June 1, 2011

Please someone tell my garden that it's June first! I swear it thinks it's April 1 instead.  Aside from the calendar, Spring has yet to visit the Pacific Northwet.  I'm posting this because I saw a post on another blog I read about all the things that should be going on in the garden right now and unfortunately, most of them are right for the calendar, but wrong for the weather.  The funniest is that I should be starting seeds indoors for my broccoli and cauliflower Fall crops when I still have my spring crops up there.  I have yet to plant out my succession plantings because it's pointless.  The first planting is not growing at all and just being nibbled at by slugs.  I have carrots that overwintered and are going to seed, but I haven't pulled them because I'm feeding them bit by bit to my hens and I don't need the room until I plant out my brassicas.  Aside from that the entire bed of carrots I've planted have yet to germinate.  I'm about to give up hope on them and plant again as my brother's just started coming up (finally!).  Oh, and my cool weather peas... what did germinate have grown a total of 3 inches. I haven't even found the need to set up the trellis for them.  Insanity reigns in June.

About the only thing growing in the garden is my salad bed.  It seems my lettuces are growing, albeit slowly.  But we have been harvesting them for salads and garnishes etc.

As for my tomatoes, they haven't grown at all, despite regular doses of fish emulsion.  I'm trying, but the best I can get is I have one plant that flowered under lights that is finally setting fruit... three tomatoes. 

Lastly, I know I'm behind on planting out my cucumbers and squash, but really, what's the point? I don't have a greenhouse to grow them in, they don't transplant well (cukes that is), and even if they do germinate (big if), chances are they'll never grow.  I'm feeling a bit disappointed by this garden season.

I hope your garden is doing better.

Special Tomato Post

Help, what's killing my tomatoes (now)!?

My guess is it's too much water on the leaves, as in we've had far too wet a spring than normal.  Here's another shot.

It's not happening to all the plants, but a few of them.  Other than that, none are growing despite multiple shots of fish emulsion.  Very annoying.  Makes me really want a greenhouse as my brother's store bought specimens are perfect because they were started in greenhouse conditions.  Unfortunately the only place to put one is against the house in the front yard, well side yard.  I am strongly leaning toward removing the grass and putting a half dozen 4x8 beds and a greenhouse.  What's stopping me are two little boys that could use that roughly 30x40 space for all sorts of things growing up.

Anyway, my immediate dilemma is this problem with my tomatoes.  Any ideas?

Lastly, I was talking to my brother during out coop building ordeal and I finally learned the difference between OP and Heirloom.  Apparently all my heirloom tomatoes were orange last year because of cross pollination.  Thank goodness I didn't save seed, because it would have bred orange going forward.  As for heirloom, Gills All-Purpose can't be considered heirloom because it's not like 75 years old or something, it's only 25 years old.  Gotta love rules like that.  Very interesting.

Thanks for the comments!

Enjoy your garden!

May 1, 2011

This post is a little late as I temporarily lost my camera, so here's a post I started about last weekend.

Well, I'm sure you all had busy weekends, but I wasn't nearly as productive as I'd hoped to be.  For one, I had two back-to-back baseball games for the boys on Saturday that blew the morning and part of the beautiful afternoon.  Then I found out that my much needed coop construction was on hold for the day.  I have come to realize I am not a construction guy, at least without clear direction.  So I turned my attention to something I know, or at least think I know, my garden.

A quick garden tour told me I had tons of badly germinated spots in my pea row, so I started soaking some peas.  Then I watered since as odd as it seems, we haven't had much rain of late, so at least the top inch was dry.  I still need to replace the spigot on the hose bib in the back, so I have no water to the back yard, so I have to go around to the front of the house to get water and use a watering can.  I wish I didn't need to turn off the water to the house to change it out.  I am having all sorts of faucet problems this month. First it was the kitchen, then the main bath, now the outside faucet.  Someone's telling me to set up my rain barrels after a year of sitting there.

