The zuccihinis and beans got transplanted and the third potato. The last potato gets transplanted today. All the seedlings are going strong and getting big. I actually have a few more seeds to start although it's getting kind of late to do so. With the greenhouse, it should be ok to go ahead and do so. Will update the left side bar when I'm done.

We have two new young Geraniums...the children accidently knocked off a couple of branches from one of the others and they have successfully grown roots. I'll probably pot those next week.

We have a new tiny Viola that one of my daughters "rescued" from the rocks at Grammy's house a couple of weeks ago. That's potted and seems well.

I have a horrendous headache but I'm going out to putz around in the yards because the clear blue sky and sun, sun, sun are too much to resist! Plus, the plants, flowers, etc. are theraputic to be around even if it's just looking at them. I'll probably mostly end up lounging on the deck and reading. We've had some gloomy weather and have been deligent with our various work so we all deserve to take the day off.

That's it for gardening news. Blessings until next time... :-)

Haven't done much gardening. When the sun broke out for a while Thurs. (after being overcast for the last couple of days), I putzed in the backyard a bit. Raked a little. The potatoes look great and don't need my attention. Except, they do need a third stacking box that my dh has yet to build... Watered the starts in the greenhouse. Everything looks great in there too. The other two potatoes need transplanting but I'll only be able to do one as I have only two stackable boxes and need two more. (These two ended up a little too big to use over the other two stacks.) The beans and the squash are ready for bigger containers as Memorial Day is our last frost date and I'm not taking any chances putting them in the ground...raised boxes or not, covered or not. That's what the greenhouse is for - protection!!! Anyway, they need to be transplanted and I'm shooting for this afternoon.

Thurs. I also raked a little in the front yard. I putzed a bit in the raspberry patch too. It's turning into quite a jungle out there already!!! Clipped some of the grass and cut a few more old canes I had missed. I ended up cutting two or three good ones too unfortunately as I'm using these bigger branch trimmers. Ugh. Maybe I'll get to the home improvement center this afternoon and pick up some nice one hand clippers...I seem to have more and more things I need them for and have wished for them often. Yup, that would be a good idea...

Garden To Do List
Transplant one potato.
Transplant beans and squash.
Buy hand clippers.

A blessed weekend to all! :-)

Friday, I finished raking and cutting out old/damaged canes in the raspberry patch. Hacked out a bunch more skunk cabbage. Blech.

Saturday, watered all the starts and potatoes really well as we were leaving to go out of town.

Monday, everything looked great! Temps didn't drop too much and I'm really thankful about that! :-) Rainy afternoon so no outside work. Glad it rained as the raspberry patch needed a good watering but I didn't have time for it before we left.

Tuesday, today, rainy again. Good for the raspberry patch again! The grass has already gotten really tall out there though (and around other parts of the yard) so I'll have to cut it when the rain stops. The leaves on everything have really gotten big over the last few days! Sooo nice and pretty! The front Lilac even has small buds (flowers and leaves) on it. A lot more flower buds this year! Yay!

That's it for gardening news for now.

Have a blessed day! :-)

After everybody left for a couple of hours (see family journal for that) and the baby went for a nap, I concentrated most of my time in the raspberry patch. First though, I checked out how the potatoes were doing. I had uncovered them earlier in the morning but didn't take a close look. They were doing great! Already perked up and enjoying their new space! Then, into the greenhouse to pot some more seeds. New things in the left side bar of course... The raspberry patch is almost done being raked and the old canes cut out. Also, I tried to find every one of the Skunk Cabbages that I could to hack out! Awful stuff! Bleck. I think it's a wild celery...but I wouldn't eat it if I were starving! It would probably hasten my death anyway as I think I'm allergic to it. It smells horrid...thus it's name...and the fumes when I cut it back when it's bigger make me nauseaus. Also, I get a very itchy light rash. Yuck. So, I tried to find them this year while they are small to get them out of there. I'll probably finish it up this afternoon and give it a good watering. I have a couple more stackable potato boxes so I'm going to transplant a third one. I don't think I'll start anymore seeds today... New pictures in the right side bar. Click on the descriptions for a closer view.

This is my second time attempting this...some how I lost the first one. Waah, I hate it when that happens because I can never remember exactly what I wrote and it's always better the first time. Anyway, here we go...

Yesterday was another beautiful day! Mid-hi 70Fs and must have been pushing 80F in direct sun...I forgot to check the therometer when the sun finally got around to shining on it...but I can gauge it pretty well by feel now. I forgot my sunscreen again but seemed to have escaped burning...except on my forehead a little...that's attractive! LOL

We finally managed to get outside around 1pm yesterday. I started digging and pulling up sod next to the west wall of the shed so that we can put a looooong box there specifically for the Hollyhocks. I'm not sure what else I'll put in there just yet...more flowers or herbs or veggies...not sure... Since that is where the strawberries were, I was also digging up those as I went along and setting them aside to go into their own box. The logs for the "real" greenhouse have to be hauled around and resituated so we are trying to keep all the gardening "stuff" close to the shed out of the way. That means moving the main garden box from last year too. So, with that in mind, I began to remove the dirt to use in the potato boxes which I had lined up in front of where I want the long box with space in between for weeding purposes. I read a long time ago about a man who used old tires to stack up and grow potatoes in. Well, not wanting old ugly tires stacked around our backyard, we have decided to motify the concept using 2 ft x 2 ft stackable boxes. The idea is that as the potato plant grows taller you stack another box on top and cover the plant forcing it up even more producing a longer root system and thus a good amount of potatoes on one plant. For harvesting, you remove a box at a time and brush off the dirt and viola' there are the potatoes just waiting there for you to grab. Sounds great! We'll see how it works out... So, I moved enough dirt to fill and plant two of the potatoes that needed it the most with 2 boxes apiece. I forgot to mention that dh had made these when he started the coldframe/greenhouse. He now needs to make more...I hope the other two potatoes hold out... After that, I started some more seeds in the greenhouse! It isn't quite done. Dh has been working on it a little bit here and there over the past few days. There are only a couple of spaces near the top that still need plastic...so almost done! :-) It sure did get toasty in there though...I was close to sweating just standing in there planting seeds. Yay!

