Garden time.... moving fast!

If you would have asked me yesterday, I would have told you that I was not going to be planting anything in the garden on Sunday, 5/22.  Even waking up this morning, I really questioned the possibility.  Even up until 3pm, I still questioned my sanity for asking.

I was WRONG.

Spent most of the morning doing some general repair of a raised bed that was damaged when we took the birch down earlier this summer.  A new 2x6 was all that was called for.   Also tried out my father-in-laws B&D 14" electric string trimmer.  Not very good reviews on Amazon, but it did a really great job for me.

My wonderful wife took the time to spend a couple of hours weeding and all she asked was that I help.  Gladly.  We got a big push done and now both of the big compost barrels are full.  Grass cutting took almost 2 hours given the amount of growth that has gone on.

Some pictures to mark the progress that is finally being made.  Thank goodness for raised beds!

Harrow Sweet Pear - Garden Spot

Contender Peach - Garden Spot

Bartlett Pear - Garden Spot

 The garden beds are a blessing in a wet year like the one we are in.  In a lot of instances, people are still going to be a week or more out.  Get me close, and I can get it in!

Onions are starting to come on very quickly

Block planted greens: chard, beets, spinach.  Yes, the beans are up!

Parisian Pickling Cucumbers

Peas, and the trellis is ready!

Tomatoes after a hard rain, with a little hail thrown in.

ASPARAGUS - this is what it is all about!

Garlic, three ways.  Getting ready for a foliar feeding!

Be safe, stay dry, and always practice safe gardening.

Bill

Warm day, time to plant.

Took the opportunity to get 5 more garden beds tilled as well as planted 11 broccoli, cauliflower, and kale plants tonight.  Looks like everything we planted on May 8 is through the ground.  Took time to finish planting my greens bed.  Believe it or not, I have beans through the ground.

Windy, Cold. Windy. Cold.

It is hard to believe that today is the 15th of May.  I had to wear a sweatshirt today when I cut the grass.  Cold northerly winds went right to the bone.  The good news is that today was relatively sunny, warming the soil and allowing for some opportunistic weeding.

Really nothing to report new in the garden. Everything that we planted last week is pretty much sitting, waiting for warmth to start growing.  I expect to see radish plants poking their heads up pretty quick.  The rest of the garden beds are too wet to work.  Perhaps we will see something by the end of the week.

I did have the opportunity to get out to the UWGB NAS Heirloom Plant sale.  #17 in line.  One of of my best performances.  Picked up 32 plants: tomatoes, peppers, flowers, and some other stuff.  I have to say, the selection was great and the plants looked great.

I then took a quick trip up to Oconto to visit the Martins at Garden Spot.  Picked up 3 fruit trees for the yard.  Two bare root pears and a potted peach tree.  Kind of difficult to think about planting things when it was raining pretty hard.  Great looking trees and a great selection.  Ronald is very helpful.

I have moved my transplants of broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts outside.  They got a good workout in the wind, but it will toughen them up.  Hopefully this week I can get the balance of the kale up and on the deck.

We'll see what the week brings.  I would like to get some more in the garden.

Until then, garden safe.

Bill

Happy Mother's Day - Spring may actually be here.

Took advantage of the break in the wet / cold weather to tackle the garden tasks at hand.  Primarily, we have been waiting on the soil to dry out in order to plant some of the cool season seeds (spinach, swiss chard, and beets).  Given that it stayed relatively dry over the past few days and the sun decided to shine, I was able to do a little work on Saturday to break open the soil.  On Sunday, I was able to get the Mantis tiller out and work 4 beds into somewhat reasonable shape for planting.

#8, #5, #9, and #13 all got worked.  #9 was planted with Sugar Snap peas, after I got up the trellis for the new plants to hang themselves on.  I also planted 3 blocks of spinach, beets, and swiss chard along with 3 blocks of Speedy green beans.  I know that it is probably a little bit early for the beans, but they do taste good.  I also stuck a number of radish rows into the planting.

I did finish weeding the asparagus beds (#1-#4).  It seems the work was just in time as I have a meal of asparagus almost ready for picking.

The raspberries are slow due to the wet and cold.  I am very concerned about the purple raspberries coming back after a very, very rough wet summer last year.  Some of the red raspberries have broken dormancy, but I have not been able to find any signs from the purple.  Time will tell.

The inside seedlings continue to make progress.  I probably will have a couple of potted candidates to take outside, sometime this week.  Kale, broccoli, and brussel sprouts make up the base of most of the plantings.

Hoping we don't get deluged this week.  It would be good to get at least another one or two beds ready to go.

Remember, the NAS Heirloom Plant Sale at UWGB is this Saturday at 9 am.  They start handing out numbers at 7am.

Have a good week.

Bill

A week after Easter and it still feels like it could snow

With the cold and wet weather continuing, I took the opportunity to plant some spinach and swiss chard inside.  It will give me a leg up once it gets dry enough to work in the garden beds.  The onions are still very slow, and probably quite cold.  Once the weather warms, they should shoot right up.

The garlic is doing well after an application of bone meal.

We had some very wet weather last year and I was afraid my raspberry patch was a memory.  Today, I got in and cleaned them out.  For the most part, I was pleasantly pleased.  I saw good regrowth on all 4 varieties.  The primocanes from last year showed enough life to be optimistic about the potential for a crop this year.  Time will tell.

Next week is Mother's Day.  Make sure you plant something for your Mom.

A note of reminder.  May 14 9:00 am will be the annual heirloom plant sale at the UWGB NAS.  I know that I will be there early.

Be good and be safe.  We'll talk next week.

Bill