I planted potatoes in one of my new hugelkultur beds yesterday. And today we are having a lovely soaking rain. I love that when others are complaining about the weather, I'm going "Yesss!!"

Newyorkrita said:farmerdill, fabulous garden you have each year. I am envious.

holity said: when others are complaining about the weather, I'm going "Yesss!!"

ME TOO!!

Yesterday, my fingers danced in the dirt. Only managed to fling stones out of the garden bed I need to plant.

Today, I managed to plant my brussel sprouts. I almost didn't get them planted today. I had planned to have them be one of the first to get planted. But my roommate has incredibly large feet and isn't careful enough around my beds. I had to wait until he was all done lumbering around the garden. I'm surprised my lavender from last year managed to come back because I caught him sitting on it while working on the edging of my herb bed. He had been sitting on it for quite a while. I was watching him and started to go around him when it suddenly dawned on me that my lavender should be checked. He had trampled across it several times before sitting on it.

My little dog tramples on stuff too. She likes to stick close by mommy most of the time. But now and then she will go running and trampling. She isn't even 20 pounds so I don't worry too much. The only time I really stress about her paws is in my strawberry patch. I haven't planted my goji berry seeds yet, so I have a lot of hope in those strawberries and blackberries. I know who is the guilty party when I see the young fruits squished.

I wish I could have done more today but after church, I just didn't feel like it. It was very windy today and all the seeds I wanted to plant are too tiny for windy days. The wind blew some of the brussel sprout seeds out of my hand. They will probably be the ones that will germinate first, right in my tomato bed. Hehehe.

My eyes are still stinging from all the wind blowing dry dirt in my eyes. I covered the remaining starts to protect them from the winds. All the tomato plants already in ground seem to be really tough, so I won't worry about them. I have more tomato plants to replace them with if I need to. I have a corner lot with absolutely no trees around the entire yard, so it gets the full effect of the wind storms and the scorching NM sun. There is a wall around most of the yard, but it is only about 3.5' above the garden level. The chart I drew of my garden plans kept getting blown out of my pocket and I couldn't see to chase it. I think I better make up a copy this evening. Just in case.

Great job you did today. And I like the line on the top right you added!

Oh ckat, you DO have a challenge there, don't you? With the well intentioned lumbering roommate.

melons, cabbage, dill, shard, spinach, broccoli, celery, cucumber, peppers, hmmmm. There were eleven different types of seeds so I think two types of peppers . Too tired to figure it out. Lots of stuff outside coming up of the flower persuasion. Tomorrow is first day of chemo and still have peas, beans, zuchinni to plant May 1st. Chemo is every three weeks so assuming my usual robust response by week two I should be up for planting. Course it is all indoors so maintaining the flats and pots is going to be a load. My DH is a non-gardener and there is no one here who knows a kumquat from a peony so not much help there. One boy (who I just finished knitting a lovely wool sweater for and taught how to knit and crochet) may be helpful. He appreciates the value of a dollar and I have lots of those. lol. Perhaps he can do the lifting and retrieving and I the decision to water or not; raise grow lights, move from grow shelves to plywood with higher lights for taller plants. By May 1st I think I can sow another round of stuff like lettuce, cauliflower and cold hardy stuff in my raised covered bed. Garden Free or Die! ROTFL. I do hope we have a sufficiently humorously group here to have a good laugh and garden on.

critter, the roommate has more than just good intentions. He actually delivers. I didn't have to move heavy loads of dirt or rocks around because he did all the heavy work. And when I couldn't dig through some hard soil areas to turn the soil, he did. And cutting the wood for the fence and trellis he built around most of my beds he also did. I have nice stone paths through my fenced in veggies and herbs thanks to him moving the pavers and red rock mulch and making it all so neat and almost formal in appearance.

If that little lavender is still alive in the summer, I think it will be named after my roommate. That's also why I am planning to grow some extra eggplants. That's his favorite vegetable, so I hope to get a variety of them. With all the recipes I've found on the internet for eggplants, I'm sure there is bound to be a recipe that makes me like eating eggplant.

Watching all the energy he put into everything in the garden really goads me to really want a successful gardening season to make it all worthwhile. The lumbering just adds a few chuckles to the experience to remember fondly. But the memory will be much better with that little lavender surviving as a frequent reminder. Maybe I should learn to make casts of his feet to use as footprint pavers throughout and between the plants. That would be an interesting contrast to the square and formal pavers that make the main paths in the garden.

ckatNM said: pavers throughout and between the plants.

That's actually a good idea!
Glad he does get good stuff done.

Remind me and I'l send you some eggplant recipes. gotta compile first.

Mary Stella, you have a lot going on! I sure hope this young man will help you and in the process develop an interest in gardening.

I still have a lot of seeds to start but no desire because I am a bit overwhelmed with other gardening tasks. But that will pass. Rain today and tomorrow then cold tomorrow night. Next weekend i am hoping to plant my tomatoes and peppers out to the garden. And then corn and beans, melon and cucumbers. My biggest task is getting the rows ready.

I always get hungry when I read the veggie threads.

Or look at Arlene's bonnet.

@abhege
I do love that bonnet!
Doesn't particularly make me hungry though!

I hope your chemo goes well today, Mary Stella. We are in for another bout of bad weather - severe thunderstorms with hail, torrential rain, high winds and tornadoes. It is supposed to move through this PM and then the temperature will plummet. We are predicted to get down into the high 30's in the AM and then into the low 30's Wednesday AM. Surely, surely this is the last of winter!

My peas I planted last week or so are sprouting. And I bout basil seeds and planted them today. Planted sunflower seeds and sweet pea seeds to today also. Supposed to rain tomorrow so everything will get watered in good.

I tried to get onion sets but they didn't have any. Now I don't know what I will do about the onions.

Perhaps some plant/seed business such as Burpee has onion sets.

I was trying to avoid having to order on line and pay shipping. We will see what to do. That darn nursery had those onion sets last year!

Wal-mart has a large supply of them here. Don't know why, all they are good for here are green onions.

Walmart is far away around here. Not easy to get to at all.

On Twitter, I follow @UrbGardenersRep. They must be primarily from NYC. TODAY, they tweeted a photo of jiffy pots and seed packets all "ready to go".

It sure made me feel better after hearing from all of you in warmer climes with your prodigious blossoms going on!!!