Diary 4/21/12

Why is it I wait all winter for the cauliflowers I planted last fall to be ready, and then they are all ready at the same time?  Ah well, happy to have some, but cannot eat that much cauliflower in a week!   Very warm day at 80 degrees after hardly any sun let alone warmth.  I think you could have watched the grass grow today.  The plums leafed out and the cherry trees bloomed.  I hope we don't get a hard freeze and have nice fruit for this summer and fall.  It is getting late in the year for a really hard freeze, but I hate to expect or predict anything when it comes to the weather here. The yellow squares around the tomato plants are sticky tape.  It prevents a rodent or anyone else from just walking up and eating the plant. It also catches some random insects especially leaf miners flies.

Diary 4/19/12

Planted 3 summer squash, 8 cucumbers, and 19 SuperTasty tomato plants.  Warm weather ahead, Yeah!  This guy REALLY likes Grama Berry's asparagus soup!

Diary 4/17/12

Had a great transplanting session with some of the Wildflower folks yesterday.  We got most of the tomatoes for the show into their planters and tagged with their names.  Now, they will have almost three weeks to grow before the plant sale. Today I had two two year old helpers in the greenhouse.  It gives "dounle digging" a new meaning. Needless to say, I cannot blog very much longer as their are smoothies to make and more entertainment before a bath yet to go tonight.

Diary 4/14/12

We have had our day and a half of sun. Now the clouds are moving in.  It has been nice, and we have accomplished quite a bit.  Attacked more blackberry bushes before they get going and take over more ground.  In addition they are a terrible fire danger with all the dead growth they store underneath each bush.  I made more soil mix so I am ready for the Wildflower group to come transplant tomorrow morning.  I have also stuck the first tomatoes in the ground; 4 Early Girls and 4 Fourth of July's.  They are both heavy duty climbers and early.  Next I will begin planting our slicers, SuperTasty, in the beds I have ready. 

Diary 4/13/12

I WANT SUN!!!!

Diary 4/12/12

Another one of those days with hail, sun, hail.  It was hard to decide whether to keep a jacket on or off.  Worked on the top greenhouse with Allen, weeding, harvesting, and getting ready to till things in pretty soon to have two nice beds for planting.  I am going to need them in a couple weeks, so have to finish up eating a ton of spinach and some cauliflowers which are just starting to make their heads.  The purple sprouting broccoli continues, but with some warmer days, it , too will be done.  Lots of asparagus coming up, but not quite of size.  No blooms on any of the peas, but I expect some soon.  The pool plum( above tree by where we used to have a pool) and a couple of the other wild plums are blooming, but the rest are still holding out for warmer weather.  Hope they do and we don't have a freeze so we have some good fruit this year.

Diary 4/11/12

It was either pouring or sunny all day with some mountain top rumbling thunder this afternoon.  Made two batches of soil for a transplanting session coming up in a few days and a little transplanting of tomato babies in the meantime.  If you grow your own onion starts, or even if you buy some from the garden shop, it is a great thing to trim them back to encourage root growth.  This also makes them more manageable when transplanting; the spindly tops won't be so apt to fall over.  The increased roots of course make better transplants and tougher plants to go out and face life without their buddies right next to them.