I spent two hours outside today and got all of the tomatos, peppers, cucumbers and herbs set out. I still have 44 little broccoli waiting for my attention, but they look okay in their nursery pots. Good thing, because I won't get them in the dirt until Monday.

I hilled the earth up around my volunteer potato plants, and gave them some compost as well.

I'm just fascinated by compost: one takes garbage and it becomes 'brown gold'. It's wonderful. I will plan to do a whole entry on compost at a later date. Anyone with a patch of yard can (and IMO should) make compost - if nothing else, one can spread it on one's lawn or around one's flowers; it's not just for vegetables.

Lastly, I moved a 'volunteer' pumpkin plant to where I want pumpkins to grow. It didn't look so good, but hopefully, it will perk up tomorrow.

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I set out all my herb starts, seven of the tomato plants, and a dozen of the pepper plants. My mom came over to help (we only had about an hour and a half) and she pulled weeds and levelled things, and started planting pea seeds. I also watered all the other starts that are still straining in their little plastic cages.

As I was setting out the transplants, I had the first-time joy of giving each plant a large handful of my own homemade compost. What a delight that is! It even looks and smells rich. :)

I have three potato plants that are 'volunteers' from last year. Since I was unable to get seed potatoes, I'm certainly doing to let these grow. I think I'll save them for seed for next year. I doubt they'll be enough for more than a meal or two, if we just ate them now. By saving them, I'm guaranteed at least some seed next time.

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The fence is up around the garden plot, and yesterday, I went to the nursery. I needed to buy all my stuff for this year at one time because I had a terrific 20% off coupon!  I'm so excited!

I got most of what I needed. It's too late for strawberries and they were completely out of seed potatoes. Some of the other things, I didn't get exactly the variety of plant that I had originally intended, but what I did get should work just fine. I was actually pretty pleased by the selection, despite the late date.

I bought:

Vegetable starts: 2 grape tomato, 21 sauce tomato, 4 cucumber (I haven't grown cukes before), 16 bell pepper, 4 jalapeno pepper, and 44 broccoli (I wanted more, but that was all they had left).

Herbs (in 3.5-inch pots): 2 English thyme, 2 Greek oregano, 2 Genovese basil, 1 BBQ rosemary, 1 Arp rosemary, 1 Tricolor sage, 1 Berggarten sage, and 1 dill. Herbs are all new to my garden, but I have a nice area set aside for the perennials.

Seeds: corn, shelling peas, green onion, and parsnips. I have plenty of other seeds left over.

Oops and two blueberry bushes - sorry about that, honey, someone must have slipped those into my cart...but since they're here, would you mind digging holes and planting them?

Now...to get them, and all the other seeds into the ground.

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This year, my plans include:

Strawberries

Herbs: basil, oregano, sage, bay laurel, cilantro, chives, dill, spearment, rosemary, thyme

Carrots

Onions (yellow - for storage through the winter)

Green onions

Parsnips

Spinach

Tomatoes (sauce tomatoes, fresh salad tomatoes & cherry tomatoes)

Lettuce (some for us and plenty for the ducks, as well)

Peppers (bell peppers to chop & freeze, and one hot pepper plant)

French beans

Pole beans

Dow Gauk (an asian vegetable called the 'yard-long bean' - it's supposed to taste like asparagus)

Zucchini

Pumpkin

Sugar snap peas (the kind you eat in the pod)

Shelling peas (the kind you shell and eat as little round green things)

Broccoli

Corn

Potatoes

Sunflowers

I'd like to add a couple of more blueberry bushes, a couple more small apple trees, and a special apricot variety that will grow in this climate, but I think, budget-wise, I may need to wait until next year.

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As well it should be! :)

One Saturday in mid-March, Randy rented a gasoline-powered sod cutter. A finer tool I have never seen! In only 45 minutes (and $48 of our cash), it cut the sod off of 600 square feet of lawn, leaving only dark dirt and confused worms. It then took another two hours to actually remove the neat rows of sod. With them we created "the mountain," which is the girls' new favorite play area.

The duck are currently making "deposits" onto straw covering the new area. I'm planning to keep them there through the middle or end of this month, actually rotating through a few different locations.

