Monday, May 04, 2009

Garden news. WOO HOO!!!

I just bought a mini greenhouse to start some seeds tonight. I started pea pods, 2 kinds of cucumbers, green beans and a few sugar baby watermelons. The only ones I truly care about are the cucumbers and beans. The others are for fun because I had the seeds and extra peat moss.




I will be buying some tomato plants and onion sets in a couple of weeks. We will buy either cherry or Roma tomatoes along with a sandwich type probably Early Girl as we have an extremely short growing season. I might run up town and grab some zucchini seeds to toss in the mini greenhouse tomorrow. I don't need much as I am the only one who will eat those.


Can't plant until Memorial Day or later due to frost.  I'm hoping it will be dry enough to get into the garden by the last week of May.  We'll see.

We have 2 raspberry bushes. Maybe 3 if I am wrong about the one dying. Those aren't high producing yet, but I'm hopeful. We have several strawberry plants. I need to prune those back so they produce rather than feed the runners all time.

We have one well established rhubarb plant. We transplanted a couple last fall into the garden. I am not hopeful for their survival, but they were free so no big loss. We only make blueberry-rhubarb freezer jam so it's not like we need lots of rhubarb.

I would like to do a herb garden. I have a couple of packets of seeds for chives and Cilantro/Coriander. I have a planter I need to fill and set up for that. I don't cook a lot with herbs so I'm a little unsure of what to plant or how to use it.

I don't compost at this point. I have thought about it, but we really don't produce vegetable scraps to make it worthwhile. I also prefer to compost my leaves back into the yard each fall so that's not viable. I try to keep the grass cut short so as not to need to bag. We did buy some Miracle Grow garden soil/compost stuff last year to add to our garden. That helped and we will probably use some more again.

For us, we have feast or famine with the water. Either it's extremely wet and we can't get into the garden or so dry we have to water 2x's a day to avoid everything shriveling up and dying. We're on the prairie so we get the constant wind.

I am thrilled to say that the rabbits won't be getting into my garden this year. I finally have it totally rabbit and deer proof. I have chicken wire all the way around to keep the rabbits out, and a 4 foot snow fence to keep the deer out. Woo Hoo!

Mom is in charge of the flower beds and will put whatever she wants in those. I will do a few pots with mums and begonias mainly. I think we are going bear minimum on flowers this year. I believe mom wants to work on the height of her flower bed and build up the soil another 3 inches or so.

2 comments:

quilly said...

My sister has a 6 foot fence around her garden and she still found a deer in it one morning. He jumped up and over as slick as can be.

I already have bitty itty tomatoes on my plant. Of course, my weather is a tad-bit different from yours.

Minkydo said...

That's a determined deer! Luckily, ours have enough yummy stuff around the yard to eat.....like our hastas :)

I am jealous of your tomatoes!!!! Lucky you!!!

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