Beans & Squash

Tonight I set up some stake tripods, transplanted my lima beans and zucchini, and planted green beans from seed. Yesterday I moved the volunteer pumpkins from the front flower bed to the veggie garden. I watered everything until the ground was saturated. Then a storm came up. Lots of wind and rain. I hope it isn't damaging the tender transplants....

Watering, Weeding, and Asparagus

Yesterday, while Matthew napped, I went jogging and then buckled down to the garden. I rearranged soaker hoses to start watering the front flower bed, where the pansy seeds are. I watered the veggie garden, the flower bed, the peach tree, and the asparagus patch.

Then Matthew awoke, actually I accidentally woke him up - oops. But it was nice warm weather out, so I plopped him in the stroller and he watched me weed the veggie patch. I got a lot done before he started getting antsy. Then I delivered him to Dave to watch flint knapping for a while. Matthew enjoyed the change of scenery.

While watering the asparagus, I discovered my first asparagus stalk. It's an itsy bitsy wimpy asparagus stalk, but I think that's to be expected since it's the first year. Seriously, it's almost as skinny as a blade of grass, but it's standing proud. I'll be watching for 9 more baby asparagus stalks coming up soon.

After all the watering, it rained last night, more or less negating the effort. Nevertheless, the soaker hoses needed rearranging, and I got quite a few weeds pulled.

Bill gave us a wheelbarrow full of mushroom soil that's weed free to use for fertilizer and mulch. This is the first year they've used this stuff so it's kind of experimental. I'm really hoping it's not only weed free but also mushroom free because if mushrooms get started, I have no idea if they can ever truly be stopped....

By the way, the peas are looking great, and the spinach is starting to show its first true leaves.

Weather today through Tuesday: 56/36 T-storms, 56/31 sunny, 54/36 sunny, 56/43 chance of storm. We may get even more natural watering. :)

Beautiful Weeding Weather

Today we have beautiful Springtime weather, perfect for gardeners gardening and plants growing. I spent an hour of Matthew's nap weeding the veggie patch. The peas haven't come up yet. I wonder how long until they do.

I also assembled the mini Black & Decker cultivator that I got for Christmas. The battery has been charging since 10:30 this morning, so 9 hours from then - around 7:30 tonight - it should be ready to dig up the flower border on either side of the sidewalk so I can plant my pansies.

Would you believe I have a tulip blooming and another about to? My crocuses are still blooming and my daffodils haven't even started yet!

As for details on the weather... it's currently 63.5 degrees out with an expected low of 45. Saturday through Tuesday will be 52/47/rain, 67/40/tstorms & showers, 59/38/sunny, 59/43/sunny.

Another Shopping Trip at Kingstown

We bought the manure and the soaker hoses at Kingstown Farm Home and Garden, one of my favorite places to buy gardening supplies. Yesterday, Matthew and I made another stop there. We got a pair of pruning shears that I'll use to cut back last year's dead growth in my flower bed, and probably for other things too.

I also got a packet of pansy seeds. If I can get away with sowing them directly in the garden, I can get more plants for 1/10 the price. The packet I got says you can plant the seeds outside 2-4 weeks before the last frost.

Uh, we'll call the last frost date April 15 - tax day. Which means I can plant them anytime! Maybe even today. Ann says it's lovely weather out. 60 degrees. :)

Packet for the Pansies says 1/8" deep, 1" apart, thin to 4-6" apart when 1" tall. Emerges in 10-20 days. Hopefully they'll do well.

Planting Asparagus Roots

This morning, while I took care of Matthew, Dave watered all the trees we planted yesterday, AND dug a 2' by 8' trench, one foot deep for the asparagus.

I got the stroller out, so Matthew could sit and watch me plant the asparagus, but had to feed him first, and he fell asleep, so I left him in the crib and took the monitor with me.

I mixed the remainder of an open bag of manure into the trench with some dirt and created mounds over which to spread the asparagus roots. I spread the roots over the mounds and began refilling the trench. At which point Dave offered to take over and the refilling commenced at a much faster pace. Meanwhile, I carried water for the asparagus.

Thank you, Dave. You're the best!

While we were out working in the garden, we discovered a couple of tears in the pea trellis, so Dave got out the twine, and I repaired it. I hope it'll be sturdy enough for the peas. I almost wonder if we should jump ship on this version of pea support and go for a heavy duty trellis netting or Burpee's pea fence. Of course the netting costs $11 for 30' and the fence costs $32 for 16' or $56 for 32'. Maybe I'll give the twine a chance and see how it does.

The forecasted weather for today through Tuesday is 50/31, 59/34, 49/27, 49/31 with clouds on Saturday and Tuesday and sun on Sunday and Monday. I hope the new trees will be all right with nighttime temperatures getting down below freezing.

Soil Testing

I collected a sample of dirt from my new garden for testing. This was a while ago. Before the rain (still misting), before the cow manure, before the peas were planted, etc. It's been sitting in a dishpan drying and waiting to be sent off for analysis.

Ann picked up some soil test bags labeled Agri Analysis, Inc. from somewhere in Centreville. She offered to drop mine off there today since she'll be in Centreville for a meeting. I presume this is associated in some way with University of Maryland or the Extension service or something, but I don't know any more details.

The test costs $13 (another step toward that $64 tomato?) and should be well worth it because it'll tell me what could be improved about my soil for the future.

As an aside, Google Weather's forecast for today through Friday is 54/34, 61/43, 58/31, and 49/31 with rain today and Thursday. Not bad weather for germinating. :)

Cow Manure, Peas, and Spinach

Last week, I spread 800 pounds (twenty 40-pound bags) of cow manure in my new 20' by 20' garden. Bill tilled it in for me. So I was ready to begin planting this weekend.

Yesterday I planted a row of Garden Peas and a row of Spinach, both from Rohrer Seeds in Pennsylvania. The peas are Early Frosty (64 day maturity, 24 inch height). The catalog description reads:

64 days (24 in.). Our most popular home garden variety produces
uniform, dark green blunt pods tightly filled with delicious peas. Wilt resistant variety with excellent yields, vigor and freezing quality.

I hadn't intended to plant spinach. But I had space, and lots of leftover seeds from Ann and Bill from last year. And I noticed they could be planted early (March 15-August 15) and matured quickly (48 days) so they'd be out of the way in time for my summer planting. The variety is Bloomsdale. The description reads:

Savoy-leaved. The first early, vigorous variety. Desirable for local gardens. Plants erect in growth, hardy and attractive. Leaves large, crumpled, somewhat blistered, dark glossy green.

With the peas, I'm doing a sort of experiment. Half of the seeds I planted were soaked overnight (actually closer to 21 hours by the time they got planted). One quarter were soaked for several hours (about 4). And the remaining quarter were moistened at the last moment so the inoculant would stick. I planted half the overnight seeds, then the several hours seeds, then the dry seeds, followed last by the remaining overnight seeds. We'll see if this makes a difference in the germination of the seeds.

The sprinkler I bought that's supposed to water a 30' by 30' square area barely reached 10' by 10'. I need to reevaluate my watering plans. Happily it rained quite a bit last night, and is supposed to continue raining for several days, so I didn't have to worry about an initial watering. Just so it gets warm quickly enough that the seeds don't rot before they germinate....

The forecasted weather for the next few days beginning with today is 49/38, 52/36, 52/38, 58/43, 59/36.