Back from a 4 day trip and the garden continues to grow in leaps and bounds.

The potatoes are about waist high, and I planted red bell peppers and giant ancho peppers behind the potato row.

Tomatoes seemed to grow a foot over the weekend. I noticed some small red bugs around the base of some of the plants. I'm not sure what they are but I'll need to keep an eye if they start to do any damage.

Winter squash coming in well.

The peas continue to climb, and I noticed the first blooms on them today.

A pepper seedling viewed through potato leaves.

Looking head on at an asparagus fern.

Honeysuckle with neighbors roses in the background.

Some patio pots that will soon hopefully be filled with basil, marigold, coneflower and strawberries.

Tomatoes are in- and other news.

There is lots going on in garden at the moment. With weather consistently summer-like, and the last frost date well in the rearview mirror, planting has started in earnest.

I put the Rhubarb in the ground a few weeks back, and it is now starting to make it's first appearance. I am really excited about the Rhubarb partly because I am looking forward to the pies this Rhubarb will grace in the future. Also, it makes me remember nostalgically the rhubarb patch at our house growing up. It's a double whammy.

The row of potatos is also looking rather healthy as they feast on the spent coffee grounds that I've been carefully feeding them since planting time.

The biggest project of the weekend was getting the tomatos in the ground. It's the first weekend of May (the same time I planted them last year) and the weather seemed primed to finally get these plants into the garden.

I've had black weed barrier over the tomato beds for two weeks, getting things nice and warm. I am trying to give each plant plenty of space this year as I certainly want to avoid the blight infestation that cropped up last summer.

So it's offical, the tomatoes are in the ground. Here's to a long and tomato-filled summer.

Tomato

It's been a while since I took any pictures of my tomato seedlings, but they are coming right along. They have been thriving on the kitchen windowsill for the last few weeks, although they recently outgrew that particular piece of real estate.

Now I have them in this big metal bin so they can be easily carried outside for the daytime, and brought back inside during the night. Next weekend is supposed to be a warm one so that is my projected date to get these guys in the ground.

April Progress

Despite infrequent posting here on the blog, things have been humming along in the garden with the growing season well underway.

One cool project I am trying this year for the first time is a super-DIY, super-cheap seed starting technique. Since I am noticably lacking a nice, warm greenhouse for giving my seeds a head start while the weather is still cool, I decided to substitute in lots of mini-greenhouses and hopefully accomplish the same goal. These "greenhouses" are just old plastic milk jugs and 2 liter soda bottles (cut in half) with a little bit of potting soil in the bottom.

The plastic walls of the bottles work their greenhouse magic, retaining heat and moisture, allowing the seeds to grow even as night time temperatures dip down into the 30s and 40s. The picture below is of two Cream of Saskatchewan watermelon seedlings. So far so good!

I finally built the trellis/ fence that I have been wishing for for such a long time. The added privacy is great, and the extra growing space is a nice bonus too.

My first planting of mixed lettuces is coming in nicely. I did a second planting about 2 weeks later and those are just starting to pop up as well.

Peas also are looking good, getting taller and tucked safely behind their rabbit-proof mini fence.

One of bigger recent plantings is one that I have been looking forward to for quite a while: asparagus. For those who've never seen it (I hadn't) this is what asparagus crowns look like when they arrive in a box from the seed catalog. When you take them out they look like small octopus, with lots of thin roots dangling down from a central head.

Here is the asaparagus bed, first in it's pristine "before" state, and then also prepped with the asparagus crowns ready to be covered with soil.

Seedling Jungle

The tomato seedlings are getting a bit leggy so I'll be moving them on into their plastic pots sometime this week. Lettuce and peas are nosing their way through the soil out in the garden. It feels like mid- June outside, but I think that the reality of April weather can't be far off...

Compost

On Saturday I got my first load of Phoenixville Borough compost delivered to my garden by my Dad (thanks Dad). It was first piled all into one of the raised beds, but I spent a few hours on Sunday spreading it out between the two new beds. You can see that it is pretty rough stuff, with lots of sticks and woody pieces mixed in.

As I moved it around though I tried to sift through it and remove most of the woody chunks while leaving the good stuff behind.

In the picture below you can see the other raised bed filled out with compost. Behind that, on an angle, you can see another small, new bed that I have set aside for the rhubarb plants when they arrive.

My last project of Sunday involved this forlorn little weedy/ grassy patch back near the compost pile. I planted a few blackberry plants here 2 years back, they have to take off- but I'm still holding out hope.

It's a big space and I'm hoping to plant some winter squash here this year, but the soil is a bit to shallow and root-filled to dig much compost into. So I am trying a technique that I've read about but never tried myself.

The area that I going to plant I covered with a thick layer of old cardboard. Later on I'll use chopped leaves and more compost to cover the cardboard with a good 5--6 inches of organic material. The idea is that the cardboard will block out any weeds that are present, and then eventually just break down into the soil. Thats the idea anyway. The logs on top of the cardboard are just there to hold it down until I get the compost to cover it up.

Tomato Seeds Started

I used this afternoon to get my tomato seeds going in my little peat-plug seed starting kit. I didn't take many pictures this time because I documented the process pretty well last year, and this went pretty much the same. I am trying seven varieties this year, and they are: Aunt Ruby's German Green, San Marzano, Amish Paste, Cherokee Purple, Sungold, Red Brandywine, and Flamme.