What I could do right away was finally plant out my tomatoes.  They were at a point where they either needed potting up or to be tossed in the trash.  I figured what did I have to lose.  So I grabbed some compost and mixed it into the SWC.  I know you're supposed to not use the same dirt you used for tomatoes the previous year, but gardeners have been planting tomatoes in the same plot of dirt for eons, so I used half last year's Mel's Mix and half new compost.  They'll either love it or they won't.

Then came the difficult task of getting the monsters into the SWCs. Some were easy because they were just bushy, or sticks, but a few were to the moon, which required my eldest son to hold the top while I de-potted it and planted it in the container. Don't these look nice?  Oh, and sorry for the bad shadows, my main garden area doesn't get late afternoon/evening sun, and I was working late Saturday.

Next, I couldn't forget to fertilize.  Per my garden buddy Judy in Alabama, the best tomato fertilizer is part Epsom Salt and part all-purpose tomato fertilizer.  In a SWC, this goes in a shallow furrow between the two plants.

Then it was simply a task of placing the cages into the bins.  I must say this was no simple task indeed! The plants were so tall and branches spindly that I didn't want to break anything.  Eventually, they were planted out.

As much as I wanted to have tons of tomatoes this year. My poor germination earlier this year made me scrounge to fill three SWCs (6 tomatoes).  In my third SWC went the volunteer that did so well and the one I grew from succession (read emergency) replanting.  So I'll have two Stupices this year.  One's flowering already so the other one can really be a succession planting.  I sure hope I can figure out what that volunteer is, because it's growing so well and healthy, I'd like to grow it again, even if it means I need to save seed to do it.

Lastly, my final tomato did rather poorly, even more so than the others, when I hardened them off.  Note to self, no matter how nice and calm the day, don't leave your plants out all day in the beginning of the process. When I took a look at the nearly dead one, I found it was my only "surviving" Sunset Red Horizon. I bought that seed and really wanted to taste it.  Last year nothing grew well, so I was really hopeful for this year. So hopeful that I planted a stick.

Of course I didn't waste an entire SWC for that little sickly stick. Instead I planted it in the scrap SWC material I have next to my kids experiment gardens. I was planning on planting peas there (I found a package I don't remember trying before, but didn't want to mix them in the main beds). Now I don't know what I'll plant next to it.  Maybe one of the really late growers I still have upstairs.

What a great segway to the plants still hanging out under lights upstairs.  I had totally forgotten them.  What's worse, I had forgotten that I had turned the fan on to help my broccoli and cauliflower not be so leggy this time.  It had only been two days, but the fan must have dried out the plants.  When I went upstairs to put the last of my tomatoes that weren't quite ready to plant, back under lights, I found this scene...

MY BRASSICAS!!!! I killed my succession crops of broccoli and cauliflower to hopefully be preserved for winter consumption. Still I had to try putting them on life support, so I ran and grabbed the defibrillator, aka, watering can, and tried to save them.  I could keep you in suspense, but I won't.  The next day I went to check on them and found this radically different scenario.

They have odd coloring, but the leaves all perked up nicely, so there's hope for them yet.  I don't think I'll continue with the fan though. I'm just too spotty on watering my light system, out of sight, out of mind, as they say.  Oh, and the other container on the right? It's got a tomato sucker growing that I'm not sure I'll plant out, as well as some wheat grass my son's preschool class planted.  Is that something we'd eat raw, say in smoothies? Or something to feed to the cats or chickens?  Not pictured here is the tiny seedling I had hardened off that I potted up into a quart container and put back under lights.  Can't hurt to experiment can it?

Enjoy your garden!

April 5, 2011

So, to give equal time to both my gardening and animal husbandry obsessions, this post will be about plants rather than chicks.

Despite the rain, mixed with heavy rain mixed with light showers over the past week, I found time to make it out to the garden.  Mostly I was out there to plant what NEEDED to be planted out.  However, I couldn't help but admire the growth (albeit slow) of my initial salad green plantings.  I definitely can start harvesting outer leaves of these for salads.  That said, we prefer to wait until more items are ready to go into our salads, like radishes, carrots and the like.

