the greens go in

I had a productive hour in the garden this morning.  The weather was perfect for planting- overcast, a little cool, with rain coming in just as I finished up.  

And here they are.  The first peas of the spring.

I had two problems with my peas last year.  1) I planted them way too late. 2)  The rabbits came in and gnawed the tops off of almost all the plants, effectively ending my pea harvest for the year.

In order to fix these problems for this year I first made sure to get them planted nice and early.  Easy enough.  The other thing that I am doing is putting a very short section of wire fencing around the peas when they are in their earliest stages.  Once they are tall enough the rabbits won't be an issue so I can take the protection down.  For now though, they'll grow nice and safe in their little cage.

A new green that I am trying this year: Pak Choi.  Supposed to be great in a stir fry.  I also planted three lettuce types and Swiss Chard today.

I noticed quite a bit of this self-seeded lettuce popping up.  I'm not going to argue with that.

And also one lone Swiss Chard plant that looks like it is growing out of one of the stems of last years plants that had been left in the ground.  Interesting.

Potting On

The tomato seedlings have gotten big enough that today I transplanted them from their little tray into nice spacious plastic cups.  Here are all the supplies layed out on the kitchen table.

All I did was fill the cups partially with potting soil, drop the peat plugs into place ( after cutting off their thin net covering) and fill in the space around and above it with more potting soil.  

Originally I had 5 seedlings of each tomato type.  I don't need or want that many actual plants so only the best 2 seedlings were transplanted

The top 10, all transplanted and ready to grow.

The sad runners-up, destined for the compost pile.

And here they are all lined up in their new sunny window sill.  They'll stay here for at least a week or two.  After that they'll be slowly hardened off by being placed outside (and being brought in if there is a danger of frost.) Eventually, once everything has warmed off enough they'll be planted outside permanently.

You can't see it here, but way in the back of the yard, in the garden, the first peas are starting to poke up through the soil.  More pictures to come soon.

Sprouts

Some updates on my seed starting endeavor:

Most of the seeds have sprouted and, per the instructions, I've removed the clear plastic lid and placed the tray near a sunny window sill.  After they've grown a bit more the best seedlings will be replanted in plastic cups and placed back on the windowsill.  This will give the roots more room to grow then in the small peat plugs.  Eventually the very best seedlings will make their way out to the garden for planting.

The latest garden shots.  Both rows of peas are planted out, with twine in place as a trellis.  On either side are two small bamboo teepees that  I'm going to use for the small french beans that don't cimb very high.  I'm still not sure where to grow the regular green beans.  I've thought about letting them ramble up the wire fence in front or on the side facing the neighbors.  

This bed was just enriched with topsoil and mushroom compost from the nursery mentioned in a previous post.  This is the spot where the first planting of tomatos will go (the ones now growing inside).

Planted second succession of peas today.

The last few days have brought the first good rains of the spring.  It feels like everything wants to start growing.  Forsythia is just starting to flower.

Found a great nursery the other day. It's called "Colonial Gardens" on rt. 724 ouside of Phoenixville, and it's got the best selection of any local place I've found.  Just got some mushroom soil when I was there and some hardwood stakes for the tomato plants.

Getting Started

On this past friday (the 20th) the first seeds of the spring went in the ground.  I have 2 varieties of sugar snap pea that I put in, with the plan being to start a second planting in a week or so to have  some succesion harvesting.  It was a few days after St. Patrick's day, the traditional planting day for the first peas of the year.  Although I noticed that it was almost a whole month earlier then I planted them last year.

Some pictures showing the wood chipper mulch layed down in the paths between beds.

  

Preparing the bed for a row of peas.

Peas planted with trellis strings in place.

Crocuses popped up 1-2 weeks go.  Just about the same time as last year.

I'm going to try some basic seed-starting this year.  I picked up a kit from Sears and I'm going to try just with the various tomato varieties that I have to get some seedlings going.  I've not had much success with this in the past, but I figure it'd be worth it to get even a few earlier harvests this way.

Here is the kit with the 5 tomato types:

The varieties that I bought this year are:

1- "new girl" an early all-around hybrid

2- "sungold" the best cherry tomato ever

3- "juliet" a smaller paste type tomato

4- "valencia" an large golden herloom variety

5- "san marzano" a classic italian paste tomato

The seeds in place.

The cover is on and, until the seeds sprout, it will sit in this corner of our kitchen counter.  At that point it will be moved to a sunny windowsill.

Wood Chipper Work

Today I worked on throwing all of my accumulated brush and branches throught the wood-chipper.  The woodchips that are left over will be used as path material between planting beds.  It looks good so far, although it takes a lot of chipping to get a little bit of woodchips.  I'll post some pictures once I'm done.  

I'm also hopng to run some of the leaves through to use as a mulch for the planting areas.

Ordered seeds today!