Posted By FarmerJ on April 13, 2009

Well, this seems like a good opportunity to provide you with an update on the gardening scene.  As far as the large plot is concerned, we haven’t really had an opportunity to do too much more to it since Husbie subsoiled and plowed it.  It’s either been snowing, raining or Husbie’s been out of town.  The calendar says we should be putting some of the seeds and plant babies in the ground next week.  We shall see ~ I’m sure the growing season will see a few adjustments to the calendar before it’s all over…that’s just the way things go ’round here.

Speaking of seeds and plant babies, we do have some progress to report there.  However, I’m afraid we’ve also got some bad news to report.  Sadly, I think our heirloom Ground Cherry plants will be a complete loss this year.  Late one night, I had painstakingly placed each seed as carefully and precisely as I possibly could in the flat to give them a jump start on their growing season.  Well, the Prairie Farmstead Princess, aka The Mon-kay, apparently didn’t feel the need for Ground Cherries this year.  The finicky feline, the one who shudders at the thought of getting her prissy little paws dirty, royally and thoroughly dug up the entire flat the very next morning!  Argh!  I did my best to replace the dirt in an attempt to salvage any seeds, but I think my efforts were futile ~ not even a single seed out of the entire 48 has sprouted.  I’m going to give them another week or so, and then I’m afraid I’m going to have to remove them from our 2009 seed list.

It’s not all doom and gloom, though!  We do have a plethora of plant babies rearing their adorable little green heads.  Here, you can see the broccoli and cauliflower coming on strong.  There are 48 broccoli babies (in the background) and 24 cauliflower babies (in the foreground) all basking in the ‘sun’ compliments of Husbie.  He set up an Indoor Growing Center down in the Man Cave, and the plant babies seem to be loving it!

Here are the 24 twins to the cauliflower in the other photo above (in the foreground).  That poor, pathetic empty space in the background is where the Ground Cherries should be proudly poking their heads high.  But, no.  Thank you, Mon-kay.  Sigh.

This photo features the celery, our oldest plant babies having been started about 4 weeks ago.  I’ve already thinned them down to 2 – 3 plants per pot once, but they seem to really enjoy the grow lights.  I may have put just a tad too many seeds into each pot, too.  Maybe.  But, have you seen how teeny tiny celery seeds are?!  Oy!  I’ll thin them down again when the babies get a little bigger.  Everything I’ve read about growing celery warns of how difficult it is to grow successfully, so I’m just going to experiment with 15 plants this year for the fun of it.

It’s a little difficult to see in this photo, but here we have our 21 Simpson Lettuce and 21 Romaine Lettuce babies developing quite nicely at just a few days old.  They will graduate to the Indoor Growing Center tomorrow.  The 12 squares in the utmost foreground are the hot peppers ~ they haven’t poked their little green heads up yet, but it’s still a little soon for them.  The hot pepper seeds are from a mix, so it’s always a surprise come summer to learn just what type of hot peppers we’ve got.

We’ve also got a flat full of green onion babies that are just starting to poke through.  They are too small to take a picture of at this point, but I’ll catch them during the next update.

Saturday was a rather pleasant day with temperatures in the mid 50′s and mild winds, so we took advantage of it.  Husbie and I made the remaining seven 4′ x 4′ squares needed to fill out the rest of the small plot.  We also defined the 4′ x 10′ area where the asparagus [asparagi? heehee] live.  We used up the landscaping timbers we had left over from our front patio project last summer ~ and, it turned out really nice, actually.  The eight lighter squares in the foreground were from last year.  The plot was a combination of square foot gardening and traditional rows.  Since we have the large plot now, too, I’ve decided to make the small plot all squares.  It will primarily house the strawberries and all the root plants, except the potatoes.

In an attempt to make mowing a little easier, Husbie decided it would be a good idea to ‘square off’ the area by the cold frame box and the fencing around the small garden plot and flower bed.  We had a couple of timbers left, along with a few of the patio bricks, so we set about laying out these handy miniature patios.  Heehee!  Not only will it make it easier to mow a straight line, but the little patios will make a nice place for me to step in and out of the garden, a place to momentarily put my veggie baskets once I have them full and a place to set out some of my pottery, etc.

After all of this, there was still a little daylight left so Husbie and I ventured out to the back forty and managed to get the acre of deer grass planted.  Hopefully between that and the nearly 13 acres of alfalfa, the deer will not feel any need to come ravage the garden plots.  We’ll put up a photo of this area once the grass comes in.

Within the next day or two, I’ll be getting the three variety of tomato seeds started.  I’m already salivating at the thought of fresh tomato sandwiches with homemade bread ~ Mon-kay, you’d better steer clear of my tomato seeds!

So, how are things coming along with your garden?  Your plans?  Your plant babies?

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