Sunday, April 24, 2011

Onions are up

Easter Sunday. Nice day this morning, now that I'm home it's showering so I'll stay in (and no pics again!)

The onions, however, have broken through the surface.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Gardening

Let's see...4/22

Today planted:
Potatoes: Yukon Gold, Red Pontiacs, Superiors
~ 24' Garlic (two bulbs worth of cloves)
30' of Turnip (in one of the rows that will be tomatoes...the turnips should be ready to pull before the tomatoes are very large)

Planted 2 Concord Grapes and 2 Candice Grapes, from Walmart @ $5/each...probably ain't great plants but we'll see.

Looking back, this time last year (4/24) I only had taters, garlic, and peas in. I also notice in the photos I already had a load of manure delivered!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Garden Progress

Pics of what I did Monday evening -- dug the potato trenches (extreme left side), worked on raking down the pile of rotted manure from last year and spread it out, and started pushing back the soil from last year's potato row against the fence.



I have a few cheap Grape plants from Walmart I'll plant along the fence this year. The plan is to use the pressure treated posts put in for the fence to also support trellis work for the the grapes.

The grass strip in the middle is where I plan to ask Fred to unload my annual spreader load of manure this year...that'll fill in that low spot (actually that's the original ground level with raised beds all around it) and let me use that for crops next year.

Looks like rain and showers through Thursday, so this is probably it till Friday. But I'm in good shape to get the potatoes, grapes, and a few other things in this coming weekend.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Garden Update

Onions got planted on 4/9. That's a week earlier then I got anything in last year.

Yellow -- 1/2#, $1.50, 296 row-inches @ 4" spacing = 74 bulbs
White -- 1/4#, $.99, 112 row-inches @ 4" spacing = 14 bulbs
Reds -- 1/4#, $.99, 188 row-inches @ 4" spacing = 47 bulbs
Shallots -- 1/2#, $3.00, 36 row-inches @ 4" spacing = 9 bulbs



4/16:
Seeds:
Tall Telephone Peas, 40 row-feet
Spinach, Bloomsdale Long Standing (2g package, $1.39)
Lettuce, Red Salad Bowl (.5g, $1.89 with some left over)
Beet, Early Wonder (5g, $1.49...enough left over to make some succession plantings)
Six-Packs:
Green lettuce, $2
Red lettuce, $2
Cauliflower, $2



Didn't quite have time to finish up the big bed outside the fence -- needs to be rototilled again, and needs raking to level it off. By next Saturday I should have the potatoes in. Most of this bed will be in potatoes, tomatoes, summer and winter squash, and corn this year. Those don't seem to have many animal problems for me. The "tenders" (like beans) will go inside the fence.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Hedges, Part 1

Time to tackle the Cedar hedges...I don't like to cut them in freezing weather, and I haven't wanted to prune them after they go through their spring growth spurt (or after birds start nesting!)


They HAVE been this short before...used the chainsaw cuts from last time as the guide how high to cut this time. I also own an good electric hedge trimmer now so I should be able to keep up with the annual trimming to keep them to his height.


They will most fill in this spring. May take next year before it's 100% coverage again. The can grow like weeds.