March 27Greenhouse up! Seeds up!

Laid out all the poles.  Always a challenge to figure this out.  No instructions!

 Step 1

 Step 2

 Step 3

 and up it goes!  Two t posts tied to the front corners help hold it in place.  And the ropes keep the frame from coming apart in high winds.

Ran seed viability tests on lots of packets of old seeds.  Here's the successful results of 2011 California wonder peppers.  I put the seeds on wet paper towels in  plastic shoe box and see how many germinate.  If none or few, I know I need to buy new seeds.  But often, seeds from a few years ago are perfectly good!

March 18 and 21: Seedlings and First Days in the Garden

On windy chilly Tuesday afternoon, March 18, Rich and I began the work on the 2014 garden.  We cut down the old corn and asparagus stalks.  I'm so happy to have started actually working in the garden after 3 months of planning during such a tough winter.  Seeds that I ordered have all arrived.  Later on Tuesday, I started seed germination tests on a lot of the old seeds from 2010 and 2011 and planted 5 1/2 trays of vegetable and herb seeds.  No seedlings yet as of Friday, but I'm hoping to find sprouts by tomorrow!

Used 3 1/2 bags of seed starting mix for 5 1/2 trays of  seeds

Tray 1: (Jiffy Natural and Organic Seed Starting Mix) 2014 Gurney flat Parsley, 2014 Burpee curly parsley, 2010 Burpee curly parsley, 2011 Burpee flat parsley, 2014 Burgess basil, 2014 Terroir dark opal Basil, 2011 Burpee Basil  (decided to try the old parsley and basil seeds since they sprouted when we used them for a new year's resolution project in January)

Tray 2: (Jiffy Natural and Organic Seed Starting Mix) 2013 Burpee watermelon, 2013 Burpee Cantaloupe, 2011 Burpee carnival peppers, 2011 Burpee California wonder peppers, 2014 Burgess California wonder peppers, 2013 Burpee celery, 2011 Burpee baby spinach, 2014 Burpee baby spinach

Tray 3: (Jiffy Organic Seed Starting Jiffy Mix) 2014 Burgess Roma tomatoes, 2013 Burpee Roma Tomatoes, 2011 Burpee Big Boy Tomatoes, 2014 Burgess Big beef tomatoes

Tray 4: (Jiffy Organic Seed Starting Jiffy Mix)  2014 Gurney Broccoli, 2013 Burpee Red Cabbage, 2011 Burpee Swiss chard, 2011 Burpee Detroit dark red beets, 2011 Gurney Peanuts, 2013 Burpee Stevia

Tray 5:  (Jiffy Organic Seed Starting Jiffy Mix) 2011 Burpee marigolds, 2011 Burpee disco marigolds, 2011 Burpee nasturtiums

1/2 Tray 6 (Burpee Self-watering kit with pellets of seed starter) Basil and Parsley

On Friday, I was back in the garden.  I cut down the raspberry stalks...hoping I was doing the right thing.  I read that fall bearing raspberries bear on new canes, whereas summer raspberries bear on year old canes.  I know the berries on the east side are all fall bearing.  I think there may be a summer bearing on the west side so there I only cut the canes that berried last year.  Gardening is such an experiment!  Trail and error (or as one author put it, "Trowel and error!).

The raspberries before I cut them, on the far left.

Cut the fall raspberries all the way to the ground.  I read it is important not to leave stumps.

I remeasured and remarked the veggie beds and paths, even used the compass on my cell phone to try to get straight east-west rows this year.....we'll see!  Then I dug and raked bed 2 in preparation for peas and lettuce.  However, I found that about 6 inches down I ran into a narrow layer of frost!  Notice the line of white frost (vertical stripe) in this wedge of soil I dug from about 6 inches down

.The cold frame contained one spinach plant that made it through the winter, so I rolled the cold frame on its backside, dug and raked and weeded the bed, and then put it back.  When I plant the peas and lettuce, I;m going to leave the cold frame on that section and give some of them a head start!  Before and after photos:

Seeds ordered!

Finally got the seeds ordered this week, from 5 companies: Gurney's, Burgess, Terroir, Burpee, and Shumway.

Seeds

I got out all the seeds leftover from the past few years (because we got no free seeds this year!) and inventoried what I have and what I’ll need to order. I’ll need to do a little research on viability of different types of seeds. I know there are some that lasts for years, and others that don’t do so well.

Garden Plan 2014

I’ve been busy this week planning next summer’s garden and loving thinking about being out in the sun and dirt again. I hope the perennial asparagus, fruits, and herbs survive this very frigid winter! Thanks to the internet (and a few books) I’ve learned a few things to incorporate into this year’s plan. Companion Plantings: This is something I’ve always tried to be mindful of. The most important thing seems to be to keep the onions and garlic away from other veggies, especially the beans and peas, except that beets do like garlic. And keep the dill away from the tomatoes and the sage away from the cucumbers. Many plants help each other: basil, parsley, marigolds, and nasturtiums seems good everywhere! Crop Rotation: I’ve always tried to move the plots so as not to plant the same thing in the same place two years in a row. But this year, I learned a little more. I think I discovered that the leaf die off the pumpkins and melons experienced was from a pest in the soil. Several places suggested a 3 year crop rotation. So I came up with this 3 year rotation plan. The garden has 12 annual beds if I count the end of the apple tree bed as #12. So I divided the garden into 4 groups of 3 beds each, based on companion planting compatibility. Each year I’ll shift everything down 4 rows. So where group 1 is this year, group 2 will be next year. Group 1: 2 tomatoes and peppers and 1 potatoes Group 2: 1 melons, 1 zucchini and cucumbers, 1 squash and pumpkins Group 3: 2 Onions and 1 garlic Group 4: “row” crops: 1 carrots, broccoli, beets, chard, bush beans, 1 peas and pole beans and lettuce, 1 corn and wheat. Cross-Pollinating: I was also concerned about the fact that all the squash are together in this plan and I’ve always thought you had to worry about cross pollination and therefore getting weird produce from it. But with a little internet searching, I’ve learned that pumpkins, zucchini, yellow squash, and possibly butternut squash can cross pollinate with each other., but that it only affects the seed, not the fruit. So it’s only a problem is you save the seeds for next year! So here’s the plan!

Pumpkin pie for Christmas

Made a pumpkin pie for Christmas from the last pumpkin from the garden.  (Grew 7.  Used 5 at Thanksgiving luncheon and dinner.  A mouse got one in the garage---ate a hole in the back and gobbled up all the seeds!)
So that's the last of the fresh produce from the garden. But there's still frozen veggies and even some fruit, dry beans and herbs, canned pickles, and preserved jam and jelly!  And there's always memories!

Nov 11: Saying goodbye to the garden, just before the snow!

Went over to the garden.  Picked some lettuce, chard, and spinach from the coldframe, and strolled along the path, remembering and appreciating what abundance had come from this ground throughout the growing season.  But that's about done for this year.  Snow is predicted later today.   

That evening!

Postscript.....Since I'm writing this on December 30 anyway, want to add a note, even tho no picutres, to say that I was still picking greens from the cold frame Thanksgiving week. 
And a resolutin:  next year to write on this blog every time I visit the garden!