The first greens of the season

My experiment in the pots on the deck failed because I planted too many per pot, but I moved some of the collards to the garden in the back and also planted some vates collards as well as turnips and tonight we harvested some of the greens and my husband sauteed them with garlic.  Delicious!  The depth of flavor was wonderful!  I'm so excited about our harvest this year.  I need to post some new pictures and I'll try to do so this weekend.

I hope everyone's having a lovely spring!

An update on the peas, greens, and the Square Foot Gardens

One of the pea varieties (Alaska, I think) has flowers on it today! They're so pretty when they flower. I took a couple of pictures, although I'm not sure you'll be able to see the flowers very clearly.

As you can see they're doing pretty well and I'm hopeful about getting a good harvest as long as it doesn't snap super-hot.

The greens, on the other hand, aren't doing as well. I think the problem is that I was lazy when I planted them and thinned them out too late, so the plants aren't flourishing.

I don't hold out much hope for getting a harvest from any of these this year, but it was instructive and I'll likely try again in the fall.

The Square Foot Gardens are doing great! We're slowly filling in the empty squares, although the fourth one is still empty at this point. We've added a couple of different varieties of tomatoes and the most up-to-date diagram of each garden is available on my Flickr photostream.

I didn't snap pictures of the zucchini and yellow squash in the front yard, but they're doing really well. Everything is growing like crazy, thanks to all of the rain we got! My irises are blooming and they're so beautiful, I'll try to get some pictures of them for my next post. I hope that everyone is having a wonderful spring!

Square Foot Garden Diagrams after planting this weekend

We went to the Locust Grove Farmer's Market Sunday and bought a couple of heirloom tomato plants, as well as one fairy tale eggplant plant and a patty pan squash plant. Keith grows everything he had for sale so we figured we'd try one or two and see how they grew. Here are the diagrams for the three that we have planted. #1 is fully planted at this point.

Remember, if you can't see the whole picture just click on it and you'll see it full size.

There are a few little shoots coming up from the beet seeds I put in last weekend, as well as the brussell sprouts. Jeff loves okra so I bought a few seeds to try growing it this year and I'm excited about growing Southern Peas (varieties of cow peas) because we got some at the Farmer's Market last year and they were delicious. I'll post more pictures as things develop.

I also put two lines of string between the squares of the panel of fencing in the pea garden because I read that peas that have something to climb grow better.

Pictures of the Square Foot Gardens

The first one with the weedblock beneath it

#1 and #2 from our back porch, originally uploaded by The Ungardener.

Here are the first two Square Foot Gardens, with the lattices for the other two behind them. You can see the pea fence in the background as well. Putting them together was surprisingly easy, as was mixing up the soil mixture, since we used the author's recommendation and did it on a tarp where we essentially just rolled things around until they were combined. Then we dragged the tarp to the gardens... quick and easy!

Our trailer load of supplies, most notably 60 cubic feet of vermiculite

The mixing area

I'll add pictures as things begin to grow. Right now there are only a few squares planted.

(If you can't see the whole picture just click on it)

Square Foot Gardens are officially planted!

This year we're trying out Square Foot Gardening, based on the book of that title by Mel Bartholomew.  I posted some pictures to my Flickr account of their construction through the first planting, and I'll gradually fill them in as the season progresses.  I've been snapping pictures here and there but I haven't had time to pop on and post them to this forum, with work and Cub Scouts and karate... life gets hectic this time of year!

My peas are growing, albeit slowly, but every variety I planted sprouted!  I'm so excited!  It makes my water to think of all of the wonderful peas I'll be harvesting before too much longer...  The greens came up too but they're in desperate need of thinning.  I wasn't patient enough to plant those nearly microscopic little seeds one at a time so now I need to spend some time thinning them out so that they can grow properly.  Only one variety of those didn't come up, the Fordhook Giant Swiss Chard.  I may try planting some in a square or two of a Square Foot Garden, but I haven't done so yet.

I'll try to get some of the random pictures I've taken posted this week.  I meant to trim my butterfly bushes back this weekend but I didn't get to it, so that's a project for one evening this week.  I don't want to wait too long because they're huge and I'd really like them to come in dense rather than gangly, not to mention that I fear how big the white one will end up if I don't cut it back.

Happy Spring, everyone!

Everything is sprouting!

I'm so excited! All of the peas that I planted in the first round of planting are coming up, and even some from the second time. It took longer than it did in the fall, but I'm really excited about getting some fresh peas. My greens have all sprouted except for one, which I neglected to add to the list in the previous post. I'm not sure that I actually put seeds in them, so if they don't come up in the next week I'll plant something else in those two pots. See why I need to write everything down? I'll get some more pictures up soon.

Happy Spring!

Flowers Coming Up and Greens Sprouting

Irises Coming Up Under the White Butterfly Bush

Daffodils Beside the Driveway

Daffodil Circle

Daffodils in the Woods

Johnny Jump Ups (?)

