Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Gardens Coming Alive

I got my garden tilled 2 weeks ago, and promptly started planting things, but I finally got around to getting some pictures off my camera so the update waited until today. Here's the blank slate.....just tilled and waiting for seed and plants!

My seed stash....part of it anyway. I've got so many things to put in that I don't think I"ll have room for them all. I even had the tiller guy till up an extra spot for sweet corn and vines this year, but even with 2 gardens I may not have enough room. Guess things will be crowded again, cuz I'm not leaving anything unplanted!


I got twice the onions I ordered, so I ended up giving over half of them away. I really don't need 300 of just one kind of onions, especially since I've got 3 other kinds coming. Oh well.... :-)

So far I've got snap peas, spinach, mesclun mix, lettuce, carrots, and onions in the ground. The greens are up already! I"m anxiously awaiting the arrival of my seed potatoes, horseradish, garlic, and more onions any day now. Those need planting!

I've got tomatoes, eggplant, sweet and hot peppers, broccoli, some pansies, and various herbs started in the house, but it's really too early to put out much of that. I could put out the broccoli, if it was big enough, but it is doing really poorly. I"m not sure what the deal is with that. Maybe it's not worth raising it from seed. I"ll probably end up buying a few more plants to supplement what I"ve got.

Like I said before, the asparagus is looking tasty, and the raspberry plants look promising. I think we'll have some strawberries too, if it rains enough while they're blooming.

On the flower side, my crocus and tulips finally came up, but I've yet to see more than one daffodil. Hopefully they're just slow starters. The lily-flowered tulips are blooming. Most of my perennials are up and looking good. The daylilies I put in last fall along the shed are up, and it looks like over half of them made it through the winter. I haven't seen my peony bush yet, but I"m still hopeful for that. Tip for future reference: DON"T FALL PLANT PERENNIALS IN IOWA. It doesn't work. It's much better to start in the spring!


Of course, I"m always on the lookout for more flowers, but this year my goal is to wait until the local garden centers have their big sales in late May or June and stock up there. It's much cheaper that way, and I got some great plants last year. Hopefully I can wait that long....it's hard to stay out of garden centers :-) Luckily I'm fairly busy with babysitting, so I don't have as much time to get out and dream as I'd like, at least for a few more weeks. I do want some more coneflowers, an aster or 2, and a bunch of hostas to put along my north house foundation wall. Mom has promised me a division of her black-eyed susans, and maybe some iris if she gets around to thinning them. So more gardens may be in the works!

That's about it on the gardening front. It's enough, I"m thinking. For now at least.

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