Who needs flowers?

Why would you want flowers when you have these beautiful plants that you can eat too?

Bush beans that have only been up about a week.

Red iceburg lettuce

Forrellenschlus lettuce

Tomatoes, Asparagus & Mulch

Today I weeded the garden beds, planted the 19 tomatoes, watched Aaron rip his hands to shreds as he pounded in my rebar tomato stakes, got straw on most of the beds, planted sunflowers, and planted the asparagus after Aaron was kind enough to dig the trenches.

A few tomatoes seem to have gotten sunburn, even though they've already been outside for about a week and a half. Any idea what's going on?

The bush beans are coming up! :)

Potatoes

Sometime this winter I bought some organic potatoes at the local co-op with the intention of eating them...but that never happened. My parents were in town last weekend, and when Dad saw them in the closet, he said I should plant them. I think my husband wanted to buy some power tools, so he offered to build a potato box. For his first try with the circular saw, it wasn't bad. I'm sure my next potato box will be perfect :) Supposedly you can grow 100 pounds of potatoes in this thing. We'll see. If it works, we're ready to buy seed potatoes next year and have 2 or 3 of these boxes.

Pretend this is dated April 23

I have been neglecting the blog for awhile, but only because we've been doing so much work!

The following photos were taken on April 23 towards the end of my indoor seed starting. Everything is now in the garden except the tomatoes and sunflowers...I'll try to get out today and take updated pictures.

The entire seed-starting rack. Not quite at the fullest point of the spring.

Parsley & Chard seedlings. These ended up planted together in containers, since I also planted chard from seed in the garden.

My onions. They're a little sad. Next year I'm starting them in potting soil instead of seed starting mix, since I hate the concept of fertilizing. I've also learned to plant them a lot closer together to save room.

Basil in the front, peppers in the back.

An entire flat of peppers - Blue Nose Bell, Garden Sunshine, Jalepeno, Aurora, Candlelight

Tomatoes. I planted Sheboygan, Amish Paste, Italian, Blondkopfchen, and Yellow.

Leeks, more tomatoes, and some peppers that never made it - started too late.

I got antsy in January and started some lettuce seed to see how it would grow under the lights. It definitely got long, skinny leaves that weren't very crisp. I transplanted these into some containers, and now they seem to be doing ok. It really didn't give me a headstart on my lettuce, though.

More progress

We made some more progress today. I came home from my 9AM appointment with my personal trainer (he made me run 6 sets of "suicides!"), I found Aaron out back digging post holes for the trellis. I joined in and started running chicken wire along another length of fence, then got to work getting that annoying tree out of the corner by my third bed. With a bit of help from my father in law, I got it all down and cleared out. I'm building a compost pile around the remaining stump, and hope it will just get rid of itself in a few years.

Tree remains on right, sad stump (and no annoying dead tree) in the back left corner.

Aaron got 3 of the 4 post holes dug, posts in, concrete footings added...and we started to put the trellis up. Turns out we have to do some cutting, and a storm is coming in, so we're done for the day.

First Spring Day

It's not the first day of spring, but it's the first day that really felt like it. Aaron and I were able to work in the yard in jeans and a t-shirt. We took a trip to Menard's with my father in law to purchase supplies: trellis & posts, chicken wire, and beams for the raised beds. We had to head to Lowe's afterwards, because Menard's doesn't carry compost. They didn't seam to carry much of anything organic (just potting soil).

When we got back home we amended the soil in the two existing raised beds with some compost and peat moss. After Aaron tilled it in, I checked the UW Extension garden calendar and learned that I could plant some veggies. So, today I planted two kinds of carrots, beets and chard, and three kinds of lettuce. I still need to get some more greens in the garden, and I hope to do that tomorrow.

Our garden construction projects have started. Aaron tilled up a portion of the lawn and installed one of our four new raised beds.

Aaron also tilled the space that the trellis/gate will occupy. His hops had to get in the ground today, so he planted those but we're still trellis-less.

More Seeds!

Last Saturday I started my tomato and pepper seedlings. I planted 24 tomatoes and 19 peppers, a few varieties of each (listed in my garden planning post). I planted each one in a 2-inch pot so it would have some room to grow. I also placed them on a heat mat, which is new for me this year. The heat really worked - my first tomato seedling only took four days! It was an Italian tomato. I've had to water the seedlings at least twice a day because they're drying out so fast.

The first pepper seedling popped up today (Aurora) but I was expecting most of those to take about 14 days to germinate. My onions finally seem to be hitting their stride, and most of the swiss chard seedlings look great. The lettuce greens seem pretty flimsy....I'm realizing I started them in seed starting mix but they probably could have gone right into soil. Maybe I'll remedy that later today.

As my husband and I talk about canning, he's concerned we might not have enough tomatoes. I'm more concerned with the limited garden space we'll have. Regardless, I started 7 more Amish Paste tomatoes today.

The weather last weekend was a bit of a tease. It was in the 50's and I got our compost pile going. Now there are snow flurries outside and the temperature likely won't top 20 degrees this weekend. Grrr, Wisconsin.