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.
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.
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