Sprouts

I planted cucumbers and eggplants on Sunday and yesterday I had one of each germinated! Wow!

Also after several weeks, one of the habanero seeds has germinated.

Finally, some of my tomato seedlings are on their third sets of leaves.

What good news. Can't wait to plant them outside,

Garden Update

The view of my garden from my study window.

Saturday I planted Brussels sprouts for the very first time. I also planted onion sets and plants.


Today I transplanted the tomato seedlings to their own pots and seeded eggplant, cucumbers and basil.

Under the lights!

Seedlings and other plantings

Here are my tomato seedlings. The peppers haven't shown yet.

Today I planted buttercrunch lettuce, beets, and spinach. I am surprised that the peas are not up yet with our warm temps.

Morning Surprise

I have tomato seedlings! I checked them this morning to water and there were three sprouts coming out of three different cells. I moved the whole cell pak in the greenhouse to the lights. I'll post pictures another time.

It was very fast considering I seeded these on Monday afternoon.

Planting Peas and Other Signs of Spring

It has been very many years since I planted peas on St. Patrick's Day. I did do it today which is a great sign of spring. I use the trench method that Crockett's Victory Garden described. I added sticks for support. These are actually snowpeas. In keeping with the square foot gardener I planted them in three blocks at the ends of three of my beds for a total of 9 feet of peas. I still have some to plant next fall, too.


Another sign of spring, the garlic I planted in the fall is showing its green shoots through the 3 x 3 bed.

This spinach is a hold over from the fall. I will be planting some more too.

My compost is ready. I filled a bucket and dressed the garlic bed and added it to the beds where the peas were planted.

The goldfish with lots of lives survived the winter frozen for several months.

Another sign of spring are the crocuses. I planted these last fall, too in the perennial beds outside the bedroom wing. What a nice sight in the morning.

March Book Club Selection

I have had the book, The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent for almost three weeks but only got around to reading it Saturday. I started it early in the morning after waking with a sore throat at 4:30 and unable to return to sleep. I made myself a cup of tea, curled up with a nice blanket and began to read.

I don't know about you, but it usually takes me a chapter to get the cadence of the writer's words before I can pick up my pace of reading. With this book I found myself rereading sections to understand at first, but then found the rhythm.

I was more than half way through by 8 o'clock when Dan showed himself for breakfast. After lunch I finished it.

It is a very well written story that keeps your attention. It takes place during the time of the Salem Witch Trials. For me to look back to that time period and try to understand the nature of life for those early colonists, is hard especially with the comforts that we have. They never had the luxury of sitting and reading a book. The amount of work it took to survive through the year was amazing. Layer on top of that the fear and mistrust of the unknown, it was a hard life. The author depicts that life well. Her ancestor, Sarah, would be proud that her story was told so well. It is imaginably real.

The White Witch is Losing Her Grasp

With all the snow we had in February it sometimes felt like we were in Narnia where the White Witch had control. Lately she's been losing her grip as each day brings more melting and signs of spring.

Friday morning the stones in the perennial beds were starting to show.

How it looks today, Saturday.

Can you see the daffodil pushing its way out? This is along the edge of the glen. The snow has melted in the woods on that hillside because it faces south.

There's just one band of snow between the house and the glen now.

The pond has a steady stream of water to it from the scupper but is not ice free yet.

Dan shoveled the snow off the raised beds in the vegetable garden. The snow is piled high in the walkways and the blueberry bushes were damaged by the heavy snow. Hopefully the warmth of the sun will melt the snow off the beds now. Don't know if I'll be planting peas by St. Patrick's Day.
There was a hint of green from spinach and arugula in this bed. I thought I saw one shoot of garlic in another bed.