Garden is almost ready!

My dad came over this morning and got started on the garden.  I have had it staked out for a while, but we had to cut the plastic  tape, but we left in the pegs...

First he spread out the compost/topsoil that he brought me yesterday.  Which looked like this on Saturday :

Hubby had taken more of the manure stuff and tossed it on the pile on the left...  but the compost is so nice and dark colored!

Ok, so...spreading it out...

There was a  bit more of it over there, so he took it too.

Ant this is the first actual tilling of the soil to mix it in

It looks so good!  (But, darn i can't wait for that fence to get finished)

All finished!

The yard slopes quite a bit, so my dad suggested that hubby take a few old boards we had lying around and make a retainer out of them for the back part of the garden.  We had plenty of scrap and they did it pretty quickly.

I also had dad do the part in front of where i planted the JA's ,  i am going to put the rhubarb in there and possibly the horseradish,  so i figured i might as well have that bit done. Otherwish hubby would have had to break it in for me with the mantis...  would have taken  him much longer.

It looks funny where it goes around the JA plot,  but i'll try and neaten it up some other time. We were in a rush last fall, so our digging wasn't quite as straight as the garden.

Very good day.

The weather was absolutely beautiful. I didn't check the temperature but i think it hovered around Perfect. It wasn't dry, it wasn't sweltering...it was sunny, little warm breeze... just right.  The Maine State Birds ( black flies )were out, but they weren't biting...too much..


Ok. Random spring pictures:

These are my tulips for the second round of spring bloom. They seem to come anywhere from 1-3 weeks after the Torontos.

This is a pink hyacinth that i do not remember planting. It has never appeared before that i know of and this is the first time i have seen it bloom.  I have no idea how it got there.  I must have put it there of course, but i thought i only put daffodills and crocus there.  Either i simply forgot, or my package of daffs had a hyacinth stowaway. The daffs were planted at least 4 years ago...

Oh, this is the Hoya Shepherdi flower penduncle.... or what i am hoping is.  Blurry, but worth taking note of so i know what to look for in the future:

The JA patch....  i think this was while i was trying to weed it...  The plants are not even big enough to make them out in this pic....

Apple blossom buds, turning pink...  Glad i happened to notice this  Friday evening because i sprayed Saturday and took this picture later that day... they are just about to open now.

The beach plums that made it through the winter.  The others got stepped on by mistake....  but i had to put them in drilled kitty litter buckets to protect them from being stepped on again.  The pink strings were supposed to prevent it, but no such luck.
Not a good picture of them, but i can at least record when they break dormancy in the spring for next year. Though this is an early year for everything.

Veggies revisited.  Again.


Kohlrabi, Burdock and Kale...  doing well.  Some of the other seeds in there are starting to come up, but are still small.

Pak Choi and Collards...  a month after seeding today.

Welsh onions and Shallots  (and a weed)

Lettuces... i need to trim out the twins....and eat them.

Assorteds

The other flat of assorteds... the tomatoes are looking good

Tomatoes and Tomatillo

Asparagus from seed.... so funny looking!

Another assorted flat

The citrus that i potted



























The grape. With the green onions behind that i planted for green onion tops.

Big honking rosemary....
I keep forgetting to buy plastic cups to transplant them all into. 

Goji doing really well...

The double flowered Rose of Sharon bush breaking dormancy. I don't really like the flowers much, some flowers don't double well and this is an example of that. Like hollyhocks, doubling the petals just detracts from the simple shape.  These flowers look like they have been shredded by wind.  I prefer the purple/blue shade of RoS,  this one is a medium pink color.  I might try to give this one away sometime later on. Replace it with something more to my tastes.

And the big Peegee Hydrangea is waking up.  It looks stark dead for most of the spring, its one of the last things to wake up.

Almost 11pm

I'm going to try and measure out the rows tomorrow, then dig the paths and mound up the beds. Thats the plan whether it takes me all week or not, i guess i will find out. Its dependent on weather, nap times and pain levels.

Yay, then...not yay... ha ha

Yay-  my laptop survived!
Not sure how it lived, but so far it is back to normal and no sticky keys (i don't sweeten my coffee) even.
Hubby thinks i may have saved it by flipping it over to drain and yanking the battery as  soon as i could. I also put the blow dryer on cool and set it up against it for a few minutes.  WHile that was working, i got out mini box fan and set the laptop up so the air blew into the keyboard so i could put away the blow dryer.  Another thing that helped is thta keyboards have this  failsafe sort of thing, kind of like GFCI....  if there is a sudden voltage change it shuts down automatically.  So when the spill happened, the computer got itself shutting down and i just had to clean it up and wait for it to dry.

So there ends the drama of the day for Tuesday.

