The garden is awake and growing! Even with the cooler temps we’ve had over the last week my spring veggies are thriving. My Sow True Seed Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce is growing quickly. I’m keeping a close eye on it, waiting for my first taste of kill lettuce this year.
My Sow True Seed Sparkler Radishes are also up. I need to thin them out a little…a gardening chore I don’t like.
I love radishes! The rest of my bunch doesn’t care for them. How could you not like radishes? At least Miss Cindy, Pap and Granny are on my side of the radish issue. This year I tried to plant a few extra to share with them.
My onions are up and looking like a line of green swords marching through the garden. My uncle Henry recently told me the reason I grow green onions is because I can’t grow big onions to store through the winter. I informed him I grew green onions because I liked green onions. Actually he wasn’t arguing with me he was only teasing me. Uncle Henry shares my great love for gardening and he’s always around to encourage my efforts.
Most of my Sow True Seed Heirloom Tomato Seeds have sprouted and are reaching up to the sunniness of the greenhouse.
Things that have not sprouted yet: carrots, beets, and peppers. I’m not worried about the beets and peppers they typically take longer than other things. I’m hopeful that’s the issue with the carrots too.
Tipper
Radishes are not my favorite, but I do plant them because they help repel squash bugs.
I walked out to my garden today for the first time since back when we got the snow/ice storm. I was carrying some stuff out to my compost bin and fell and busted posterior. I wasn’t really hurt but it took a while to get up. This past three months have really kicked my butt. Some mornings I have gotten up just long enough to swallow my medicine and read the Blind Pig. This morning I drank a half a cup of coffee with my pills. I read your blog and thought about making a comment but felt so bad I decided to try again later and went back to bed. It’s almost 10:30 PM.
This gittin old stuff is pretty bad and gittin sick is worse but when they gang up on you, what can you do?
Looks good!
We’re careful to keep everything winterized (covered) until April 15th, cause the weatherman says that’s the last recorded date frost has hit in our area (so far). In fact, it’s suppose to get down into the 30s tonight. So we’ll see. We usually don’t plant things until after May 1st, just to be sure.
Hope everyone’s having a good weekend.
God bless.
RB
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Tipper,
Although I’m not having a garden this year, I love seeing the pictures and reading what you’ve written. Those garden vegetables peeping through remind me of the song, “New Birth.”
I was at home this morning listening to the radio on my TV. Just as I was reaching for the phone to request a song, it came on. Seems other folks like it too. It’s my favorite, but I like the Pressley Girls singing “River of Jordan” just as well…Ken
A garden just seems like such a miracle to me. I decided to plant my peppers very early this year, and they are up and growing. Last year they lagged behind and did not seem to start producing until time for frost.
I am much like Shirl getting exercise running plants outside for sun then back inside. I do have some rigged up lighting which I use to prolong their exposure to light. It is such a joy to wake up to the plants and see their progress.
I don’t know how this will work, as some little neighbor boys playing with grandson kept forgetting and would dash recklessly through my newly plowed garden. Fortunately there isn’t much I love more than gardening, but children playing is probably at top of my favorite list. It gets interesting when two of your favorite things conflict. They won’t remember if my tomatoes did well, but will surely remember how much they enjoyed playing in the back yard. There are less and less safe areas for children to play nowadays, and space for wild life is also a problem. Hopefully my tomato and pepper plants will thrive during my struggle with my different roles of grandmother, neighbor, gardener, and wild life manager.
Ron-thank you for the comment! Nice to hear about everyone’s garden. I didn’t mention peas because I forgot to! My Sow True Seed Sugar Snap Peas are up and growing too. Hope they don’t take offense that I left them out : )
Looking good ! I have onions, potatoes, mixed lettuce, radishes and early peas up that I planted this year. Yesterday I planted bell and jalapeno transplants plus a pack of Italian flat-leaved parsley. Funny thing though, as I was getting ready to sow the parsley I started noticing little seedlings with their first true leaves that I strongly suspect are self-sown parsley from last year. If so, not the first time I have out-smarted myself. I still have hold-over kale, brussel sprouts and onions but I need to use them up….
I also do not like to thin and tend to leave plants too thick even though I know long-term it hurts productivity. I have been known to save the timy lettece ‘thinners’ and work up a bag of baby lettuce. It’s a lot of work for what I get but it helps me do a better job of thinning.
I’m surprised you do not mention English peas. They are a marginal proposition here because it gets too hot too fast. But I can’t wean myself from planting them because the little dab I get is so very good.
I’m getting my exercise just running my trays of newly sprouted vegetables from the sunny spot on the enclosed porch then back inside the house on these cold nights. It is supposed to get in the upper 20s tonight! I’m worried about losing all the fruit on my fully bloomed trees.
One of the reasons I think I like gardening because I love seeing new life! Of course I enjoy the fresh produce too, but there’s something about planting things in the spring and watching them grow that never, ever gets old! So far, I have garlic that is coming back to life after the winter, and some lettuce and kale that I planted from a greenhouse, and onion sets that haven’t sprouted yet. I’m with you on the radishes!
I also hate thinning, but at least I can give the thinnings to my hens so they aren’t wasted. I often plant seeds at the final spacing so I won’t have to thin them.
My mother used to say that your taste changes every seven years. Well, that may be true in some cases but not in my love of radishes, potatoes, and eggs. I have always loved these! I never met an egg, radish or potato that I didn’t like…well except hot radishes.
Spring sure is a wonderful time of year. I love watching new life start, even those pesky dandelions!
B.Ruth – Thank you for the comment on this early cool spring morning! I plant my peppers in the greenhouse and I planted onion buttons. Uncle Henry said he had good luck with using onion slips too. Ill keep you updated on the parsnips!
Tipper,
Do you direct sow your peppers in the garden or start them in the greenhouse. We used to start them in the greenhouse when we started tomatoes…Beets were direct sown…we rarely grew carrots around here.. Are your onions from seed, slips or bulblets?
Our onion slips arrived the other day…cheap… from the onion master in Texas. A few hundred slips were only around 8 to 10 dollars…They are “never fail” for us and will make large onions to store. Of course it always depends on the variety…One year we got an especially good red storing onion, but by Christmas we had eaten every one…We got more reds this year..not sure if he bought the long store or not….
Our lettuce, Kale and radishes are looking good…I had a few leeks in a patch left from last year…the deer (saw the track) had pulled them up and ate a few. It left one half eaten into the white stalk…only thing I can think of, was it might have began to get too spicy hot after eating the green tops..
Oh yes,…we have our lettuces, kale and radishes covered with netting…
By the way…let us know when you plant your parsnips…I believe the ground has to be a bit warmer, according to my package and to soak overnight to help insure better/quicker sprouting.
Thanks Tipper,
Wish we could be there to see the Blind pig gang….but first baseball game tonight for our grandson!
Seeds sprouting….what a miracle of LIFE….right before our eyes.
Love your blog. STORY TELLING FESTIVAL….IS GREAT.