During a break in the weather, I took some time to augment my tiny bed #3 with compost, and plant a mixture of Savoy Bloomsdale Spinach (from Laura) and my traditional Space spinach (from Territorial). Given the size of the seeds, and wetness of my compost, I didn't even bury them, but rather used the board trick I got from Laura.  No clue if this will work or not, but it is worth a try.  I mean, who has a supply of dry sifted compost on hand to sprinkle 1/8" deep over a bed, hehe?

I also did something similar to several varieties of carrots to replenish our supply.  The ones that overwintered are very hairy and need to be pealed to eat.  Speaking of which, it is about time to harvest them so they don't go to seed.  Thoughts on what to do with carrots you need to peal to eat?  Hmm?

Anyway, now to what I actually went out there to do.  In the back of bed #4, I augmented the soil with a kitty-litter-bucket of compost.

And with my hand trowel, I worked the compost into the soil a bit, chopping up tons of worms in the process.  Poor little guys. This back portion of my only bed without a trellis will be the home of my initial plantings of broccoli and cauliflower. 

This season I'm planting more cauliflower than broccoli, as my wife likes it better, but I am planting a ton of it to freeze for the off season.  My goal is to add it to mashed potatoes, saute it with bread crumbs, use it in stir frys, etc. Don't these seedlings look good?

That taken care of, it was time to turn to my flat of succession salad greens.  First to be planted were my green wave mustard green experiment.  I'm sure long-term readers recall my fascination with mustard greens, leading back to my trying one from a local CSA.  The rainbow colored wavy leaves had a nice mustard bite to them, and would be perfect to add to our salads since I don't like to use dressing for home grown salads.  Unable to find the variety I knew I liked, I have settled for this variety from Territorial.  I went with two plants to see how it grew and if I'd like it.  They germinated well, but were slow growing under lights.  I wonder if they'll take off in the ground?

Then, as the rain began to pick up, I raced to get rid of the rest of my salad green seedlings.  It was very easy to peal apart the soil blocks from their neighbors and throw them in a shallow hole, pressing the compost in around them.  For the seedlings that were growing in the wrecked soil blocks, I did my best to plant them in straight compost.  It doesn't look pretty, but I'm hoping it all grows in nicely as spring moves into high gear.

Oh, I forgot, I also filled in the row of green onions above the salad greens, and filled in radishes where I could find space.  I still remember the first year I planted radishes.  The package said 22 days, so I was expecting to eat radishes every month.  Wrong!  The first planting took 5 weeks to germinate and mature.  It wasn't until my late spring succession planting that I got anywhere near the 22 days it published.  Deceptive advertising, ROFL.

So, now my garden is coming along nicely.  I still have space in the back of Bed #1 (above) and in the front of Bed #4 when I remove the carrots.  Not sure what I'll plant in those places.  Maybe some beets and a squash plant or two, both for roasting.  My brother introduced us to them last fall and I wanted to grow a limited number of each to try my hand at adding variety to our veggie diet.  As I've said many times over on NW Edible, I wish I could cook half as good as the former chef, now stay-at-home mom and urban homesteader Erika.  /sigh

Enjoy your garden!

July 9, 2009

Well, I got out into the garden for the first time in ages. That is, not just to water it after dark.  I was getting tired of humming Gardening At Night by REM, hehe.

Much to my surprise, my garden marched along without me.  The kids have been harvesting carrots left and right.  In fact, they harvested a slew of them at once (against all I've taught them).  Thankfully, I learned from Good Eat's that storing carrots with an inch of stem left on them in bubble wrap is the best way to keep them fresh for a long period. 

I also found this in the garden.



These are (I believe) my bloody butchers that I should have pinched the blooms off of instead of letting them form fruit.  Sure I have early fruit (probably the earliest in the neighborhood), but the plant is less than half the size of the rest of my plants.  As I have read, all the energy went into the fruit and not growing the green vines, despite repeated watering with fish emulsion.  Oh well, I will get to save seed from these to create an earlier maturing variety next season (hopefully).  Anyway, aren't they cute?

I also found these during my personal garden tour.



These are likely yello pear as I found another that is likely roma.  I can't wait until these go from green to yellow!

