Starts vs Wintered Over!

The measuring stick is placed on the surface of the soil...so, these baby lettuce starts are only about 3 marks high.  Now...see what I just found in my little greenhouse outside...

These are about 6-7 marks high

and with no effort on my part at all!

These are my other favorite green - they grow outside without needing any protection at all!  And, as you can see...they are about 4 marks high.  Which is all they ever get anyway.  This is a very small, low to the ground, growing green.

My spinach (started indoors "against" the suggestions of the seed company) is about 3 marks high.  And, so far, they seem to be doing okay outside in the little greenhouse.

In the past, I rarely got spinach to grow at all!

Although, there is one variety that I grew successfully last Summer in the shade UNDER my tomatoes...I'll share those in May or June when I get them going.

These are sorrel - I have them growing wildly all over.  Only  had to put them out once as seedlings (and only one plant, too)...as it goes to seed and self-propagates wonderfully in our climate!

I highly recommend a large, clean tool shed.  By the way, the white pumping container typically used for spraying chemicals has NEVER been used as such on our property.  It was given to us and sits untouched, because - so far - we have never had the slightest trouble with anything except anthracnose on the apple trees.

As you can see...the slugs are happy to find Nature's bounty, as well.  This Kale plant is growing in the greenhouse and is about 2 feet in diameter!  What's nice is that the slugs we found have been eating IT instead of our more tender greens.  We'll begin the Slug-Boat in late April and early May.  Maybe 3 cruises through the garden and we'll be virtually slug-free for another year!

Here we have found BURIED TREASURE!  A very sweet and crunchy carrot from last year that went well with some peanut butter!  And, around it, our spinach starts have found a new home...we'll track their progress to see how this method works.

Bon Voyage Everyone!

We hope you enjoy many warm and sunny Spring days this April!

I'm thrilled to have this table on the porch this year so I can do more of my food prep outside and the starts and potting up projects will be so much easier, as well!

Spring 2011 - Here We Come!

This is my favorite view this time of year...

The grass is greening...the stevia is waking up...and we've got our lights

and new plant babies growing, growing, growing!

As you can see, we keep our lights VERY close to the seedlings.

DO THIS!  So often, I see seedlings about 4-6 inches away.  The trick, of course,

is to have your lights "easily adjustable" - we've done that by using hooks and chains

to hang them and then it takes about 2 seconds to lower or raise the lights.

Here we have mixed greens, broccoli and cabbages, and even spinach.

It says to plant spinach outside - but in our climate, I never get good spinach.

This way, I don't risk damaging or traumatizing the seedlings when I replant them, and I hope we'll have decent spinach - it's an experiment!

Which, of course, is how one finds the tricks of any trade.

Chard!  Yeah!  And, can you believe the color they have,

even at this young age?  Of course we have Kale which wintered over, but the Chard always gets killed off in the Winter freezes.  

Meanwhile, our garden is already filling up without our help because of all the plants that have naturalized over the last 6 years.  Next blog entry will discuss this...and we might have to turn the manure and discover just how many worms you can find in a bucket of "nature's fertilizer."