That about wrapped up the day. We went in for dinner, story and bedtime. After the children were in bed, I had to go out and cover the potatoes with plastic as the night before dropped down into the hi 30Fs and I didn't want to take any chances. Last night, it stayed above 40F so I think they are ok...I'll go out soon and check.

As I'm typing, I can see that some leaves actually beginning to open up on some of the raspberry canes. I really must get out today and finish up raking/trimming/weeding in there. My vision is to make it like an English garden. Dh built a log/twig bench in there a couple of years ago and has most of the paths lined with rocks but it's been a while since we really did much of anything else...in fact last year we didn't do anything...didn't even get the old canes cut back. I started to (as mentioned in the archives of my main blog) but pooped out early. I did have a newborn though...so I can't be too hard on myself. ;-) This year though I have big plans for it...granted I'll be as big as my plans too! We'll see how it all pans out I guess... ;-)

That's it for gardening news right now. This was definitely an edited version of the previous post I had...oh well. I think I managed to remember all the main points. LOL Check the left side bar for what's new...

A blessed day to all! :-)

Most of last week was cloudy and/or rainy so we didn't do much outside. Saturday was really nice though!! The thermometer was pushing 75F shaded so it must have been 80F on the deck in the sun. The snow is completely gone now from my gardening areas and yards. Hurray! I finally made it out about 1:30pm or so and spent the rest of the afternoon raking along the driveway and got started cleaning out the raspberry patch. Clipping back the spent canes, those that started to grow in the paths and some that were damaged. I remember last year mentioning in my main blog that some big animal had gone through there and bent over/broke a good section of canes... Well, those went too although it was killing me because many of them had leaf buds and some were even starting to open. It couldn't be helped though. Many were bent/broken so that they laid right over...into the paths or would have interfere with other canes and their growth. Oh well. As we "compost" much of that kind of material around the property, I know those canes will grow else where and produce a "surprise" patch for the children that they can pick from to their hearts content (without Mama shooing them out saying, "Those are for the freezer!" ;-) ) I also clipped back some alders that get out of control every year (along the entrance to the raspberry patch) and hacked up some Skunk Cabbage...I can't stand that stuff!!! The patch is large and far from done and hopefully I can finish some time this week. Also on Saturday, Dh actually, finally, really did start on the cold-frame/mini-greenhouse on the deck and took pics of that too to prove it. ;-) I also poked around in the garden box breaking up clods of dirt from emptied containers from the tomatoes last year and pulled some weeds just sprouting and the old squash plants and a few other things.


Sunday was dark and drizzly and gloomy ALL day so no gardening...

Monday was partly sunny cloudy again...I think the clouds had the upper hand though and we didn't go out. But yesterday...!!! Another glorious day of sunshine!!! Again, mid-hi 70F's and reaching 80F's in the full sun. I spent most of the day on the deck reading and watching Q. He always has so much fun being "independent" going in and out of the house on his own and just amusing himself with whatever he finds out there...toys, daddy's tools, etc. ;-) I also had to stay in close proximity to our oldest as she was working on school work and needed help frequently. I got a bit sunburned...it always feels so good to lounge in the sun though after such a long winter that I completely forget about the time and sunscreen. It's not too bad but still I hate the least damage to my skin. Anyway, I wanted to get out to the raspberry patch and finish up but it just didn't happen. I did assist dh with the "greenhouse" a bit...he ran out of staples though when hanging the plastic so he had to run to the hardware store but that kind of put an end to it as he got busy with other things on his return. Perhaps we'll finish that up today??? I hope so! Taking the plants in and out, in and out of the house is a labor of love definitely but I'm always afraid I'm going to forget (like I did to the geraniums one day last week...thankfully it wasn't one of the days the temp dropped for the rain!!)...and it does get a little "old" sometimes...especially when you have a lot of things started... Anyway, I hope. ;-) I did manage to get out into the backyard for a bit in the later afternoon and turned the soil in the garden box. (We found a couple interesting grubs that fascinated the children for a while...) I also put some compost in it. I'll need to get some peat moss soon as it definitely needs more organic matter...it's still rather hard...not fluffy. ;-) I checked out the strawberry patch too. They will definitely have to be dug up and put in a box as they are concentrating too much on producing runners and not fruit. Oh, and I pruned the lilac out back just a touch too. It's much taller than me but I got what was needed most. I checked the mint too...I'm not sure it survived this year. I'll give it a couple more weeks...

That's all the garden news for now. Hopefully, I'll get some pics up some time this week...although it's early in the season and there isn't much to see just yet. ;-)

A blessed and productive day to all! :-)