moved our beds

its coming along   wish the warm weather was hear already!

the tomato seedlings have all come up in the solo party cups   we sowed them in the bottom of the cup with a small amount of potting mix... so all we have to do is keep adding potting mix as they grow.....pretty cool...we don't have to up pot them so quickly.....the hard part is picking out just one seedling per cup  and snipping the others.... 

our cole crop seedlings out in the little green house are coming along pretty slow...maybe its to cold out there for them? or maybe we should just transplant them in to the bed and cover the hoops with plastic.....just so afraid of the slugs....and I keep reminding my self that they didn't start really taking off last year until april.....I just need to be patient....im not good at that LOL

a neat little project the kids and I are hoping to do soon is to use some bright paint on stones as herb markers and paint some bird houses, and a couple stepping stones for the new herb beds   

we are also getting things ready for our new baby chicks that are due next month   

I think hubby is going to try and get some more woodchips for the front BTE gardens tomorrow....boy have the really broken down   im really excited to add more straight planting into them this year....going to try tomatoes, pumpkins, watermelon, cucumbers, and maybe some beans....just to see how they do.....last year...onions, kale, swiss chard all did great....carrots, lettuce not so much...so we shall give them a another try as well....remember on some of the BTE front area we only put down woodchips and NO compost.....we wanted to see how long it would take before plants would do well in them.....I need to look back at my notes, but I believe this spring the older part will be 2 1/2 years.....and the newer part...the Island in the middle of the yard will be 1 year old.....

happy gardening
rose

eeeeeewwwwwwwwwwww...love the idea of the tomato seeds! Gotta try that one! What kind of chicks are you getting? We've put ours out for 2 days in a row now, and nothing has gotten them! there's a big old hawk in the tree that keeps a watchful eye on them though.......grrrrrrr. It's so hard to be patient waiting for the stuff to grow! You should have nice weather here soon and all your goodies can go out! Can't wait to see the pics. Our woodchips are just about decomposed. Do you think we should cover again with chips or our good compost? hmmmmmmmmmm

FamilyGardening wrote:looks great SG! have you eaten the green one before? we have been thinking about trying it out but I wanted to see what others thought of the taste first   congrats on your poppies!! we hope to have a lot of them this year too...we love them!

hugs
rose

Hey Rose, wanted to let you know, we ate the "green one" today, the Romanesco. It was good, but not nearly as good as the cauliflower!  We steamed it, and also steamed and mashed some turnips then topped it all with chives from the garden. It was GOOOOOD!!

Not on this forum.  I haven't been bored yet.

kauairosina wrote:Not on this forum.  I haven't been bored yet.

Same here, kauairosina.  Keeps me looking forward to our spring. Any month now.

SG glad to hear your chickens are doing good   we might get ours sooner then we thought....we went to a feed store today to get some supplies and it turns out they just got their baby chicks in today and they have most of the ones we had ordered.....it would be nice if we can get the babies local, it would save us the 50 dollar shipping charge.....we will find out more tomorrow.....

about putting more woodchips or compost down....

in our back garden we are putting more compost down on top of the old woodchips that are still there (barely there) and then going to add more woodchips on top as mulch....this is what we did last year and it worked out great....the reason we are doing this again this year in the back garden, is because our *raised* beds in the back garden weren't raised any longer because of all the woodchips we put down In the walk ways...and we love the look of fresh woodchips on top as mulch....

the front BTE garden area we are only going to put down more woodchips.....

so my 2cents for your BTE garden.....push a hand shovel down into the garden and see if it goes in nice and easy and .....when you bring it back out pick up some of that lower soil and....see what the soil looks like?

if it looks nice, dark, rich and moist....and you were able to push that hand shovel in quite a ways....then I would think all is good and you don't need any more woodchips....

but...if you like the way your plants look and stay cleaner with Fresh woodchips and the woodchips you have now are pretty thin ....or ......you need the woodchips for mulch to help with the water....then you might want to add some more.....maybe a couple inch's worth....if you are going to put down a much thicker layer then I would add compost first and then the chips....seems like just adding a couple inch's the plants do great....but if you were going thick like 6 inch's or more I think it would take the roots of the plants to long to get to some food.....unless you use some bone and blood meal....or an all purpose fertilizer....  

hugs
rose

oops for got to add.....your dinner looks yummy!

