Surprise!

This is about as delightful as spying that first Easter egg! Guess their Easter Egg name comes not only from the colors but also their surprise factor. Now for some lettuce, parsley, chives, & spinach...

Sprouting Notes

For reference, from the March 11 indoor sowings:
Lettuce - many sprouts today, March 14th!
Snow peas - 3 out of 8 have sprouted today.

From the March 3 indoor sowings:
Broccoli - 4 of 4 sprouted earlier
Fennel - 1 of 4
Parsley (old seeds) - none yet
Tomatoes, sungold - 3 of 4

From the March 4 outdoor sowings:
Peas - none yet
Radishes - 1, maybe 2 sprouts

March Garden Madness

A fine surprise, weather-wise, yesterday led to some garden madness. The garden soil was quite workable and I was able to dig the winter crop of rocks while preparing a couple beds for future planting. Each was only a small pebble when planted last fall and now I'm set for many meals of rock soup!

Hopefully the snow peas and snap peas planted yesterday will do as well! I've never planted them this early, but thought I'd give them a try since some in this area plant them around the February Presidents' Day holiday. I can plant more later if needed. Oh yes, planted a few radish seeds also. The nice condition of the soil also meant the grass & weeds pulled quite easily. I brought out my favorite weed pulling tool (see this post for more about it). Yes, it is a "rat's tail" file, but you'll notice it easily loosens the soil to the bottom of the dandelion root.
Fortunately, I have friends who help in the garden rain or shine, even when I'm stuck inside.
I noticed last year, and again yesterday, that the worms really seem to like the green coffee bags used as mulch/weed block. This is one I picked up to move.
Not only can we recycle the paper/jars/cans from inside, we also have a yard waste wheelie bin. I can use a lot of yard waste in the garden, but not the awful blackberries! No way these cuttings will go to my garden. Starting this month, I'll be able to fill this up every two weeks and off it will go to more powerful composting than I could ever do.

On Saturday, I also planted a few seeds indoors: broccoli, fennel, parsley, and tomatoes. I'll do a post later if they show any promise of sprouting!

Needless to say, I'm going back to my desk today to recover!