Potatoes...!

Looks like i was a slight bit more pessimistic than necessary about those Adirondack potatoes...   yesterday i noticed a pair of sprouts:



i also found a chunk of potato that had been unearthed by the cats,  it had a sprout and some hairy roots on it.  I replanted it near the two above shoots.  This morning,  while doing some more planting and weeding,  i found a third potato plant just poking its way up.  This makes 3, maybe 4 plants.  I can live with that. 

We are expecting as many as 6 days of steady rain right now,  so this morning,  before the rain began, i managed to get the rest of the seeds in.  I had to skip out on the beets (beetroot) because i decided late spring might be too late and though i bought bolt-resistant types,  i just don't want that going on.

So...  what i planted was a row of Golden Butter wax bush beans,  a row of Royal Burgundy bush beans, a third of a row of the leftover bush bean seeds my dad gave me (Tender-long i think), a third of a row of  Minowase daikon radish and the rest was the ornamental sunflower mix (Fantasia).

I threw in a handful of Pinetree's radish mix into the further end of the potato row-  where the cats tore it up so bad...   i figure if the radish do grow they won't hurt the potatoes by the time they can be pulled.

Oh and the goji are getting full of berries:



Provider bush beans all up and weeded:


Full garden shot:



All planted.  Now all i have to do is keep up with the weeds, the bugs and hopefully i'll keep blights away!

A walk around the yard

Starting with the Stanley prune plum.  I'm really hoping it blooms this year.  I think there might be a chance,  but i don't see any signs yet. Not too sure what to look for,  i think they bloom later than apples and may not show buds until a while later.


Autumn olive.  I grew it from seed about 3 years ago now.  Its supposed to be self-fertile and is a lot like Goumi.


Carmine Jewel cherry.  Year 2.  After paying so much for these tiny plants last year,  i am so happy to see this one doing so well.



Goldbeere elderberry.  This one has golden yellow berries.  It tried to bloom last year,  but it was too soon after planting.


Nova elderberry...  lots of berries last year,  i didn't get to pick them all.  It needs some pruning.


York elderberry.  Smaller berries than Nova,  but just as prolific.


One of the grapes waking up. Not sure which because the vines are all mixed up.


Apple tree greening up nicely.  I'll need to spray it again this weekend.


Strawberry pot. I'm unsure if i'll get strawberries this year or if it takes a full year,  this is my first serious try.


Blueberry and lingonberry bed


The other Carmine Jewel cherry, looking good.


Beach plum,  the smaller of the two last year, but growing.


The beach plum that got broken from the snow.  It should recover i hope.


Female "Titan" sea buckthorn.


The male without a special name...  i was a little annoyed when i got this one.  The company went out of stock so he came about a month late last year. I had paid for a gallon pot and the female was definitely a full gallon plant.  When the male arrived,  i suspected it was a 6" potted plant put into a one gallon pot, then shipped. I don't expect them to bloom for the first time in the same year.


Phoenix Tears gojiberry:


The other Goji.  They both have flower buds but they start out tiny.


This is the blueberry that had a rough winter:


This is the one that looks the best:

Blogging outdoors and pics of what is growing.

Its  a bit chilly out today but its been so nice i decided to take the laptop outside and try making my entry from the table in the driveway.  Its interesting how 65 degrees indoors on a winter day can feel so cold,  but 65 degrees outdoors in the spring feels balmy.  Unfortunately its the breeze that is bringing a bit of chill to the air and the sun is behind a bit of hazy clouds right now.  But that should be clearing up soon.  Its supposed to reach the high 60's today and Thursday is expected to be in the 70's.   Sounds fine to me!

So far nothing iss flowering of course,  but leaves are popping out all over.  I managed to get the fruit trees sprayed yesterday and my dad delivered me a new trailer load of well-rotted horse manure. The garden badly needed some fresh poop.  My soil is rather sandy and the organic matter from the other year has broken completely down,  so we needed some fluffy richness.

Here is one of the goji plants setting out some nice healthy leaves


This is the male seabuckthorn


And the female


One of the beach plums waking up


One of the cherries


Blueberry and lingonberry


A not-so-good photo of Stanley's leaf buds


Autumn olive



The other cherry


The elderberries


The grapes are still sleeping.  If i remember correctly,  they don't begin to leaf out until the apple is about to bloom.


Speaking of the apple...


Hubby, spreading out the manure for me.