Well, as I said, the garden marched on for two weeks without me.  I knew my cauliflower and broccoli were ready to harvest, but when you eat out every night and get home exhausted, it's tough to harvest in the dark.  What that meant is that my nice, tight broccoli and cauliflower bunches got leggy.  They're still edible I think, just not the peak of freshness.  Grrr.  Thankfully, I found this when I was out there.



I realize I don't have a hand in there, but you can tell by the 2x6 there that this is about 3 inches wide.  I pinched the inner leaves together and clipped them with one of my handy dollar store clips.

Lastly, I was giving the potato bins some much needed water and saw the pest damage was getting worse.  Contrary to popular belief, I don't know everything about potatoes.  Mostly I know about growing them, not pest problems as I haven't had too much of that.  Any idea what's causing this?


The plants look healthy desptie all the holes.  I hope that means the potatoes are growing bigger in the tower.  I also hope I kept them watered sufficiently so they aren't deformed.

Well, I'm back, and feeling better (though still sore and tired) back in the garden.  Thanks for all the kind words about the house.  It was listed today and there's an open house both days on the weekend. Fingers are crossed that it's a quick sale.

Oh, on a separate note, I just realized that this is my 400th post. Wow, that's a ton, hehe.

Enjoy your garden!

June 25, 2009

I guess this is a random garden tour-like post.  I've been accumulating pics of things that struck my fancy for a while and just haven't had opportunity to work them into posts.  After chatting with Judy on Facebook tonight, I commented on my freaky corn and I promised her I would show it in my blog post tonight. 

I've been trying to get it to grow fast by side dressing with fish emulsion every week or two.  That may have had something to do with these side shoots...



I went out today and those V side shoots are thicker and looking like more stalks.  It almost looks like the stalks that the ears grow on, but they should be mid-way up a 3 foot tall stalk, not coming out of the ground?  What do you think? Can I expect ears from each side shoot?  Very odd.  I'd wanted the nitrogen to help them grow tall, not freaky, hehe.

Ok, now I'm normally good at segwaying to the next topic and pic, but I'm not going to bother this post, sorry.  Instead I'll just jump from topic to topic to clear up my pics, hehe.

Here is a demonstration of what a few weeks can do for my peas.



I took that a week or two ago, and that same pea yesterday looked like this...



What do you think, snap peas ready now or should I wait?  I'm so nervous after waiting too long on my beans that I'm gunshy. hehe.

Now on to tomatoes.  I finally found another plant that is producing fruit. 



It's clearly a cherry, though not sure which one.  I'm kind of liking the mystery of it all.  Oh, and if you're wondering like I was, the grey thing at the bottom left is my wand, filling the SWC.  These plants are going through water very fast, much earlier than last year.  As a result, I may very well have home grown tomatoes by the 4th of July.  No, not these, but look at what I found when I last watered.



Yep, I've got two (Bloody Butcher?) ripening.  Pretty cool.

Next, I thought this shot was cool, so I snapped it.  It's a pic of my yukon gold potato patch.  Some of the plants are nearly 3 feet tall now, but some have dodged the crowd and are growing out into the path.



I remember last year I had a broccoli that did this, the stalk was leggy and in the shape of an S with the head growing two feet off the ground.

This next pic is yet another from my lone surviving Blacktail Mountain watermelon plant in a scrap SWC.  I'm just waiting for tomatoes to grow on it.  Very odd.



Lastly, I just had to take a pic today of one of my new blueberry bushes.  It's too small to allow it to grow a full harvest, but I like to let a cluster or two mature to taste them while most of the energy goes to developing a sturdy root system and strong canes.  This Jersey will be the first to mature a berry.  Look at them!



I'm worried that if those corn with the V stalks grows much bigger, they'll shade this plant, hehe.  Tough to do from the north, but it could create a canopy.

Anyway, sorry for the random thoughts.  Hope you've enjoyed my miscellaneous pics and have a big weekend planned in your garden.  I've got renovation and plumbing repairs scheduled. /sigh.

