After a disappointing Saturday, weather wise, a beautiful spring day popped up on Sunday. And this little pansy also caught my attention. It has popped up in one of the little succulent pots that sit on the fence in the garden. I cannot imagine how a pansy ended up in this spot!
So what did I do with some sun? Turned over the winter mulch in one of the beds and removed more rocks. Then planted carrots, beets and another planting of lettuce and chard. A few spots of marigolds also. The full green bed, above, has assorted perennial flowers. The columbine is almost blooming. The rhubarb is in the right end of the bed. I've finally joined the others of you who have been harvesting it. Made a rhubarb & berry crumble on Sunday night.
I wasn't going to plant the whole bed, but I did, figuring that I could use any nonsprouted parts for succession planning. You can see by the damp places above, that I planted a row down each side of the bed and a double row in the middle. I've tended to plant across the bed in the past, but that didn't work so well when I had to put in the soaker hoses last year.
During our on again, off again rainy Sunday, I was able to plant some more tomato seeds and put them in the "oven" to sprout. These are Ilidi tomatoes, and the best kind: shared by another gardener! Thanks for sharing, Matron! I can see we'll be doing some fine garden grazing this year. These are the type that don't always make it into the house. 
A closer look at the pea sprouts yesterday revealed some nice roots out the bottom of the pot... an immediate call to action! As the forecasted rain hadn't started yet, I headed out to the garden to finalize the location for peas this year. In spite of the rain last week, the soil wasn't too wet for digging so I prepared the space for tall peas, short peas and climbing beans (all needing decisions about where to place the trellises, etc.)
Saturday had very pleasant weather, so in between watching herds of spiders, we trimmed the flower stalks we had left in place all winter. Here is a link to the garden in January. Click on the Garden Photo label for prior months. With the trimming, the garden looks very one level now. It will change.
I planted some of the winter sown broccoli under the cloche, and set the container with the rest of the seedlings under it also. I see a slug has found one of the planted seedling already.
The larger lettuce plants also went in the ground under the cloche.
I managed to source some milk jugs this week so I'm off to do a little "winter sowing" today. Last year, I learned about it and tried it in March. See this link. (and see the links in that post for Angie's instructions on this.) It worked well for lettuce, chard, broccoli and nasturtiums. See this link for results. For those that might not like the cooler outside temps, I'll be getting the garage window ready for them later.
Here are some planted and out on the old deck. They'll be protected by the house a little, but also have sun / light as much as possible. The lids have a small hole in them. I'll leave them on until it warms up a little. There are drainage holes in the bottom.
Since the milk jugs had the indention in two sides, I cut up over the indention on those sides and sloped back down toward the bottom of the handle (also the 'hinge'). This also let me slip the top part over the bottom part a little before placing a piece of tape to keep it in place. This seems a little more stable than my try at making a lower cut through the indention.
So far it is just lettuce, chard, broccoli and nasturtiums. I'll be making the rounds to other sowers to see what they have planted.
Several weeks ago, I started some seedlings for the fall garden: lettuce, Brussels sprouts and, uhmmm, something. Was it broccoli or something else? (I was a little tired of broccoli at that time so why would I have planted so much?) Would broccoli and Brussels sprouts have similar seedlings? I either had one BS and lots of broccoli, or lots of BS and one mystery sprout. What to do, what to do? (yes, I know - mark them next time)
A quick shot in the dark light of a pending thunderstorm, following a week of hot weather. It was thundering while I planted the cucumbers and squash, the last of my seedlings to go in the ground. Still no rain yet, but we're ready!
Dear Anita, can you see all of the smudges on your magic seed packets from trips to the garden? You know they are being planted! Being picked in your Easter drawing has been a such a spring treat. Thank you so much for the generous prizes! I can only hope my garden will someday look even a little like your wonderful Country Cottage Garden.
