texaskitty111 said:Im getting a little mixed greens, beans, onions, and asparagus each day. I saute them al together and add to my pasta. Vitamons for the day!

Yumm!!!

I don't know Ken, my asparagus has been up for a while and I'm north of you

Cycadjungle, that's awesome. Most people do not share my love of spicy peppers I'm glad to know there's a forum about it I'm going to have to join. I used to win spice eating contests back when I was crazy. I bought some trinidad scorpion and ghost pepper seeds this year to grow after many years of cayenne (mild to me) and habanaro growing. I keep on making my own hot sauce and haven't ever been satisfied for my own likes. Sadly, though, I found out 3 weeks into trying to germinate my peppers that my heat mat wasn't working. So right now I only have like 1 trinidad and a few mild peppers that have germinated. So looks like I'll have to find some plants.

There is not much growing outside here yet. The rhubarb is all up, and I fertilized it with composted chicken manure, and have watered it twice. Today it is snowing! We call it poor man's fertilizer as old timers say snow brings down more nitrogen than rain. Yes, it's Easter Sunday and it snowed! Garlic which was planted in the fall of 2013 and appeared to have frozen over the winter, was neglected last summer (hot and dry), showed up this spring! I have been digging, dividing and replanting it since it was tough enough to survive all of that. There won't be much size to it by harvest time this summer, but I will dry it in a dark shed, select the largest cloves and replant them in the fall. As my neighbor pointed out, that is what happened when people discovered wild garlic growing somewhere and worked to domesticate it.

Tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli and several varieties of lettuce are just starting to pop up in 4 packs in the greenhouse. I will be starting some beets, chard, etc in the garden in a few days. So far there is no sign of the asparagus. Plenty of time for that though, and after I weed the patch I will experiment by putting wall-o-waters around the plants to keep the tender tips from being frosted before I even know they are above ground. There is so much to do in the spring! I'm just happy to be able to do some of it.

Wow, snow in April there. Now you have me worried. I am shipping five staghorn ferns to OR tomorrow. Perhaps I better check the forecast again.

What part of Oregon? The west side of the state is much milder.

Portland and Salem.

Safe.

I finished weeding the garlic this morning and mulched the still recovering lettuce with grass clippings. I also planted my pre-sprouted beans. The ones that germinated did really well but it appears I let them stay too wet so many did not germinate. I'll try again. Oh, my lima beans are starting to poke their heads through the crusty soil. It is supposed to rain tomorrow so that should soften the soil and hopefully more will poke through.

Our asparagus is just starting to gather steam. We picked over a pound today and had roasted asparagus with dinner. Yummy!

Wow Arlene, that looks great!

No new sprouts to report here.

I did see a mosquito and a gnat today though, so maybe it won't be too much longer!

Thanks! You can see to the left of the lettuce, the really bad cauliflower and broccoli plants that got uncovered on that really cold night though. I don't think they're going to recover.

I have a bunch of WS sprouts as well as vermiculite sown sprouts to pot up tomorrow if it rains. This year I had a lot of puny sprouts that did not survive the transplant. Of course, potting up and putting in the GH was tough since some days it got really hot and even though I watered every day, some just couldn't hack it! Don't get me wrong, I still have tons of seedlings! I'm gonna start planting some in the beds here this week.

I have done wide row planting, or at least double/triple for many years. It's a better use of space not to have so much of it used in pathways. Arlene, I like the red, green, red, green lettuce plantings. Do you grow peas next to the fence on the right?

Yes, we're sold on wide row planting! It's funny, I would grow lettuce every year even if we didn't sell/eat it, just because it's so pretty. I like to alternate the colors and textures. I have more red varieties this year and even one black variety!

Yes, that is peas to the right of the lettuce. They're not doing so well. Again, that cold night really zapped a lot of things. They'll survive, but they're behind. We won't take them to market, they're all for us!!!!

On another garden site, I asked a fellow how he got so many peas to grow, because I have problems getting them to germinate when planted in the garden rows. He starts them in pots, several to a 2x2 inch pot, and plants them out when they are 3-4 inches high after hardening them off for a few days. I'm going to try that this year.

Forgot to add that he says he plants pot and all, so they must be in peat pots.

Mary, I have trouble getting my peas to germinate reliably so this year I pre-sprouted them. I took a pretty damp paper towel and put them in and then put them in a zip lock bag. When they sprouted I planted them in the garden. Starting them in paper pots or peat pots would work just as well. There are spots in my row where I did not pre-sprout and they are empty!!! Oh well.

I got compost around my head (loose and crisp) lettuce, potatoes, onions, peas and root veggies. I also finished mulching the leaf lettuce row. After lunch I started weeding my echinacea row and actually ended up getting all the wheat out of the bulb row as well. It looks like I didn't lose any echinaceas, yet. I say yet because Envy has yet to shoot up any leaves but it has live root so I'll be patient. Maybe now that it can breathe it will put out some leaves.

David mulched the two potato rows and the new strawberry row. It's so nice to have some help and the potatoes are pretty much his pet project.

I dug up some comfrey to pot up and sell at market. I was expecting to pot up some things today but the rain never materialized. Maybe tomorrow. I could use a day sitting down, potting up plants, but if it's nice, I'll be over at the farm again. The comfrey row needs to be finished weeding and I still have flower rows to weed. I really want to use this time without the grandson. I will watch him on Wed. now instead of today so we'll use that day to go shopping. He is a good shopper and I need a ton of groceries!

Here are a few photos:

The damaged broccoli. We ended up cutting off all the button heads to eat and we'll see if I get any side shoots.



This is the 'black' lettuce, Blackhawk



West side of garden: three rows of strawberries, two rows of garlic, one row of part garlic and onions, partial row of chard and lettuce, then crimson clover, where the tomatoes and peppers will go after the clover is cut.



East side of garden: One row of new strawberries, two rows of potatoes, empty row, beans, head lettuce row, peas, leaf lettuce row, and two rows of brassica.

Each side has 20 rows. Top 10 on each side for vegetables, the other ten for flowers, comfrey, asparagus, raspberries.

Looks good there to me!

Gotta show you guys my crazy creation/idea I have for this years garden.



I'm attempting to use my pvc pipe over again that I use for my hoops. The right will be for pole beans and a tomato row. For the tomatoes I'm going to get cloth trellis and guide them up instead of trying to always keep them in flimsy cages. The left I wanted to try a trellised squash creation. I ordered some cloth trellis material and thought I could have them grow over the top and then plant lettuces underneath. If this works then I'll have made my garden a lot bigger without actually planting a new bed! I still really need to secure the pvc better, right now I know it won't handle the 100+ lbs of the squashes.

It looks like a great idea to me!

I hope it works the way you want it to, and that you will keep updating with pictures so we can see the progress.