One thing i did do to change my laptop's settings to hopefully protect it was to go into the energy settings and tell it to do nothing when the cover of the laptop is closed.  This way when i leave the room for a few seconds, i can close the cover and this will protect the keys and screen from tiny, nosy,  little fingers---and spills.
I keep my laptop on all day and i check something on it a number of times a day. Shutting it down after each lookup  is not going to happen, so this might be the next best thing.

But i am grateful that i don't need to get a new one at this point.  I have been very good at archiving things into my external hard drive, so i would only have lost my huge bookmarks list and a few inconsequential things.

So, all is well that ends well... hubby said just to watch for overheating.

Last night large regions got snow. Our mountains up here got as much as 2 feet. Some spots a few miles East of us got some freezing rain, but i don't think we got any of it.  I think our night time low temperature got down to 38 degrees. I have not been out to see the mini greenhouses yet this morning. I haven't even been over to the window that has the indoor/outdoor remote thermometer in it.  I have the wire of the outdoor thermometer inside one of the greenhouses and then i have the 'indoor' part on the shelf of the gas grill where i can see it through the window (and it won't get rained on).

So there isn't much to report on sprouty things or gardeny things since it just raining out and its not a weekend, so nothing is being done.  Hopefully there won't be too much rain and my dad will be willing to get the compost over here for us.
I hope to have it get tilled in so i can put  clear plastic over the soil to wake up the weeds then run the Mantis over it a week later, then black plastic to warm the soil faster. 
According to the Johnny's blog and according to the book by Eliot Coleman (that i am reading now) i should be able to plant out the hardies within a week or two- and possibly as much as a couple weeks ago-  under the hoops of course.

The little citrus trees seem to be doing fine so far. The venous orange still has those rolled leaves, but there isn't any real info on this plant online. Some posts about them that result from searching, seem to imply that 'venous' is a made-up name by Gurney's/Henry Fields.  There was one suggestion that it might be Madame Vinous orange...which is a known type.  But its hart to tell because people are in general so dismissive to HF and their products, that nobody will say much even if they did know.

I don't know myself right yet,  i just want to get some nice smelling flowers. It doesn't even have to set fruit, but if it does i would love to see some fruit with at least an orange blush.
 I do want a variegated pink Eureka lemon soon.  I saw it first at Springhill's website... but i don't remember their reputation so i'd check in on that before i would consider them .  Territorial also sells it and they have the Kaffir lime that i want to replace the one i accidentally murdered.  They also have the Kumquat plant i want.
They also have one of the better reputations, so i might go there for "all my citrus needs"...  since hubby was kind of freaked out by my idea of turning the front garden into a Milkweed festival, i may have to console myself with a collection of a different sort.

The Goji seedlings are taking off like crazy, and i did manage to find the charger for my camera after an hour of searching the other day.

I also think that  my Hoya shephardi is setting a penduncle.  This is pretty exciting since this can take years to happen... of course it can still take years to bud and then bloom from this point i guess. But the fact that it seems to be starting something after less than 2 years from being a rooted cutting...  its pretty cool.  One out of 6 of my Hoyas might bloom within the next three years.  Yay!

 I forgot two of my Passiflora outside, i'm going to leave them out until it warms up cause i think if i bring them back in they might go into shock if they aren't there already. But i did repot the P. lavender Lady the other day, it looks happier in a bigger pot.

Well, i guess that is all.

Three trees...

My citrus trees came in today and i am actually impressed.
They weren't in the ridiculous plastic bag that i remember Henry Field's used to ship things in...  they were in a real cardboard box packed with inner sleeves and air pillows.

I still wasn't sure what i'd find...

Sturdy shipping sleeves

This is the Meyer Lemon,  much bigger than expected and looks rather healthier than i hoped!

Next, the Key Lime

A bit small, but this was the size i was expecting them all to be, but i didn't expect this size both healthy and leafy!

Last is the Venous Orange.  Leaves are a bit pale and rolled, but they are soft leaves, i think its just how they grow in.

No sign of scale, spider mite, whitefly or anything else. I can see roots in the soil that was loosened in shipping, but that means these are well rooted plants and  not recently propagated cuttings just barely started.

So i am relieved and pleased. For about $10 each, shipping included, i got some nice plants from a company with a poor reputation.  I hope this is a sign of a company on the move upward.

   I hope my little Fig plant arrives looking as well as these do.  It is scheduled for shipment around the first week of May.

*****

Another gorgeous weather day today. A bit before noon and its almost 65 degrees and the sun is shining.

Later on i plan to take a few more reference pictures of the seedlings in the mini greenhouses.  Things are popping up all over in there!

Risky business...