So the end result is that this year's garden will be 30ft by 35ft, a total of 1050 square feet - compared to my 866 square-foot house. I love it!

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Today, I started broccoli seeds indoors. :)

It's a first step!! Yay!

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I know, I know, it's so early!! But I've got spring fever. My mind is so full of all the things I want to grow. I got outside yesterday for four hours, most of which was spent cutting sod by hand.

In that time, I realized something very basic about myself. I like being outside. It makes me feel good in ways that I cannot explain.

I began to notice this last August when I started line-drying our clothes. I was doing it for financial and environmental reasons, but I found myself really looking forward to those fifteen minutes outside. Sheets were getting washed more frequently - just so I could have a reason to get outside.

This year I've decided to increase my garden space. I'm going to end up somewhere between tripling it and quadrupling it. There are so many things I want to grow! So many things I want to experiment with! At first, I thought that I should be conservative: just double it this year and see how it goes. If it goes well, I can always add more next year and the year after. Then I realized that - given my age - I probably only have 30 more gardens left to me, and I'd better make the most of it. NOW! Life is too short to be conservative.

Part of the decision should be credited to two cyber friends: Rhonda, who said, "Push the boundaries, Valerie, it's the only way of really knowing what you can do - both in your garden and life in general." And Diane, who put it a bit more clearly with, "Life is meant to be lived and dirt is meant to plowed...or tilled...or lasagna layered....or anything as long as it's for gardening purposes! Lawns are for wimps! "

Hence five hours of sod-cutting in the last two days. To say I'm a little sore would be an understatement, but you can bet that if it's not raining tomorrow, I'll be out there again!

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I got in two hours of gardening time this morning. Here is what I accomplished, what I need to do and some of my musings.

Examined all fruit trees.

Small buds are beginning to form.

Last year, the birds were eating most of the cherries on the grafted cherry tree, so I used twine to dangle discarded compact discs from the branches. (I used a lot of those AOL discs that turn up everywhere.) The discs spin and twist and throw around light. It’s supposed to scare the birds. It didn’t work, so I took them down today. Had I chosen to leave them, I would have made sure that none were too tight for the growing branches. I don’t know what I’ll do to discourage birds this year. The tree is small, so I’m not feeling generous about sharing.

The Rainier cherry trees have now been in for two years, so I gently removed the stakes that were supporting them. They each have two or three main branches growing almost straight up. I’m going to have my husband help me train them to an open leader. You can read more about training young trees at: http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/ag29.html .

I’ve been thinking about my big black compost barrel.

Because of its design, it’s not easy to stir the compost. Stirring is important as it keeps the pile well aerated (oxygenated). I decided that another container might be more practical.

We have a large wooden box sitting in the yard. It is about 2ft x 4ft. Originally, my husband built it for me when I wanted to have a worm bin. You can read more about vermiculture at http://www.knowledgehound.com/topics/compost.htm . (Scroll down, the worm links are near the bottom.) That was a few years ago and my worms all moved away very quickly.

About two years ago, Randy added height to the box, and a top that was half solid and half screened with ½” wire mesh. The solid section is easily lifted off. We used it to house the ducklings when they were babies. Since then, it’s been sitting unused.

Today, I brought that box up right next to my compost barrel and pressed it back into service. I transferred the top layers of compost into it. Those layers have not broken down much yet, probably because I haven’t been diligent about stirring it regularly. I also added some soiled straw that was sitting in pile, rotting away (rotting in a good compost sort of way). I found lots of worms in the straw and was happy to add them to my box. They will help break down the material more quickly.

About once a week, I empty my kitchen compost bucket (this is mine: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...WCT202&n=284507 , but I bought mine elsewere) into the outside compost bin. I’ve made a promise to myself to stir the compost every time I add to it.

The bottom of the compost barrel contained about 8 inches of nearly ready compost, which I will add to the garden in the spring. I am shocked at how much material it needed to produce a small amount of compost.

Berries

I started weeding the strawberries-got about half done. There’s a lot of grass that grows around them. It’s the kind that spreads with runners. I need to find a way to stop the grass at the edge of the berry bed. There are two blueberry bushes with the strawberries. I read recently that both prefer and acidic mulch, such as pine needles. Perhaps that would discourage the grass. I’ll check with a local tree removal service about getting some free chippings. Our raspberries also need some mulch this year. I wonder if they too prefer acid. I wouldn’t surprise me, as they are similar to blackberries, which thrive in acidic soil.

