71 F outside! Greens are moving

It is really 71 F today, and tomorrow will be a good day.
I am sure it is not the spring yet, but so many thing suppose to be done.

So I am moving greens - from cells to greenhouse, from greenhouse to sunny spots outside.

Cabbages (earliana) moved to greenhouse bed.

 So did kohlrabi early white.

All overwintered in a greenhouse aisan greens moved to sunny bed outside.

 Green peas moved from cells to open space, under the row cover.

 Overwintered  parsley plants are very happy on sunny side next to strawberry.










 Meantime the spring is coming -

chives are popping out.

and crocuses

Transplanting early "earliana" cabbage and other seedlings

Very cold outside, can't work there, but there is a lot of things to do in the basement.


This year I am trying to grow "Earliana" cabbage, it suppose to be small but only in 60 days.... 
I checked the reviews, mostly all of them about poor germination, so I seeded a lot of seeds in one pot to check. I believe 100%of them germinated.


So I put them individual cups. I also sprinkled some if the DE on top of the soil mix to fight gnats, I was reading it may help.





 I am trying some new herbs from seed - there are mexican tarragon on the left  and sweet marjoram on the right.

 My peppers seeds are old, 3-4 years, and the germination is very poor, at least I can see some of the hot peppers coming out.








 Last year seeds of sweet pepper King of the North are good.

 Early greens - lettuce, Asian greens.... need to transplant too.

 Tomatoes are leggy but I like them.

Spring clean up and winter snow

The last weekend was really warm, about +10+12C and I spent some hours doing spring clean-up that I missed last fall.
And today it is snowing again with possible freezing rain after.
I am really affected by weather - long winter makes me feel blue. My be I need more vitamin D or as I called it "phitotherapy"  - working in the garden, I missed it!



 "Clean up" - I want everything to be neat and clean, but as always......
and I want to try Mittleider garden method this year.
I have couple reasons -my garden is in a wooden area, a lot of shade, and I need a productive method. Fist I tried to add more beds space and made a walks very narrow.



The more garden space I was thinking, the better! But the shade from tall plants was horrible for other beds, so I desided to make the beds about 60-70cm (24-28 inches) and the rows between almost the same.






 I will rearrange from north to south. (north-north-east to south-south-west).

These are 2 cleaned beds - asparagus on the back (cleaned, compost added, fertilized) and a new one for green peas.

 The new cilantro and lettuce seedlings were transplanted yesterday and today they are looking good in greenhouse and under row covers.

 I have some new 2x1 wooden planks to make new shelf's  and  plant support.

May be I will add some shelf's to this corner for seedlings trays and other light stuff.

And that snow is keeping me inside!

Winter greenhouse - green peas, asian greens and onion

The last snow, actually the second big snow
this season was heavy, about 12 inches and more.

 I came outside to clean the greenhouse roof, just gently shaking the film from inside and the snow slowly was sliding down.

The best of them are kale, parsley, chard and tat soi.
The weakest plants are cabbages and kohlrabi.

 Every day I am snipping some of the green leaves. I can't tell they are growing, but staying healthy.

Some day ago I prepared a part if the bed for early green peas, the temperature inside can rise till +50F.

Today I planted peas and some radishes.

 Leek, young onions and garlic are doing good too.

Some of the asian greens are preparing to bloom, to cold.

Gardening on Christmas Eve

The weather is so good!
60 F and humid, 100% humidity inside the greenhouse.
I covered my greenhouse recently and transplanted some of the greens from the garden there.
That's how it looks now -

Lettuce, kohlrabi and green cabbage

 Mixed Asian greens, borage and celery

 Parsley, chard and leek

 Chard, napa and onion

 Radishes, bok choi and tatsoi

 Green onions ready to transplant.

 Small bed cleaned, added peat moss and vermiculite.

  Ta-da!  (the was also some place for small beets)

Harvest Monday 5/25/2015 - greens and plantain

I am freezing greens for winter.
I like to make raw green soups in blender.
I made 3 zip lock bags this morning.


 
 

The herb of today is great plantain.

It is a invasive perennial plant that grows all around the yard. Our lawn is organic so I'm harvesting it everywhere.
We are drinking a lot of herbs tea, especially in winter and on fasting days. My husband had 42 fasting days last winter (21 on tea and 21 tea plus juices), me 8+8.
Most of the herbs I grow.
Plantain Tea Benefits - from liveandfeel.com -

Plantain tea is often used in the treatment of various respiratory problems, as it acts as a mild expectorant. These include asthma, bronchitis, sinusitis, sore throats, and coughs. Plantain tea can also be used to lower blood pressure and control sugar blood levels.
Drinking plantain tea can help you if you've got diarrhea or dysentery. It is also used to treat irritated or bleeding hemorrhoids, kidney and bladder problems, bleeding caused by cystitis, and urinary tract infections.




Please visit : Daphne’s Dandelions “Harvest Monday” where everyone can share links to their harvest or how they are using their harvests for the week.

Carrots

The fist carrots were in on Apr 12, it is 10 days now and I can see some of the young plants up.


I still have some small carrots in the ground, missed by me and my deers.

 First I cleaned the bed from leaves (this winter I covered most of the beds with oak leaves and black fabric), then added compost and peat moss.

 I sowed the seeds, cover them with peat moss and tapped with wood board.

The bed is covered with "argibon".












In a meantime my rhubarb is up

And greens in square foot bed is doing good.

 

Starting a first square foot bed

Some of the backyard in covered with snow, but the garden is full of spring sun. The forecast says there will be very mild night and good days like 40-50F.

So I decided to make One Good Raised Bed :)
I usually have 1-2 layers of  old bricks beds, but this one suppose to be a good example. I hope.

Last year it was a parsnip bed, parsnips were good but short and "hairy". I checked the soil - 4 inches of good loose organic soil and than red clay with rocks.

 No miracle the roots were not able to form. (I am gardening only 3 years and couldn't make all the beds fertile).
So I weeded, added lime, peat moss, "black kow", sand, urea fertilizer, 2x4 scrap woods and grid out of cord.

The first transplants are - spinach, chard, salad mix and Asian mix. I also sowed radishes and more spinach.

On the other bed with trellis (last year tomato trellis) I transplanted green peas - Lincoln.
All the plants we watered with warm water and covered with 2 sheets of row cover.

I have more peas transplants and I will wait till the first rows will survive.

Wishing everyone a nice spring gardening!

Flowers in a garden - checking new camera options

After almost 6 month as I got a new camera I started to read how to use it :)