Double Happiness

Inside Starts: Day Seventeen

The eggplant are the last to emerge and this shot shows one of three seeds planted in this pot with a red toothpick for scale. The squash (various) are looking great, but I'm afraid the pots I chose were too small! Thimble sized pot of thyme. They are in a south-facing window in the utility room, that is not heated unless the temp drops below 40 outside (then I turn up the baseboard to 45, its lowest setting). No lamps: just using natural light (from the sun). Weather has been on and off sunny or cloudy this month.

Vernal Equinox: Spring Up Joyfully!

Yesterday morning, the season changed. Vernal equinox! I was at my workout at Frank's MVP gym at the time (about 10:30 am) and then hustled home to bake a lemon pie to take to a St. Patrick's Day feast. The weather was perfect for an outdoor party, and this one was terrific! No garden time for me, but no complaints either. Well ... today I have time for the garden and it's raining. Gonna rain all day! So I took a few pictures and will probably go out later on in some rain gear and remove some more sod out front. Also, I have a huckleberry bush still small enough to transplant from one place to another ... this time of year (as in fall) moving bushes is sort of like moving furniture, if I'm careful with the roots and all!

Here are today's photos of the spinach planted on Valentine's Day (chard planted that day, too, and it is up also); and some lettuce planted in mid-January when we had that long sunny spell. Little miracles!

Spring!

There is nothing closer to spring than the daffodil.

Removing sod

This lot held no plantings except weedy lawn and the grape arbor when I moved here nearly 5 years ago. I've been slowing replacing the grass with raised beds for vegetables and flowers. I like sheet composting (layering newspaper and cardboard with manure or compost and earth and leaves into a sort of lasagna that becomes humus for planting). But that takes months, and another method is to remove the sod by shovel, which is easier now in late winter, due to the softness of the soil.

Today I took out an area of sod about 10 X 4 near the street, laid down groundcloth, punched some holes in the groundcloth to plant kinikinick (native to these parts) which should grow in to cover the area over time. After the plants were in, I shoveled seasoned compost (from NW Greenlands, our local recyclers who receive plant debris from citizens then sell it back to us nicely aged) on top. The picture is boring ... well, taken in haste, but really there isn't much to see yet! Wait a few months till the plants grow in.

Little Helper

Some days I have help from my grandchild.

Indoor starts.

For the first three or four days I left the planted pots in darkness under a piece of black plastic.
Then I replaced the black plastic with wax paper so the light could get through but the moisture and warmth from the south facing window would stay contained. I am keeping them moist every day.

First up: lettuce sprouts, which I planted on March 4. I just took this photo today (March 11). There are also some basil sprouts just poking up, I noticed. The tiny clay pot is a 1" pot, thimble sized almost, and in it are thyme sproutings.

Native Plants

Every year the local conservation folks hold a native plant sale. This year I purchased some tiny wild iris, some Indian plum trees, a bunch of kinikinik for ground cover out front, and some huckleberries. Here is a photo of the plum trees taken in mid-February when I planted them The yellow tubes are plastic mesh, held with bamboo stakes, intended to keep the deer away. Dear deer.
Since the plot I dug was on the route of a cat trail by the fence, I used willow tree prunings to create a low woven fence in hopes of re-routing them a bit. Not sure it worked exactly as I planned; everyone knows you can't herd cats!

Preparations

March 1st. I took a bunch of small planting trays and pots from where I'd stacked them out behind the garage, dipped them in a bleach solution, then ran them through the dishwasher. Here they are, drying on the deck. A plum tree I transplanted from a friend's place five years ago was blooming that day, too!