June 16, 2009

Well, the weather was much cooler today, though muggy. I think we're finally in for some rain tonight.  Of course that didn't stop us from having a great 3-mile walk sans youngin's tonight when we got home from work.  It was great.  The heart rate wasn't racing quite as much as pushing an old jogging stroller with 45 pounds of 5 year old, but it did allow us to spend a relaxing dinner at Subway mid-walk.  Splitting a foot-long ham and cheese loaded with veggies. Ah, the life. hehe

What does that have to do with a gardening blog you ask?  Well, it isn't really a stretch to say that part of the reason I started my garden was to eat better and live healthier so I can play with my grand kids some day.  Besides, the other reason I started the garden was for a stress reliever, and I can tell you I feel nice and relaxed after that evening.  Lastly, it's my blog and I'll ramble if I want to, hehe.

Now on to the garden.  After my walk today, I took the opportunity when we got home to wander around the garden and water.  I can tell you more broccoli is coming on strong all of a sudden, so I should really figure out how to encorporate it into more meals.  That or resign myself to the fact that I'll need to preserve it or give it away.  I'm sure I could give it away, but having freshish broccoli in the heat of the summer or dead of winter sounds pretty good (yeah, there's a good chance I'll have broccoli to harvest mid-winter, but you get my meaning). 

While I was watering, I decided to take a few snapshots of the other side of the garden for a change.  First is Judy's Minnesota Midget cantaloupe.



Why do you ask are all the plants bunched into the corner of a big 31 gallon Self Watering Container (SWC)?  Well, the third seed didn't germinate but the fourth that I just threw in did.  Anyone want to tell me if the little guy will transplant a foot away?  I don't want to kill it but it does look kinda runtish next to those big guys.  Anyway, I need to figure out a trellis for this area.  Now that I think the big tomato cages are doing fine to contain the tomatoes I really don't need to waste my big trellis on it, but it does need to be sturdy.  Maybe I'll build one of the sturdy conduit ones that Mel pushes and KitsapFG uses so well.  Who knows, I've got another month or so before these need a trellis.



Speaking of tomatoes, I think I mentioned that I took an idea from EG who pinches his suckers (the stems that grow from the middle of a V on a tomato plant) when they're decent size and plants them for succession or back-up plants.  Well, I decided to experiment myself with a decent sized one that I must have missed.  I planted it in the back of my blueberry bed where I had a ton of room in the corner of two fences.  Well, it seemed to take, but silly me, I forgot to water it well during that 90 degree heat we had last week.  I guess I'm spoiled by my SWCs, hehe.  It died of course, but I decided to water it regularly to see if I could revive it.  Sure enough, it looks like it may just pull through.  Wouldn't that be a resilient tomato plant?



Sorry for the poor quality picture, I didn't want to climb into the bed so I zoomed in.  However, you can clearly see new growth on top of the old dead leaves.  I'll keep checking back with this guy to see if it produces anything.

Hehe, continuing the unintentional segways, speaking of blueberries, the plant right next to this tomato is going to be my best producer by far.  Look at all those berries froming...



They almost look ready don't they?  Maybe this is one of my early producers?  It's a Blueray, which matures in July and August, so maybe... Yum!

The next pic is for my good buddy EG who already has corn growing.  I think I told you that I hit these with a shot of fish emulsion yesterday to help them along, hehe.



Notice that some of those stalks are growing side stems at a 45 degree angle?  I'm not sure what to make of that.  I mean last year the stalks did that but not until they were nearly 6 feet tall and the Vs were 3 feet up the stalk.  I wonder if this means I'll grow short corn stalks with multiple ears... wouldn't that be interesting?  I haven't grown this variety before.

Lastly, I wanted to share a pic of my lone watermelon from EG that germinated in a scrap SWC.  It seems to be doing pretty well, but I'm kind of curious about it.  It doesn't look at all like a cantaloupe or other melon plant.  In fact, it looks a LOT like a tomato plant...



I swear the seeds looked like black watermelon seeds, which matches the name, Blacktail Mountain Watermelon or something like that.  EG, you growing them?  At least I think it was EG that gave them to me, maybe Judy... hmm?  That reminds me that I should really lable the envelopes with who gave them to me, to thank them when I get a great crop or something... hehe.

