Artickoes

I got the Artichoke seeds planted yesterday. Two of them were already sprouting, hopefully that is a good thing. :) Also, Joe worked a little more on his tomato planting area. Watching him do that made me happy I am planting mine in tubs.

Also, I pulled out the old lettuce and mustard we had growing from the fall. I can not believe it lived through the winter. And, I cannot believe how big it was. The mustard that was growing in the ground was, I would say, about a 3' bush. Joe had to use the shovel to get the roots out! When I pulled that stuff out we found quite a few snails. Some of them already met their maker while the rest might just do that today. I like that quiet crushing sound their shells make when they get tossed in the street. Does that make me a evil?

Today we are planning a trip to Barnes & Noble to look at some more gardening books. I believe Joe has come down with a bad case of "garden fever". I didn't know I was contagious. I will see if I can get him to take a few pictures of stuff today to spice the next entry up a little.

Three Sisters, locked and loaded...

Alright, it was hard work but the area in whic I will be planting the Three Sisters (Corn,Beans and Squash) is all ready to go. The grass that I had to remove in order to get this area ready was like a carpet, only 3,000x worse. But I won. :)

Also this weekend, Joe got the berries planted and he started working on the area where we plan on planting some tomatoes in the ground. Sorry there are no pictures to post of the going-ons this week, I will try to remedy that.

Still on the "to do" list:

*Complete the tomato area.
*Clear area for the Brassica
*Make pea trellis
*Drill holes in tubs, after...
*Getting another load of compost
*Make compost bin
*Plant artichoke seeds
*Make 50+ more newspaper seed pots.

Last Weekend

Here is what we got done in the garden last weekend:

*Bought (and loaded) 19 tubs of compost from the city's composting site.
*Got the first half of the Three Sister planting area all ready to go.
*Started seeds for eggplants and cosmos.

A few of the tomato seed I planted 2 weekends ago are starting to pop up now, I think it should be about another week before the peppers start to show through. All of the marigolds have pretty much popped up. (I am using the marigolds as companion plants to go with the tomatoes). I also picked up 5 packs of flower seeds from Wal Mart for $.20 each so we will see what comes of those.

Also, this week I have been busy making planting containers out of newspaper so there will be larger pots to move the tomatoes and peppers into once they need some more room. I followed these directions, mostly anyway.

And lastly, I heard something about guerrilla gardening this week. Where basically gardeners take ugly, unused public (and private sometimes) land and turn it from an eyesore to a thing of beauty. That got me thinking... ;)

Here is a list of stuff that I need to do in the garden this weekend, weather permitting:

*Start the other half of the" Three Sisters" area
*Start digging up the area I plan on planting the Brassicas
*Dig up the area where the peas are going and build trellis
*Dig along the fence where the cucumbers are going
*Plant the berry vine we have in a plastic bag

Productive

Today was a productive day in the garden. I cleared a patch about 5' x 7' of grass where the corn is going to go, along with some beans and squash. I started my tomato, pepper, and marigold seeds. I got the artichoke seeds in the fridge (like the package said to do).

We even made a trip to Lowe's and bought some compose and fertilizer for the garden, HALF OFF. We are good shoppers. :)

The beautiful weather we had to day is already gone, now is is raining so I will not be able to finish up the area I was working on (The place we are going to plant the corn), but I am still very happy with what we got done today.

Here are some pictures of what is going on in the garden today:


Our first crop of carrots got plucked out.



A shot of me digging up grass.



And finally, a shot of the bins we are going to recycle into growing containers. :)

Organization!

Last night I made this awesome little seed organizer (from an old salad container).



Now everything is in alphabetical order and protected for the weather. :)

Ello, Ello

Welcome! I am Michelle and this is going to serve as my garden blog/journal/whatevs. :D

My boyfriend and I had a small garden last year which turned out some really great tomatoes, amongst other things. That garden basically sums up all of my gardening experience to date.

For this coming Spring we have decided to grow more veggies, which makes me very happy. But for right now we have a few things still growing out there from last growing season. The things that are still growing out there are Onions (White & Yellow), Garlic, and Carrots mostly.



As you can see, we are still dealing with "baby" carrots.

The seeds have arrived

All of the seed I have ordered are now here. The last order just got here today (We ordered mainly from Gurney's). This is what I will be growing this Spring:
Peppers (Jalapenos,Sweet Peppers,Bell Peppers, & Banana)
Bush Beans
Beets
Cucumbers (Slicing & Pickling)
Eggplant
Gourds (For making Birdhouses)
A variety of lettuce (including Butter Lettuce, my favorite)
Watermelon
Cantaloupe
Bunching Onions
Artichoke
Peas (2 kinds)
Radishes
Tomatoes (Chocolate Cherry, Brandywine, and a variety of other Heirlooms)
Sunflowers
Luffa
Corn
Pumpkins
Black Beans


There is supposed to still be about 8-9 weeks until the last frost so I should have enough time to get everything ready.

Projects I can think of that need to be done:
Compost Pile
Get area for Corn all ready