The yard has sat quietly the last 2 months as the winter crops finished up. The broccoli bolted without forming much in the way of edible heads. Everything was started much too late. Then we had the warmest January on record. The parsnips still have their baby leaves. The turnips are the right size for edible baby greens, but that's about it.
Which is fine, because the middle of March is the time to start the spring/summer garden.
Seeds started today:
bush beans
tomatoes
sugar pie pumpkins
Tomorrow I'll start dill, basil and scallions.
Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label winter. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
Quarterly overview
Here we are the first full month of winter. Sadly, we've had very little rain. It's sunny and 76 degrees outside. That smashes 60 year heat records.
Clean up:
The last of the cherry tomato plants were pulled out of their planters on December 20th, along with most of the pepper plants. Although they still bore fruit, nights of near freezing temperatures had killed the plants.
The last pepper plant came out of the half whisky barrel today. It was covered in small green anaheims.
Constant weeding of the wood sorrel is keeping it to a dull roar in the areas planted with broccoli and fennel. Everywhere else it's going like gangbusters. It would be great to hit it with the weedburner and then dig under the ashes.
Planting:
New plantings of parsnips, turnips and radishes were sown directly in planters outside on January 12. Successive plantings of broccoli and fennel were started on January 9th. Still to be planted are garlic, onions, lettuce, kale and chard.
Growing:
The fennel is still limping along. The broccoli still looks great. The biggest plants appear to be on the verge of sending of flower stalks. Very little of the interspersed dill seems to have germinated. New seeds were added in the first week of January, but no new growth is apparent. Peas in the pea barrel are small but healthy looking. The onion seeds all germinated and a thin, green chivey line stands erect in a shallow planter. Many of these will get used like scallions.
The pale purple icelandic poppy has emerged from underneath the white carnation in its flower pot. The carnation is sending up some small white blooms.
Looking ahead:
Towards the end of February, Scarlet runnner beans will be heavily sown over the long strip to fix nitrogen and choke out weeds. Also to be planted are freesia and perhaps some gladiolus bulbs.
Clean up:
The last of the cherry tomato plants were pulled out of their planters on December 20th, along with most of the pepper plants. Although they still bore fruit, nights of near freezing temperatures had killed the plants.
The last pepper plant came out of the half whisky barrel today. It was covered in small green anaheims.
Constant weeding of the wood sorrel is keeping it to a dull roar in the areas planted with broccoli and fennel. Everywhere else it's going like gangbusters. It would be great to hit it with the weedburner and then dig under the ashes.
Planting:
New plantings of parsnips, turnips and radishes were sown directly in planters outside on January 12. Successive plantings of broccoli and fennel were started on January 9th. Still to be planted are garlic, onions, lettuce, kale and chard.
Growing:
The fennel is still limping along. The broccoli still looks great. The biggest plants appear to be on the verge of sending of flower stalks. Very little of the interspersed dill seems to have germinated. New seeds were added in the first week of January, but no new growth is apparent. Peas in the pea barrel are small but healthy looking. The onion seeds all germinated and a thin, green chivey line stands erect in a shallow planter. Many of these will get used like scallions.
The pale purple icelandic poppy has emerged from underneath the white carnation in its flower pot. The carnation is sending up some small white blooms.
Looking ahead:
Towards the end of February, Scarlet runnner beans will be heavily sown over the long strip to fix nitrogen and choke out weeds. Also to be planted are freesia and perhaps some gladiolus bulbs.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Late fall planting
It's been unseasonably warm the past couple of days. I took the opportunity to work in the sun and get the seedlings into the ground.
12 bulbing fennel plants went in where the green beans had been this summer. It's a nice rich soil mix there.
18 broccoli seedlings went in to the north of the remaining basil. They'll get good sun there, and will have enough space to develop. I'm thinking I'd like to plant a fair number of garlic and onions, but where to put them?
TheRoommate wants to put in bulbs, but I'm not sure how to square that with the available sunlight and all of that. Ranunculus are my favorite, but I don't know of the corms are squirrel fodder.
12 bulbing fennel plants went in where the green beans had been this summer. It's a nice rich soil mix there.
18 broccoli seedlings went in to the north of the remaining basil. They'll get good sun there, and will have enough space to develop. I'm thinking I'd like to plant a fair number of garlic and onions, but where to put them?
TheRoommate wants to put in bulbs, but I'm not sure how to square that with the available sunlight and all of that. Ranunculus are my favorite, but I don't know of the corms are squirrel fodder.
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