Garden hardware inventory

I went around the yard, checked behind the shed, etc and counted up beanpoles and fence stakes and tomato cages. The tomato cages I have are way to wimpy for my tomato plants, but I thought they might serve well to support the peas, which don’t need a whole lot of support anyway. I’ll be using fence stakes and chicken wire to cage my tomatoes this year. I also have to completely fence my garden to keep out neighbor dogs. Fortunately, chicken wire is enough of a deterrent.

Tiger pit

Doesn’t every suburban yard have a tiger pit?  My husband dug out a large hole several years ago. It collects excess grass clippings and oddments not suitable for the compost, such as a diseased vine. I did – upon one occasion – also toss a dead mouse into the tiger pit. It’s now nearly full and Randy was thinking that he would need to dig a new one this year. I looked at it today however, and I think that it’s decomposing (and therefore sinking) quickly enough that it’ll be good for another year, at least.

Random thoughts

I wonder if a cold frame would serve as a really fast composter during the warm season.

The barrel that collects rain from the roof of the shed is used to water the berries in the summer. Is it full?

I’m wondering if there’s anything with shallow roots (because of the septic system) that I could plant along the north side of the house. Currently there’s a big ugly bush – which neither of us like, a small fern, and a lot of nothing.

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You bet!

This afternoon, it actually wasn't raining! The girls were rough-housing and I thought, "They need some excersize," so we went outside.

I had some duck chores to do (cleaning feeders), so I took care of those. When I got done, the children were very involved in a game of Pocahontas and the Little English Girl, so I found more things to do.

I weeded the cold frame that contains 3 leaf lettuce plants and 4 spinach. It's sooooooo slow. I planted it in September (I think) and the spinach is up to six leaves per plant. The lettuce is coming along fairly well, though.

I also weeded the garlic. I planted the cloves last fall and they're not due to be ready until July, but (like a certain little monkey), I was very curious. So I gently dug around one to see what was going on --- not much. No bountiful cloves. But the clove that the greenery grew from is starting to split, so perhaps many lovely cloves of garlic are forming right now.

I watered my compost barrel (used for food scraps) and added a bit of straw and brown leaves to it. I keep thinking it's time to stop adding to this one, and start another, but... well, for one thing, I don't have another barrel. Because I compost so many food scraps, and because we've seen rats in the "Way Back" (see drawing of property in previous post), I'm not comfortable using an open compost system. Currently my compost is in an "Earth Machine." You can see one here: http://www.composters.com/docs/bins_p2.html. I don't know about this site, as we got ours for $20 when the local utility got a special purchase of them.

- - -

I've spent a lot of time lately working on my garden plans for the spring. I'm very eager to get started! In fact, I even checked the soil temperature today, hoping I might find that it was warm enough to plant SOMETHING! At 42*F, it wasn't.

In past years, I've done some plants in traditional rows, but others, such as carrots and lettuce in 1-foot wide beds. Last year - on the recommendation of approximately 762 people- I read Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening. I recommend this book for begining to intermediate gardeners. I applied his principles and did about 2/3 of my garden in the 4ft x 4ft squares that he recommends. The other 1/3 was a 3ft x 17ft bed of potato plants.

This year, I've read Getting the Most from your Garden - using advanced intensive gardening techniques. It was published by Rodale - known for Organic Gardening magazine & Prevention magazine - in 1980. This book recommends 5ft x 20 foot planting beds and has in-depth information on root systems and companion planting. It also strongly recommends sowing seeds indoors and then transplanting, in order to extend the season. I can't do that (because of my cat, who likes to eat green things), but I am changing my beds, and am working with graph paper to get a plan sketched out. This system is even more efficient (in terms of square footage) than Square Foot Gardening. I was pretty amazed by what I could fit in.

A big advantage to close planting is that very little weeding is necessary. The plants provide a 'living mulch" for each other. What remaining ground is exposed, I cover with straw. I rarely have to weed after that point.

When I get my plan finished, I'll post a drawing.

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