We still have piles of garden rubbish that needs to be burned,   but we have not had rain for quite a while so its been too dry to safely burn anything.   No rain in the forecast either for the next week or so.  If we don't get rain we will probably have to cart off the stuff and let it break down in a pile somewhere.

I may start bring out the brassica seedlings to begin hardening them off today or tomorrow.  I need to get the sunflowers started and i'm a bit late on trying to get some herbs started.  I had a number of things that didn't germinate quite the numbers i had hoped for,  so i may have some gaps to fill.

I'm hoping my dad will be able to come by this weekend and till the soil,  i'm hoping for two tills before planting.  This should disrupt many of the weeds and get the warmth deeper into the soil.  It may not matter in the end because we are going to try using black plastic in the rows this year to block out all those confounded weeds.  But i won't be able to use it on the bush bean rows or the potatoes,  so its best to do what we can to keep the weeds in check.

Speaking of potatoes,  my Adirondack blues came in last Thursday.  My daughter is happy with the skin color of them.  We won't get a look inside until its time to chunk them up to plant,  but i bet they will look pretty cool.   I have grown a few blue potatoes before...  i think they were All Blues,  i got a small box of them from Walmart one year,  enough for just a little plot in one of my little gardens many years back.

I ordered 10 Sparkle strawberry plants that should be arriving soon,  they didn't come today.  I was going to put them in a container,  but i'm not sure which one i might use.  I almost hope they are out of stock and i'll get a refund or credit,  because i ran out of options.  I used to have a round, white pot by the front door.  Its been here since before we bought the house 10 years ago.  It finally developed a big crack in the side so it was time to go.  I'm replacing it with my big terracotta-looking pot that is about 3'x12".


  I was going to put the strawberries in there,  but i kind of want flowers in there since its going to be in the front...  i was thinking the nasturtiums would look nice. But then,  i want strawberries and since i don't really have many purely decorative flowering plants anymore a big pot of strawberries won't be out of place with my landscaping.  So, we'll see.  If the strawberries are out of stock (they were in stock when i ordered,  but the next day they were listed as sold out,  and i'm pretty sure Pinetree is good at updating their stock accurately-  but this time of year things run out fast and they are very busy so things might slip through.)  I did just look across the yard and remembered this:

Maybe that will be the place for the "nasties".

The goji seeds i planted for my mom have come up nicely,  one is really big and the others look fine.  The schizandra are not doing anything noticeable yet.

*Sigh*  I just can't wait to plant the garden and enjoy a warm summer.

Setting up the greenhouse and seedling shots.

So,  last week hubby bought me this:



I finally got to set it up yesterday.



I didn't really expect so many parts.  Working from the parts list,  everything was present.

First round:


Second round:


Third round:


Finished:


I didn't bother to put on the plastic cover yet.  It needs to be staked down first or it will blow over.

I think it took me about an hour,  seems sturdy enough,  it is lightweight,  but its easy to move.  Staking will make up for the weight.  I wouldn't call it flimsy,  but its not a brick house by any means!

Now for the seedlings.

The goji are coming up nicely


Nasturtiums, basil, borage, schizandra and Ancient sweet peppers.


The basil came up quickly and the Ancient pepper seeds must have been extremely fresh because all three seeds are up faster than any pepper seeds i have ever grown. No signs of sprouting from the schizandra though.

Tomatoes:



More have come up since i took this picture on Saturday.  Looks like all but one pot sprouted in the last couple days.  I expect that last one will come up soon.

Aunt Molly's ground cherries and broccoli.  The bubbles brussels sprouts never came up.  I'll reuse the pots with some more nasturtium seeds.




The leonotis isn't coming up,  but the tea hibiscus are.  The green shiso is up,  but the red is not.  Then the red Russian kale,  2 out of 3 appeared.


Zsazsa peppers, Snapper peppers and Raveena eggplant.  One Zsazsa pepper came up eventually, then the other two began to come up...but they haven't moved a bit since.  One single parsley came up.



Lilac buds are swelling:


The maples are beginning to bloom.
Apple tree's buds are starting to get bigger.  Elderberries are waking up,  i noticed the cherry plants are looking like they are waking up too.  The seabuckthorn are putting out some tiny leaves.  I pruned the Stanley plum a little yesterday and released him from his stake.

I'll take more and better pics when i don't have to keep one eye trained on an active 4-year-old child!  lol