Above, sunny mix cosmos and white marigolds are planted among the purple blooming lavender and anise hyssop. This is one third of the newly expanded herb/flower bed. In the middle third will be a seating area. The flowers will make it the best spot around.
Watch this space, above! The dill and calendula are both here as you suggested. This is in the vegetable bed in front of the seats, for maximum enjoyment. The cosmos and marigolds varieties are finding their places among the vegetable beds too.
Here are the March 24 planted tomatoes, anise hyssop, and spicy globe basil. As cute as they are, today is the day the baby tomatoes were potted up and moved out to the garage. What low temperature do you think they'll tolerate? They lean too much in the window and I'd rather they stay under the lights in the garage.
Big brother tomatoes here, were started March 3. They've been in the house ever since their purple screams, but I hope they'll now get comfortable in the garage under the light. As a side note, see the stone semi-circle and pipe out the window? The pipe is 4 feet, same as my beds. The stones are currently somewhere I don't want them so I'm considering using them as end caps for the garden beds. As they are, it has been a struggle keeping a clear line between the end of the bed and the grass. Straight ends would be more practical for grass trimming, but I think I'd like the curves.
The outside winter sowing experiment has had some good results. (I do take the caps off on the sunnier days.) They do get more light being outside. They are also should be better adjusted to the temperature patterns outside.
Lettuce seedlings and my first Swiss chard (Bright Lights). All my other lettuce seedlings were planted out in the garden last weekend, so these will be the next wave.
Spinach and broccoli here. My earlier seeding (inside) of spinach didn't sprout so I'm glad to have some here. Earlier seedlings of broccoli were also planted out in the garden last weekend.
Here's a little Eastershine for those you with Eastersnow. Just keep in mind that the sun was gone by 3pm, and we'll soon be back in the 30's at night. Above, you see the cold frames (with their end windows laying against the sides due to the warm temps).
My new (used) Easter (garden) basket. I don't know if the dividers are to separate wine bottles or something else, but they really work to keep tools in place, hold seed packets and to separate the camera from the tools. I've not been a big glove wearer, but now I wear these most of the time. Before the sun moved on, it was just a beautiful time for puttering around in the herb bed, pulling some young grass and dandelions and checking everything out.
And these are the little "Easter eggs" I found digging around in the herb bed. I'm also happy to see the bee balm / Monarda sending up shoots. The wonderful rosemary, sorry to say, did not make it though the snow and ice this winter. It was the trailing type and I've found it to be more sensitive to cold winters than the upright rosemary.
Angie posted about winter sowing here and here. I wondered if cool season varieties sown this way might be less inclined to grow so leggy, plus move more easily to the garden. I'd sow some directly in the garden under a cloche, except it is too wet to be digging in the beds and the sweet gardener might melt in the rain. So, these 4 containers have trials of lettuce, spinach, broccoli, Swiss chard, catnip and chamomile (both old seeds), nasturtiums and columbine. If my labels dissolve, this might be interesting to sort out later. Thanks for the great information, Angie.
These are the latest seeds in the "oven" (the cabinet under the kitchen sink that is warmed by the heating vent). Tomatoes (current 3 seedling are just not enough), the basil from Germany that sprouted so well last year, spicy globe basil (grew beautifully in AL, we'll see about WA), and anise hyssop. I believe they all like warm spots for sprouting, but then will be happy in cooler spots as seedlings. I'm still using up the planting pellets I have so that's what's inside this box. Next up: Baby tomatoes threaten to split if not transplanted immediately. Gardener complies.
Here is what the January Surprise found in the garage now looks like. And the bonus surprise is the fragrance! I probably wouldn't have noticed it outside, but standing next to it in the garage, its fragrance really had me dreaming of spring. It's a Corydalis 'Blackberry Wine' that came to me as gift on May Day 2006. It lived on my front porch until I thought it was a goner in December and moved the pot to the garage. For now, it sits by a window in my garage, but in a few months, I think it will find a permanent home in a shady flower bed by the patio so it can really do its thing.
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!
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.