maybe this fall we will try that fancy cauliflower.....its fun to try new things!...our son thought it looked pretty cool!.....he said it looks like that cauliflower is wearing armor   I said maybe it can fight off the bugs and slugs better then the white one does LOL

hugs
rose

The shovel goes down far and very easily and has lots of worms. I'm afraid the soil will dry out without the wood chips and we will end up having to water more like we did before we started the BTE garden, so I think your idea of 2" of chips is a good one. It was a real challenge at first to plant with the 6" of chips, they kept falling onto the seed(lings) and burying them. We ended up just pulling the chips out, then putting them back in once the plant got big enough, but that was sort of a hassle. It has paid off though. The problem is we can only get a full load of chips at a time which is WAAAYY more than we need, and we can't leave them out in the street/driveway because it will block us in. I have some compost that's not quite "done". Maybe that'll work for our "cover"?
Your son sounds like a crack up! It does sort of look like armor! haha
Our baby chicks found their way into the compost pile already!! wahoooo!! They were so cute, pecking and scratching a 100 miles an hour!! lol It's quite a big jump for them to get in, so I was surprised to see them in there, but that's exactly where we want them, so all is good. The hawk is still sitting up in the tree, but the babies are all caged in, so hopefully he'll move on! thanks for the great info and ideas

Beautiful garden..keep the pictures coming. It inspires us in colder climates!

TLAT1270 wrote:Beautiful garden..keep the pictures coming. It inspires us in colder climates!

OK.. will do! I took more today, but didn't post for fear of overposting Thank you!!

Snapped a few pics of the garden today. Doing really well. Flowers are sort of winding down, but have gotten literally hundreds! I have lots of stuff to plant so once they stop, we will refill! Pictured are beets, kale, cilantro, several varieties of lettuce, some tomatoes, peppers, swiss chard, carrots...and more, can't remember lol.  We are having a garden party/meeting at our house Sat night, so hopefully they'll hang on another couple of days!  God bless!!

HOLLY MOOLY...what a sight

Beautiful, SG. Keep them coming. Love the mix of flowers and veggies.

Thank you Jimmy and Kelejan. Here's a pic just now of the "whole garden". I too love the flowers mixed with the veggies. Off to the left are blueberry bushes, and a bed for some horseradish that's due to arrive any day!! wahooo!! The second pic is our seedling starts. Close to 280!! Need to finish up this winter garden to make room If you look closely, in the middle left of the pic, you can see the archway we are hoping to grow some Tromboncino (sp??) squash on! The sweet peas are trying, but I don't think they're gonna make it by the time I need to plant. All is good tho!!

Dang, your garden is beautiful.   

SG LOVE the photo's!!....your garden looks fantastic!

that blue chair looks so inviting

hugs
rose

So impressed!  You've done a beautiful, amazing job.  Your yard looks so peaceful and restful, but I bet you're like me - how often do you act SIT in those chairs?!!!  I'm always puttering, rarely resting  

audrey.jeanne.roberts wrote:So impressed!  You've done a beautiful, amazing job.  Your yard looks so peaceful and restful, but I bet you're like me - how often do you act SIT in those chairs?!!!  I'm always puttering, rarely resting  

Thank you Audrey. It's been a long and fun process getting it the way we like it. It's just steps from our back door. We can see the garden from our kitchen, living room and master bedroom, so it gets a lot of "looks".
We do sit in the blue chairs quite a bit. Unfortunately, I have some health issues, and can't do nearly what I would like to do. It's VERY frustrating, as I used to be soooo active.
Glad you are enjoying the pics! Trying not to picture overload, but it seems like people enjoy them God bless!!

OK...one more pic of the garden from the front. I'm trying to try out the panoramic on my camera phone, so forgive me once more!!

Welp, now I've gone and done it. I have more plants than SF, so we're planting on the hillside!  LOL. About 150 Candy Apple Onions. My little helper is always ready to pitch in!!

I wish you could smell these. Straight out of the garden!!! No need for sugar, they are as sweet as can be!!

Drool!

Does anybody ever put balsamic vinegar on strawberries? I can't remember if that's something people do ...

I'm hoping for strawberries like yours someday, southern gardener.

sanderson wrote:Drool!

+1
the only thing I can add is that this morning I had some of last summer's strawberries from the freezer and even they beat any that are in the grocery store.
My intention is to grow many more.

marc, never tried the vinegar? don't know how the vinegar and the sweetness would be? Kelejan. I've been waiting for a YEAR for these babies, and it was worth it! There are about 20 more that will be ready in the next few days !!