23 March 2007

Herbal remedy for the winter blahs

With temps of 75, spring is officially here, although the danger of the last killing frost won't be passed for over a month from now. Nevertheless, I've begun to get a few early season plants out. Yesterday, some spring onions went in, alongside the carrots and swiss chard, just outside the cold frame. I also seeded some dill in a small planter and some lavender inside in pots for later transplanting. The other seeds in flats are doing well; especially the sage. When I thinned it, the smell from the roots was wonderfully fresh.

Bed prep continues. I pulled the straw mulch off a couple of raised beds and will cover with plastic this weekend to begin warming the soil for tomato, pepper, melon, and strawberry plants.

21 March 2007

Peas but no pods (yet)

The first outside seeds without the cold frame to protect them went in today. Sugar snap peas are in the ground and ready to climb up the trellis that I built along the porch. I also put in a couple of rows of carrots (Danver's Half Long variety) from Seed Savers as well as a row of Swiss Chard.

The spinach and lettuce in the cold frame are going gangbusters. It's time for another planting of spinach so we can start having salad from the first planting in the cold frame. I also pulled the mint out of the frame and re-potted it in a larger container to spread in for the summer. We like to make mint tea and it requires a lot of leaves.

03 March 2007

Strawberry seeds started

I got started yesterday on planting seeds under the gro-light for this year's garden. The first ones to go in are strawberries. I'll also be ordering some strawberry plants but I wanted to try growing them from seed also. The variety are alpine, a bit smaller but with shorter runners than regular strawberries, which is good in my raised bed. It's still a bit early to start these indoors but I'm planning on covering their bed with red plastic to warm the soil and using a floating row cover to give them some extra growing time, hoping to get a crop the first year after all.

I'm also planning on starting some tomato seeds today.