Weekend Yard Maintenance

It is cold again, and the excitement I was feeling for spring has dwindled as I haven't had time to work the entire work week. However, now that it is Friday I'm getting my plans in place for the weekend. It is supposed to rain on Sunday, so I will play on putting down some Preen Vegetable Garden Weed Preventer around my vegetables and some Preen Garden Weed Preventer around my flowers. I realized this last week the the two different containers in my shed were actually two different products. I'm sure I knew this when I purchased them and just forgot since last summer. It turns out the Preen Vegetable Garden Weed Preventer can be used around edibles, but the Preen Garden Weed Preventer can not. I am just lucky that when I put the Preen around my asparagus I was using the vegetable variety.

I also need to cut down the ornamental grass. I haven't figured out the best way to do this yet, I just use a hand saw, which I'm sure can not be the best tool for the job. If anyone has a really good method of doing this please let me know.

Happy weekend and and happy yard work!

Watering Seedlings

I'm finally over the cold I've been fighting the last couple of days, and didn't kill my seedlings when I forgot to water them for two and half days. In fact, they seem to have thrived with my neglect, as my plants always seem to do. This is actually something I can't stress enough, you have to deprive your seedlings of water occasionally once they start growing. If you keep watering them every day and keep the soil moist constantly, not only will you grow nice green stuff on top of your soil, but you will have plants with little tiny root systems that will try and die on you the moment you plant them in the garden. Once my plants have their true leaves, I water them less and less frequently, letting the soil dry out before watering. This prompts the plants to expand their root systems in search of water. I also water them from the bottom by pouring water into the tray beneath the seedlings so the roots go down further instead of hanging out at the top of the soil.
Don't forget to pay attention to what the seedlings are telling you though, if they get droopy and the soil is drying out, then water them. It's more important to listen to the signals the plants send you than to follow a set schedule.

Working In The Yard With The Baby

I wanted to share my solution for the baby in the garden. I originally thought about wearing him while I was working, but with moving brush and tearing out weeds I tend to get myself covered in dust and fragments and that didn't seem like a good idea. So I found this thing online, and I love it. It's the Summer Infant Pop 'n Play Portable Playard. The neat thing is that the bottom is like a tarp, so the wet ground can't soak through, and it folds up into about the size of a camping chair. My son just played nicely by himself for an hour while I did some yard cleanup on Saturday.

Starting Tomatoes Inside

This morning I started my tomato seeds inside. I'm growing 5 varieties this year: Federle , Big Mama, Italian Heirloom, German Pink, and Stupice. I'm also planting the eggplant Rosa Bianca seeds in the tomato tray.
I get kind of busy in the spring, so I'm cheating this year and sowing my seeds directly into 2 inch pots. I'll still have to transplant them into larger pots but since I always plant extra I'll only have to transplant about half of these. The rest will remain on backup until I know the garden plants will survive.

Front Flower Bed Project

This is my first project for the new year. This "flower bed" has been a mass of weeds ever since we moved into this house, and I've only ever had time to knock the weeds down. Finally this last fall the plum tree that was in the bed died and split in half, so I've decided that the whole bed needs to be redone from the dirt up.
First of all, I need to remove the tree and a bunch of the soil that has accumulated on top the black fabric that must have been laid down as a weed preventer. Now it just serves as something for the weed roots to dig into so you can't tear them out.

Then I need to fix the retaining wall. These blocks are VERY heavy, so I think I'll have to get out my husband's engine hoist to get them back into place. I'll also have to move the bottom stones and reset them. The whole wall is so unstable.

Once these chores are done, I'll be able to plant something. Yeah! 

Vegetable Garden Plan for 2015

My garden plan is finally set in stone. I got some interesting pepper seeds from a co-worker that I wanted to incorporate and ended up having some extra room when I realized I was out of Bulgarian Carrot pepper seeds, but that is the final change I am making. (I say this every year and it's never true.)

The software I used to make this is the Garden Planner from growveg.com. I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to laying out my garden and planning everything ahead of time, and I've found this is the best tool for it. You can see the garden details and plant list here.

Starting a Blog for the New Year

While most people may think that the new year starts in January, it always feels to me like the new year doesn't begin until the first Snow Drops bloom. Happy New Year! It is finally spring and I can put on my boots and start working in the yard. Granted, it's a muddy mess, so I can't start digging up the flower bed I want to redo, but I can make sure all the debris is cleaned up and put some Preen down on the established beds.  I'm trying to get a head start on the weeds which are already starting to grow with the unseasonably warm weather we had last week.
This year is going to be different than years past - I'm trying to figure out the best way to juggle a six month old baby and a garden. I put him out next to the garden on some blankets the other day, but the ground was so water-logged when I knelt down next to him the moisture seeped all the way through three blankets and my overalls. We went back inside.
It's also the time to start seeds. My spring vegetables have already grown their first true leaves, and my pepper plants should be germinating soon. Next comes the tomatoes this weekend.
I love spring.