I think Spring is FINALLY here!!

I'm still here! I haven't posted recently as I was sidetracked by life for a little while. We had a house guest for a few days and DH has headed overseas for a time. I've been busy helping him get ready to go and then getting the house ready for company.

MAYBE we're finally done with winter! No snow recently and we have BLOOMS! The tulips survived this year and have been blooming nicely. The phlox does well here too. It bloomed like this last year. I hope these plants survive their upcoming relocation as they are in the future home of a few Jostaberries. This is in front of the porch and while the phlox and tulips are pretty, I think I need something a little larger for this area.


I planted the orange tulips in the fall. These are holding up really well. They have been in bloom for a week now, been blown by the wind and still look great! I found these on clearance at Walmart of all places.

We did have a little garden attack about 10 days ago. I went out to the garden and found this hole.

It's about one square foot and about 5-6 inches deep. The culprit is unknown. What is surprising is that the hole was dug in a nearly empty square. There were a few very very small onions there but that's it. It looks like something was tunneling in, but the hole didn't go anywhere. I had planted several tiny lettuce and spinach starts at the other end of the bed that were untouched. My main suspects are rabbit, small dog, or fox?? I think rabbits have dug a few spots in the backyard this month in some mulch areas, but this didn't look the same. This had a much bigger area dug up than the spots in the back. We may never know what it was. Very minimal damage though.

I hadn't realized how much the peas have grown until I saw the pictures in my last post. I think we'll have blooms soon.

Last weekend, I went to the plant swap for the Rocky Mountain Gardening Forum on GardenWeb. It was nice to meet some of the gardeners I chat with online. They have really helped me a lot learning to plant in my new location. I also brought home some great plants. I was especially happy somebody brought some peppers as mine did not do well at all. The few that germinated, didn't really thrive. I think it was just not warm enough for them in the basement. I got a California Wonder (green) and a Banana Pepper.

I planted out the peppers along with the tomatoes, squash & cukes I had started. It still may be a little chilly for these heat lovers, so they are tucked down into the straw mulch next to a gallon of colored water and are all under cover. I'm hoping I created a suitable microclimate for the little guys. Some of the tomatoes suffered from our winds this week. The black cherry doesn't look too good and I lost a couple smaller ones. Most of them seem in good shape though. The toms are all buried pretty deep to help them have good, deep roots.

The strawberries don't need their cover anymore. They're doing well still.

My potatoes are FINALLY starting to poke up through the straw. I've been peeking under the straw once in a while just to see if any of them were even alive! We're supposed to reach 82 on Monday. I think the plants will enjoy it.

Finally, here is one of the Freecycle rhubarb I got. This is the biggest of the 3 that I planted this spring but at least they are all growing!

I also planted some of the green beans. The beds seem to be pretty warm now and I also used covers to help keep it that way. We have finally hit our average last frost time, so I think it's fairly safe to try now. Next week I'll plant the corn then I'll try to stagger the rest of the bean plantings.

That's it for today's update. Soon, I think there will be much much more to report!

Photo Update

Since I last posted, our weather has had quite the mood swings. We've been from Winter to Summer to Winter...must mean it's Spring!

We were out of town the weekend of the 18th. We barely missed one heck of a snowstorm. It was snowy that Friday for about 30 miles and the rest of our trip was just rain. While we were gone, we got enough wet snow to leave almost an inch of water in the rain gauge. By the time we got home Sunday, the roads had thawed and the snow was disappearing fast. Just a few miles north, they were snowed in for the weekend, but I think we got less than a foot. Then we had a few beautiful, sunny, warm days in the mid to upper 70's. Soon, winter returned. Sunday night, we got another 3-4" of snow (and another 7/8" of moisture - very very wet snow). Today was cold (40's) and wet until afternoon. By dinner, it was 60!

The tulips are so close to blooming. Last year when they got this close, they froze. I've tossed a bit of straw over them when it's been nasty this year. I'd really like to see them bloom!



I started some more seeds winter sowing style. These are my lettuce sprouts. I have lettuce, mesclun, broccoli and spinach all sprouted in the jugs. I will do these this way next year for sure.



This is one of the rhubarb roots I got through Freecycle trying to pop up. I have another one that I ordered (a couple days before the Freecycle offer) that is finally showing some signs of life. I wasn't sure, it didn't look great when I got it.

Some of my berries arrived. Here are the Caroline & Anne. The Caroline looked so-so but alive for sure. The Anne looked really good. Large canes with lots of healthy roots. I was impressed.

You can only see the indent, but the patch is now it's intended U-shape. I used some cedar pickets I scavenged from the neighbor's scrap wood pile and pretty much built a floor, 2 boards thick, to act as a center barrier to help keep it orderly later. It shouldn't be terribly hard to keep track of varieties when they creep. Caroline -red, fall bearing- are on the left. Anne - yellow, fall-bearing- are by the fence and Canby - red, thornless, summer bearing are on the right.

The Honeoye strawberries came right before our trip. They are doing quite well. There were 26 in the bundle and they all are still there. I put the plastic hoop over the bed to help warm it a bit more. The ends don't close on this one, so I can just leave it for a while. These have been in the ground probably 12 days at the photo time.

The rest of my fruit is en route. I need to use the one nice-weather day (Wed) to do some prep work before they all come. The blackberries, Canby raspberry, grape, saskatoons, 2 apple and 2 peach trees are all on the way. Here's hoping they arrive in good shape! I will admit, I succumbed to the $25 coupon on the catalog with the iffy ratings (the yellow, G one...). So far, I think I'm doing ok. The asparagus roots seemed a little more dry than I would have liked (and I'm still waiting for them to come up) but otherwise, the plants have been alright.

If you noticed, I slipped a couple more items into my fruit selection. I was planning to use a $100 gift card to get 2 apple trees locally. When we went to look, I couldn't get the kind I want in a price that I could justify. They were about $99 each. I just couldn't do it. I'll use my card for another tree and some shrubs. I ordered 2 semi-dwarf apples (Honeycrisp & Golden Delicious) and 2 standard peach (Red Haven & Intrepid). I bought all 4 of them for less than the cost of one local apple.

The Sugar Snap Peas are still growing and the row I added is making some progress. I take off the plastic whenever the weather is over about 50 so they get sun and fresh air.

I have 3 little Daikon radishes started. The other 3 didn't make it. I don't really water enough under the plastic. I need to start some more. I'm not sure how well they'll do since they are considered a winter radish (planted for fall) but I wanted to try.

The little lettuce has been out there for quite a while. It's finally starting to grow, just a little.

Finally, a little trip to the backyard. The lilacs seem to be doing well. The bigger white one gets a bit of a lean after a strong wind, so I know they need some serious root growth. They are getting ready to bloom soon though. I'm hoping that's a sign that they are doing ok and not a last-chance-to-reproduce-before-I-die reaction. With the thick mulch and having gotten lots of moisture, I think they should make it. Lilacs are tough plants.


Hopefully winter will finally end soon. Our last frost date is May 15. I had really hoped to get more veggies planted out early. The weather guy mentioned the other day that we're really not safe from snow until about Mother's Day. Let's hope it's sooner.