Enjoy your garden!

May 15, 2009

Short post tonight.  We celebrated my father-in-law's 60th birthday today.  It was fun, but that meant I didn't get out into the garden to do anything tonight.  That said, there are a few things I wanted to mention tonight.

First is that although my potato bin traffic has dropped off quite a bit, I just reached 30,000 hits yesterday!  Very cool!  That's the size of the city where I live, hehe.  That and I am proud to say that 1,400 comments have been left on my blog, not including the nearly 3,000 spam comments I've gotten.  Bad news travels fast I guess, hehe.

Other than that, I haven't heard from my family as to our schedule this weekend, but I have some garden chores to do if i get time. 

First off, I have to dig up all my potatoes in bed #4.  Seems I planted them way too shallow.  After emailing KitsapFG, I figured out I need 6-10 inches of dirt over the seed potato. I've got 3 at most.  And while I have about 3 inches of bed space that I could add dirt to the top, I don't have that kind of dirt.  So I really hope they haven't taken root yet.  Not sure if distrubing rooted potates is more like cucumbers or tomatoes.  My guess is tomatoes since they're both nightshades.  Either way, I've got 15 inches or so that I can dig down if necessary, though I don't have the space to trench like KitsapFG does.  I'd have to remove the string grids and my wife would kill me. She spent a ton of time stringing it, hehe.

Other than that, I'd like to water, which won't take much time, but it hasn't rained in about 3 days so everything is probably wanting water.  That and I want to mix up some fish emulsion to fill the reservoirs of the tomato SWCs to give them a boost, especially the Bloody Butcher, that is still lethargic.

Finally, if I have about a half hour I'd like to aerate the compost bin.  I don't have much to add besides a bit of kitchen compost that is mostly paper products. I've been more diligent about saving paper products since I stated mowing and have tons of greens to balance out.  Hehe, that reminds me that I haven't checked the temperature of the bin once this season, but I know it's heating up by the steam a week or two after I build it.  Of course one week is optimal I think for true hot composting, which is my goal.

What are you planning for your garden this weekend?  The weather's supposed to be sunny and nice this whole weekend here in the Seattle area.  How about your area?

Enjoy your garden!

April 30, 2009

Wow, another gorgeous day in the Pacific NW!  When I got home from work I wanted to vent the hoop cover because it was 65 degrees, aka 80+ inside the bed.  However, on the way, I had to take this picture so folks could see what my tomatoes are doing.  They're so droopy it's unreal!



I have no idea what they are, but when I plant them this weekend, they'll not only get the handfull of 5-10-10 organic fertilizer and epsom salt, but I'll hit them with fish emulsion before I cover them with the red plastic mulch. Maybe fertilizer is what they need.  Or maybe they need to be potted up already.  Those are only 2 quart pots.  Of course I guess it cold be a disease carried by the pot. I washed it out very well before I used it. /shrug

Well, while I was venting the bed. I heard the unmistakable sound of kids playing in the back yard (I've taken to closing the gate to keep the kids from pulling the plants out of the garden.  Last week my oldest "harvested" most of the overwintered carrots that ended up in the compost because he wouldn't eat them all.  Then today my youngest "picked" a tulip for mommy, bulb and all.  Joy!

So, after a quick game of tag, aka tire out the kids, we got down to some serious gardening.  I watered the kids bins, the potato bins and the fruit bushes/trees.  Then I decided to fill the bins for planting the corn and watermelon.  Of course I grabbed two bags of used potato dirt from last year.  Again I couldn't believe how many worms were in the sealed bags.  Incredible!  I'll take it for sure.  So the bins got mostly filled with used Mel's Mix.  Then I sprinkled a generous amount of 5-10-10 fertilizer and some bloodmeal for nitrogen in the corn bin. 



Then, on top of all that, I sprinkled a bunch of (mostly) finished compost.  Then I wet it down a bit.



