in damp paper towels, put them in a plastic bag and place them on the radiator until I was able to plant them some time today.

After spending a couple of hours this morning playing the seedling shuffle and re-potting the Brussels Sprouts, Kohlrabi and some additional broccoli, I decided that I better get outside and plant the peas here at the house. The weather forecast for the next week is not very promising, so I have to take advantage of every minute of decent weather that we have. When I opened up the peas, some of them had already started to sprout after only about 16 hours!! I was in such a hurry to get them planted that I didn't take any pictures.

Around the exterior of the garlic bed, I planted Spring Blush Snap Peas, which are a purple podded snap pea. I'm very excited about this pea. I also planted Little Marvel English peas in this bed.

This bed is in the yard next door. The new owner was nice enough to let me use it. I planted Mammoth Melting Snow Peas around the exterior of this bed. I will also plant my early potatoes here. After they are finshed, which should be mid-July, I'm going to help the woman who will be living there plant some veggies in there.

After planting the peas, I planted about three dozen onion plants here and there in the beds here at the house. The main onion crop will be planted at the plots.



 This is the front germinating table down in the basement. As you can see the early tomatoes are getting huge and the table is almost completely full! It's difficult to get good pictures with those lights on.

This is the back germinating table in the basement....it's full too!!!

Here are the seedlings that I re-potted this morning. Since they are cool weather crops, soon I will be able to take them outside with the other tray and a half!! I wish the weather and our schedule would cooperate so we could get the greenhouse up!