Maybe it was early onset Spring Fever...  but i did it.  In early February, i tempted fate and granted the mail-order plant company with one of the worst reputations about $39 of my own money in exchange for some miniature citrus plants. 
According to my account, the plants will begin being shipped within a few days:

I don't like to be skeptical, cause being skeptical insinuates that i should have known better. But i feel i need to plead some sort of insanity...  of course i am also holding out that this company, despite all the evidence against it, will man up and send me something alive and in generally decent health.
I'm not expecting the Rutaceaen version of a mighty sequoia to be shipped to me in a box with fruit ready to be harvested...  but i would like to get more than a scale covered stick that dies within 2 weeks.

I have ordered from them before, with so-so results. I admit, at the time i ordered from them, i was even more a novice then than i am now. Some of he items came bare root and looked like something i fished out of a clogged sink...  but other things looked fine.
If i remember correctly i got some Japanese Toad Lilies, some English daisies, Ranunculus and i ordered some Manchurian Apricots.

The toad lilies did well enough and bloomed the year i got them. I think the bare root daisy may have had a better shot had i known what i was doing.  But it was a bust.

The ranunculus grew but never flowered.

The apricots never arrived. I was told they were backordered, and when it was shipped, i was sent a really nice looking forsythia by mistake.  I was told i could keep it, so i gave it to my parents- but they never planted it. That really bugged me because it was actually pretty nice.

They ended up sending me a store credit for the price of the apricots (about $7) that i never used, because the following spring they had filed for reorganisation bankruptcy or sale - and were shutting down during that time. So i kept the voucher but never used it.  I had planned on buying their multi packs of old fashioned lilacs with that voucher, but in a way i'm glad i did not because when we bought the new yard, i ended up with more lilacs than i could give away!


But i will try to be optimistic that i get the correct items, that  they arrive healthy, if probably smaller than i'd like, and they ship quickly because our weather is a bit odd in this "El Nino" year.

I am eagerly awaiting my Richters order. I want to get some of those seeds started. A number of them are hardy types that can be sown now. I got the ship notification on the 9th, so it should only be a few more days.

I think everything in the greenhouses did ok overnight. Before it got too cold, i put a heavy blanket over each one just to keep in whatever heat the containers had absorbed.

I need to write a list of what has sprouted already, just so i won't forget next year.  Many things have been up for a number of days, but i have been too busy to write down small details like that.

The Buttercrunch lettuce looks like it will be edible quite soon....

I cannot believe that these Tomatillo seeds as old as they are, are sprouted and look pretty good!

  A bit fuzzy, but i think these are the Polfast. The stick is facing the wrong way for me to read the name and i forgot already.

Pruden's Purple tomatoes

Yellow Pear tomatoes

Gypsy broccoli

Welsh onions and Mirage shallots

Collards...  i should have had faith and sown one seed per pellet. Now i have to thin them. Glad i only sowed two seeds each. I have had great luck storing seeds, so i tend to think of every thinned seedling as a whole plant wasted since i can keep my seeds in high germination ratios for many years.

Pak Choi...  I can't wait to grill up a few of these!  I need to do successive sowings of this!

Mixed flat of assorteds...in the front on the left is Burdock, on the right is Kolrabi
in the back i can see the tag for the Oregano, but no sprouts...  on the right, i can't remember what that is and i can't see the tag, but its obviously some sort of cole crop.
See why i need to write everything down? lol

Some brave little  tomatoes are sprouting in there...  both from seed that is over 7 years old.

Mixed flat...  the Swiss Chard and Point One cabbage are waking up.

Finally, the Rosemary...  it has been cold, but they have made it very well.  Now that i have the light setup, i might bring them inside.  I will need to pot them up soon or i will damage them too much if their roots get tangled.

The Electric Fence kit i bought from Tractor Supply has come in, i just need to go pick it up. Maybe later today. There is no real rush since i can't install it yet- nothing to guard.... and i don't want to have it too long before installing in case the warrantee is too short.  I have at least 30 days before i will need it and most return policies are "within 30 days".  So i won't get it until we can test it some weekend.  Lay it out and make sure it is sturdy and complete.

I saw my first cabbage butterfly yesterday...  i felt kind of bad giving it the stink eye as it merrily fluttered across the yard.  I covet my future broccoli and cabbage plants, if the electric fence keeps the woodchucks out, i don't want to lose everything else to caterpillars! Even with the row covers, i don't want to have to use a bunch of bug killers to fend off a plague.

Soon i have to clean out the Worm Farm.  The red wigglers have been happily munching away at kitchen scraps all winter. The topmost bin is looking quite full. I am not sure i know how to remove all that black gold without losing half my worms.  Its too cold for them to live up here through winter, so if i lose any to the garden they won't last. I know they are just worms, but they do such a good job :0)

Well i have cleaning to do and if i get it done before nap time is over, i might get to read a little too! Yay.