Notice how close the bins are to the blueberry bush.  Well that's temporary for this year only.  You see, I don't plan on letting that bush produce this year so it grows a solid root foundation and sturdy branches.  I did that last year for my first two and I can't wait to let them produce tons of berries!

Oh my word... I just noticed something writing this and looking at the picture above.  I WAS SUPPOSED TO SWITCH THE BINS LOCATIONS!  Now the corn is going to shade the heck out of the carrots.  I sure hope they get enough sun to mature because I really can't move them now Grrrr.

Well, at least the watermelon bin is in the right place.  Tonight after dark I planted four seeds of Black Mountain Watermelon (at least I think it was black), in order to hopefully get 2 plants that I'll let sprawl on the ground behind the rose bush.  Pretty nifty huh? hehe.



The reason that we didn't plant the seeds right away was that we really wanted to go for a walk.  So I decided to soak them.



My wife and youngest are under the weather, but we took it easy (no it's not the swine flu, but we did consider it... symptoms are wrong, but we're watching them).  Anyway, I still burned nearly 1,100 calories on the walk and in the garden.  Not too shabby.  Gardening and exercise.  Life is good. 

Tomorrow morning before work I plan on planting the corn that is soaking overnight.  I am trying Bodacious this time.  It doesn't look like I grew it last year.  If it doesn't work, who cares.  The kids want it and it will be a good way to show them how things grow.

Enjoy your garden!

April 24, 2009

Well, I THOUGHT we had our last frost day last week, but the clear skies yesterday resulted in a cold night.  It got down around 35 is my guess, but it was enough to give us a light frost.  And to think it was bed time when I remembered that I hadn't brought in the plants.  Whew!  Sure the tomatoes probably would have been ok, but I'm not sure about the stevia, which is the only other plants I'm hardening off.

Here's a shot from the kitchen window...



In case you're wondering the yellow funnel in the lower left hand corner is the family chipper shredder.  Since I was the last to use it, it resides here til someone else needs it.

Then, as I was leaving for work, I couldn't help but snap this shot of my coldframe covering the peas germinating in bed #4.  I plan on using my string and 2x2 trellis for that bed since the other bed will get my big trellis again this year.



I must say, I'm happy that the coldframe is really working well.  I planted two rows of squares with peas this spring, but only the peas under my coldframe have germinated at all. 

Well, I took a break from posting and went outside to play with the kids with the main purpose of taking a picture of the sprouting peas.  Didn't happen, daddy was outside so I got distracted.  However, between pushing the little guy on the swing forever, and having the kids help pick their toys up off the grass so I could mow tomorrow, I did take some picks of my blueberry beds.  Here they are, starting with the garlic rows shooting up something fierce once the sun came out this spring.



Now, since Sandy commented on my blueberries, I thought I'd share them getting the afternoon sun.  The first is my favorite from my originals.



And here is other one that is an evergreen that grows in small clumps rather than grape-like bunches.



Now for Sandy's blueberries...



I love how this guy has the arm going over it's head.  Not sure if I should tie them up or not, they seem to be doing fine on their own.

Now for my new favorite...



I am really impressed by this little guy.  It didn't look so good a month ago, kinda like I planted it wrong.  Speaking of which, I was watching Gardening with Ciscoe tonight (TiVo recorded it), and he talked a bit about blueberries.  Apparently if I had planted any of these 1/8th inch too deep they would have died.  Thank goodness I got lucky four times, ROFL.  However, he did say in the PNW that April is the time to fertilize your blueberries with Azalea food for acid loving plants.  I also read last night that mulching with coffee grounds helps blueberries.  So at 10:30, I grabbed a flashlight, my fertilizer and a bag of Grounds for your Garden and went out to fertilize and much my blueberries.  Hehe, you should have seen me.  I would have taken pictures, but they would have turned out horrible.  So take my word for it, it was funny.

All I did was sprinkle a bit of fertilizer around the dripline of the plants, then covered with a bunch of coffee grounds.  Then I watered it all in.  I hope they like it.  Oh, and of course I had to hum REM's Gardening at Night. I'm wierd that way.

Enjoy your garden!