February 28, 2009

Well, today was a fun day all around.  I spent the morning with the kids, then while the youngest was in music class, the oldest and I went out back to work in the yard.  He helped me with my compost pile.  I flipped it for the first time since last fall.



Here's the bed about to be made after awakening from a long winter's nap.



Here's the new bed.  When I was fluffing the old bed, I found tons of leaves that weren't quite decomposed, even more corn stalks that I didn't bother chopping up into tiny pieces last fall, and some random clods of seeminly fresh grass clippings.  All that went into the new bin.  I need to get some coffee grounds to work into it, but for now I'm happy with the old bed getting pretty ready for use this planting season.

I really should build a screen to create fine compost for the garden and leave the rest to further decompose in the new bed.  Maybe when I find time to seriously shop for wicking baskets, I'll pick some supplies up.  At times like these I wish I was EG, hehe.

Here's what's left in the old bin.  It's not quite ready, though it's looking really good.  I found more than a handful of worms in the compost.  Boy am I glad they finally showed up.  I knew they should, but hadn't seen them all year.  I couldn't have been prouder of the little compost bin that could, hehe.



And yep, that's the big 5 year old in "his" compost bin.  He had fun with his tools, but jumped at the chance to pose with mine.

Then it was time to go check on the garden. I hadn't been out there in a week.  Look what the winter storms have done to the hoop covers.



I fixed those and added a stop-gap binder clip to the top of the hoop to keep this from happening until I have time to fix it properly.

But what did I find when I looked underneath?



If my eyes don't decieve me, those are carrots growing all over the place.  That's where I had my carrots planted last fall. Remember, the ones that the raccoons beat me to?  Well what do you know, more are growing for some reason.  I haven't planted more seeds.  Odd, but my son will take it.  He had to remind me again that carrots are his favorite! hehe.

The last picture I've got for you is a progress picture of my garlic.  It's clearly overwintered as promised and is growing quite well dispite snow and frost all over the place.



So one thing got taken off the to-do list.  Unfortunately I didn't do much else because my niece asked me to go play tennis with her.  She's trying out for her high school team Monday and she wanted some practice.  It's been over 15 years since I've played seriously, but I found I could still sustain a rally, even if my serve was way off. I shouldn't say that I ran my niece and her friend all over the court, but this old man's still got it, hehe.

Of course now I feel like I need to take some Alieve and a bath before bed, hehe.  What was that about being old? hehe.

We'll see what I get done tomorrow.  Busy, busy day.  I'm torn about starting my cukes inside.  The packet says not to.  It sure would come in handy to get a jump on the germination.  It's one of the slow ones at 55 degrees, per the chart I have http://www.vegedge.umn.edu/mnvegnew/vol2/0400t1.htm.

Though as you see, if I could get them germinating at 77 or so (like on top of the monitor, or maybe on top of the ballast of the light system) it would cut down the time considerably.  Then I could plant them out around my Last Frost Date and they'd be growing full speed ahead.  By the way, my brother estimates the LFD to be mid March this year.  I was thinking mid April, even though we had a week of snow starting April 22 last year.  I figure I can put them out early and cover with my hoop covers if necessary.  Anyway, time to hit the hay.

Enjoy your garden!