I keep meaning to update here, and then I get sidetracked… it’s important for me to get accurate notes down to help for future planning, and just now I was thinking that I should post, so here it is, so that any more time doesn’t get away from me…

So well over a week ago, I was tripping on my cabbage plants in the house, and looking at the fact that the center leaves were starting to curl up, and I just knew they needed to go into the ground.  So the first thing I did was go out and stir up the dirt in the garden again, temp it, and found that it only raised a few degrees.  So I decided to give it a few more days, but while I was waiting, the bin of cabbages went to the back porch to harden.  After two days, they seemed just fine, so they went into the ground the Wednesday before last.  (I reserved four cabbage plants in the house, in case the first six tanked.)  After those were in, I sorted out the rest of the cole crops from my burgeoning plant propagation station, and set those outside to harden- thinking that I would get them into the ground that Friday.

Well, things happened, a quick weekend getaway was planned, and the plants came back into the house, because I just wasn’t going to have time to get them in the ground.   When we arrived home that Sunday, it was to an impending snow arrival, so Andy headed to the shop to construct me a rough cold frame for the cabbages in the ground.  How glad I was that the rest of the plants didn’t make it in!!

The cabbages survived, and this past Friday it hit 80 degrees, so the rest of the coles went in.  I have cauliflower, broccoli, kale and brussels sprouts in, and I also sprinkled just a few spinach and radish seeds.   Before I can do anymore planting, I MUST get some amending done.  I also need to properly mark out my square foot grids so that I’m doing things evenly.

Still no sign yet of the Swiss Chard coming back, and I also still can’t tell in the sage plant survived.  The thyme is greening up nicely, and the most surprising thing is the scallions that never got picked last year are looking great! I thought they were going to have to be ripped out, it will be interesting to see what they do.

That was the temperature reading of the garden soil yesterday before I stirred it up.  I am so itching to plant something… but I thought it best to do some preliminary stuff.  The first thing I did was take the temperature of all three beds. They all read the same, and when I pulled the probe out of the ground and touched it, it was definitely cold to the touch.  Seeds are not going to germinate nicely at 41 degrees.

Then I decided to grab the hoe and go to town, stirring up the dirt and checking things out.  It quickly became apparent that I need to add some compost this year, so in the next few weeks I’ll be keeping an eye out for some composted manure, as I think that will be ideal.   I ended up pulling out a lot of the herb plants- they just didn’t survive.  The two lone survivors are the thyme and the sage so far- they didn’t want to pull up, but it will be a few weeks yet before they show signs of growth.  I was also quite surprised when I was working the dirt where the celery and fennel had been- WOW! Those were some major roots!

In other news, I potted up the tomatoes this week.  The paper cups ended up not being such a great idea as they were rotting, and all the cups had mold on the bottom of them.  My original intention had been to pot up some of my paper cup plants, but I ended up having to move them all.  We’ll see how they do.  So far, though, the tomatoes look fantastic!

I also decided to give up with sprouting onions from seed, and this week I bought some basic yellow sets from the garden center.  I got 100 onions for less than two dollars, so I consider that a good way to go.  It’s not quite the heirlooms I wanted, but I think I’ll live.  My onions were just looking terrible, and for the record, last years leek seeds had terrible germination.  I pretty liberally sprinkled leek seeds in the dirt, and ended up with maybe 8 leeks.   The onions ended up with about 50% germination, so there is some truth to onion seeds not being viable from year to year if you save them.

I’ll be keeping my eye on the soil temps now.  The Weather Channels 10-Day forecast has our lows finally moving up into the 30’s starting Sunday, so that will help move things along very nicely.

Gotta keep this place updated so that next year, I can look back and see dates and pictures and such!

First, here is the cabbage patch.

Good gravy, these plants are thriving… and really desiring to go into the ground.  It’s just not time yet… By Friday our lows are supposed to finally move up into the 30’s, and I hope it swiftly goes up from there.   I really would like to get the peas in the ground and some cabbages out by the 15th, I’m just not sure that’s going to happen.

Here are the tomato seedlings.

Most of them are sprouting their first true leaves already , so that’s cool.  The only tomato that I had poor germination on was the Roman Candle.  But since I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to plant those again, I can live with that.  Other than that, I had one variety where only one sprout came up of the two planted.  Since it’s new to me, I’m fine with just the one. (I don’t remember which it is off the top of my head though…)But  I have my first concern.  On all of the plants, the cotyledons are looking a bit droopy.  Apparently, I need to pot up, so a trip to the garden center tomorrow is a must for the pots, as I am completely out.  Now, I just need to figure out where I’m going to put all the potted up tomatoes! Yikes!

And finally from the great outdoors, here are my chives, which is pretty indicative of how the rest of the garden looks.

Brown, brown, brown.  It’s just too cold yet.  I see that the very hints of beginnings of buds are beginning on some of the shrubs, and my mom has some tulips coming up, as well as her crocuses, so surely, warmer days are on the horizon.

Today I also gave all of the more established veggie plants in the house a good dose of fertilizer.  It looks like it’s going to be awhile before we can even begin the hardening off process, so I want to make sure they stay healthy.  After looking at a few brands of fertilizer, I settled on a simple one from Scotts that is a balanced 10-10-10 fertilizer, meaning it provides a little bit of everything, as far as nutrients goes.  Depending on how it performs, I may also use it in the gardens this year.