Mystery Purple Flower

Ben's Bulb Coming Up (although I'm not sure what kind of flower it is)

Hyacinths

Hyacinths

On Monday, March 16th, I took some pictures of the flowers that were coming up around the farm. The batteries in the phone were dead so I borrowed my son's cellphone. It was overcast so the lighting isn't perfect, but I thought I'd share anyway.

I've been watching my greens hopefully, but I'd about given up hope. Today, however, I looked down as I walked into the house and lo and behold, tiny little sprouts! They're pretty hard to see, but I couldn't resist taking some pictures and posting them.

Southern Giant Mustard

Premier Kale

Tendergreen Spinach Mustard

Fordhook Giant Swiss Chard

I hope everyone is having a wonderful spring!

Planting Peas in the Drizzling Rain

I was going to plant peas yesterday but it was cold and rainy, so I waited hoping for better weather. Today is a little better, but it's still about 45 degrees and drizzling. Oh well, I didn't figure I'd melt so out I went, with my faithful garden helper (my 8 year old son) and his umbrella to keep my seeds nice and dry. I wasn't terribly excited about going out there, to be honest, but that all changed when I stooped down to dig the little trench to bury seeds in and there, on the other side of the fencing panel, were peas peeking out! At first I was worried that the snow and cold had pushed them up, but upon closer examination it wasn't the cold... they're sprouting! I got such a rush of joy. *happy sigh* Needless to say planting the rest of the row no longer seemed like such a chore.

I used up the last of my Oregon Sugar Peas, which I knew was going to happen, so when I was at the feed store buying a dozen kinds of greens seeds Monday (see my previous post about planting some of them) I found some edible pod seeds called Sugar Ann Garden Peas. Actually, looking for edible pod pea seeds to replace the Oregons was what led me to look at their seed selection in the first place, so I have them to thank when I sit down to eat a delicious meal of those greens! Anyway, the lady at the feed store said she liked Sugar Ann so I bought a big bag to give them a try. There's no question their seeds are cheaper, but I cringe at not buying all organic seeds. The high price tag made the decision for me, so we'll see how they turn out.

Also, I don't think I mentioned before that the fence panel that goes down the center of the pea patch has 24 squares, so I divided it up into 5, 5, 4, 5, and 5 squares when I did my planting. I'm trying to be meticulous in keeping track of what we really like and what grows well so that I don't waste time and energy. It also satisfies my slightly OCD personality, if I'm honest. Here's the updated pea garden diagram:

No signs of sprouting from the greens yet, but it hasn't even been a week so I'm still hopeful. I hope you're getting ready for spring. I know that I'm starting to twitch every time I pass the nurseries, Lowe's, the feed store, and just about anywhere else that sells green things! I'm lucky to have a great resource right in the little town where I live, a local hardware store that hasn't sold out.

Greens Fever

I thought all I was going to plant at this point was my peas, but looking through the Square Foot Gardening book got me thinking about greens, so after dropping my son off at school with his batch of birthday cupcakes (he turns 8 today!), I stopped by the feed store. Silly me, I thought I would buy some snow pea seeds to replace the Oregon Sugar Peas that I planted all but a few of, but when I saw the wide variety of bulk greens seeds I couldn't help myself. I'm going to catalog what I planted where below, please forgive me if it's boring. I want to keep track of what does well and what we like. I'm also going to photograph the planters every week or so.

First, a couple of pictures:

As you can see I haven't cleaned out planters I didn't need for the greens as of yet. I'll do that once I'm ready to put flowers in them and the deck will look much prettier!

#	Planter Color	Planter Shape	Type of Seed
2	light green	square	Tendergreen (Spinach) Mustard
3	blue	round	Southern Giant Mustard
3	brown	square	Long Standing Bloomsdale Spinach
1	brown (plastic)	oval	Upland Cress
1	green	rectangle	Florida Broadleaf Mustard
3	brown	round	Buttercrunch Lettuce
7	green	round	Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce
4/4	brown/white	round (small)	Siberian Kale
10	white	square	Premier Kale
7	black	square	Georgia Southern Collards
2	green	round (large)	Blue Scotch Curled Kale
2	black	round (heather)	Fordhook Giant Swiss Chard

Pea Garden Diagram

I only planted the side nearest to the house yesterday. I'll plant the other side next weekend, and then in the following weeks I'll add a row further from the fence panel on each side. I uploaded some picture to Flickr of my tire gardens and the pea planting area.

It's time for peas!

Today I put in the first seeds of the year ... peas! I planted some last fall and they were so incredibly delicious that I've been champing at the bit to get them started this spring. I'll plant again on the weekends for the next few weeks in the hopes of getting a long harvest. I took some pictures but I've managed to lose the download cable for the camera, so they're trapped on the camera until my dear husband buys a card reader. Once he does I'll post pictures of before and after, as well as pictures of my little tire garden before and after. I gave it a spring cleaning and turned the soil so it's all ready for seeds or seedlings, in a month or so.

Also, we're going to try Square Foot Gardening this year, so I'll be posting about how that goes as well. I'm excited about my butterfly garden as well, since I should have three different colors of monarda this year as well as the new pink variegated butterfly bush that I put in at the end of the season last year.

Happy spring, everyone!