Middlemamma's 2nd try: 2011 Garden

I started with the Wilton classes, went on to teach them, and I now teach Cake Decorating at our local college. The one I'm doing right now is for a benefit, a local Volunteer Fire Fighter's son was born a couple of weeks ago, and they found 3 holes in his heart. Benefit cakes are my favorite to do, I was going to do a firefighter theme, but with all this winter we've had I'm doing one with flowers, Ivy and Vines painted down the sides, and a sign that says Hurry Spring on the side. I'm just in too much of a hurry to get out in the garden to not do a spring theme, and I'm hoping the buyer is too. I had one cake go for $300 at a VFD fundraiser auction. It was a bushel basket with apples made out of fondant.

If we could just have one warmish day that I could stand to step outside and spend a couple hours. It is still so cold out there for this Arizona transplant. Its been wet and rainy and in the high 30's. It feels so cold to me. We had some very dry days that were in the high teens and those felt warmer to me.

I want to go out and inspect the garlic and potato onions, cover them with a plastic to kinda jump start their growth, and get the area ready for peas, lettuce and spinach in mid march. I also have all those fall bulbs I got for 2 cents that I want to get into pots.

Hubby is starting to freak over his to-do-for-the-garden list. He has a tendency to get sucked in by people who ask him to do this wood work project or another. He just finished making all the plaques for the Pinewood Derby Race for the Boy Scouts. I told him today I am officially putting everyone else on notice that until July he is mine and available to no other. I think I need to make an announcement on facebook that I am reclaiming my husband for the spring. LOL

So these are going to be **BEFORE** photos.

Hubby spent some of yesterday making the two 3X3 beds and will do the 4x4's soon.

We hit 40 today and the snow is melting. YAY! I decided to put on a hoodie and grab my coat and see what was under the melt.

Hoping this is a potato onion!


Hoping these two photos are garlic!



We have so much work to do!!!
We only utilized 1/2 the space we had available to us last year, this spring we are going to get the other 1/2 ready and use it all.

Here is the space we are talking about from the East side facing West. Closest to the camera is the 1/2 we put in last year.


Here is the opposite side facing East, the side we have to get ready for this year.


Here is are the two halves from my backdoor.



So there are my 2011 before photos...let's see where I am in a few more weeks.

I see GARLIC!!!!

Me too! And your grass! Ohhhhh I can hardly wait.

Gwynn

I know!!! I can't wait either..I was looking at our picnic table that Joe made me last year for Mother's Day and thinking how I can't wait for the grass to be green, the fire pit to be blazing, the tiki torches lit and our meals to be outside again!

I went and checked my seedlings tonight and low and behold I have a hard to germinate ARTICHOKE seedling!

I was showing Maddy and my excitement must have been contagious, cause her daddy came in the door and she started jumping up and down screaming, "DADDY! DADDY! We have an ARTISTROKE! WE HAVE AN ARTISTROKE!" LMAO...I love it when they say stuff wrong...at 6 years old those moments are few and far between. She still calls Pistachios "spudashios" and I still don't correct her.

Yeah Jennie!!! That's so exciting.. and cute! I love it when kids say things wrong sometimes too.

That little baby Artistroke is soooooo cute. Maddy is too.

We still look for goosedaubers (screw drivers), comment on the big yellow goosebus (school bus) when it drives by, and turn on the trictity, even though those 2 kids are now 24 & 22, and we still love to go see the efemints at the zoo.

Occasionally, we have "handeburgs" for lunch. And, our private parts are called "niffles" and "pee-wees." Those names are so cute, we adults have adopted them for regular language.

I think you can figure them out. But, lunches are hamburgers. I love their little mispronunciations, too.

My little girls (3 and 5) are currently excited for "Package Day." I'm afraid they are going to be disappointed on March 17th.

Hey Jen! I just ordered some Green Globe artistroke seeds from Comstock. Any special germination hints? I've never even eaten an artichoke, but the plants look like an interesting addition to my flower garden.

dixie wrote:Hey Jen! I just ordered some Green Globe artistroke seeds from Comstock. Any special germination hints? I've never even eaten an artichoke, but the plants look like an interesting addition to my flower garden.

I'm not sure if the Green Globe likes the same germinating conditions as the Imperial Star that I have, but I placed mine on a heat mat to germinate them. The instructions I had for the Imperial Star was to vary the soil temp over the day. I had them on the heat meat during the day which measured about 84F for soil temp and then turned the heat mat off at night so the soil temp would drop. This seemed to work well for me. I have 2 beautiful "artristroke" plants growing away nicely.

Aww thanks everyone for sharing in my off topic tangent. Joe and I still say a lot of the things the kids don't mispronounce anymore. Maddy said "ala too" for I love You too and he and I say it to each other all the time now...she hasn't said it in years. I'll ask him to pour me some "sola" sometimes. Sweet stuff.

I have the Imperial Star as well, not Green Globe, cause it's the only one that has had any luck in my zone ...and when I got the packet and read it I thought it would be a miracle if I got one to sprout let alone get an artichoke! I don't have a heat mat or anything...no funding...so I stuck it in the soil and prayed! LOL. I only sowed two, so I am at 50% germination today. Maybe in a few more I will get lucky and that other one will pop up! The packet says in general artichokes have about 60% germ rate? Pretty low if I remember.

They are very yummy, but if I can manage to get more than two to sprout I may see if I can let one flower instead of picking it and eating it. I am the opposite of you....I have eaten then but never knew they were the flower of a plant! I would love to see that.

You might want to try sprouting some artichoke seeds on damp paper towels in a plastic bag. When I tried that, I had 100% germination. Starting the artichokes in Mels'Mix, I had a very low germination rate (of course I also used seeds packaged for 2010 and these seeds have a usual seed life of just one year.

Furbalsmom wrote:You might want to try sprouting some artichoke seeds on damp paper towels in a plastic bag. When I tried that, I had 100% germination. Starting the artichokes in Mels'Mix, I had a very low germination rate (of course I also used seeds packaged for 2010 and these seeds have a usual seed life of just one year.

I did not know that the seed life is only one year. I think I have one or two seeds left. I'm going to try your damp paper towel idea today! At what point do you plant the seedlings in soil after germinating them this way?

You want to plant the seed after the root has come out, I waited until the leaf color was just showing, but that is because I did not have my 3 inch pots ready yet. Don't let the leaf open before planting. I think mine only took 5 - 7 days to root, acouple more days for leaf color to show.


Edited to add:
Per Mel's instructions:
keep paper towel on shallow dish, inside plastic bag to maintain moisture,
check daily, when you see roots, it's is time to plant.
Don't handle seed, carefully cut paper towel into little squares and lift each square out with a knife, plant it in Mel's Mix, cover with MM, and give a drink of water.

Ok FB....gonna try it.

I'll let you know!

Jen

see my edited post

I am officially a gardener..I bought a big floppy garden hat. I have been looking for the right one for over a year. I finally found one that will work for me...it had to be straw and it had to be HUGE and floppy...I guess I have to buy overalls NEXT!

So today was the first day we have seen 50* since October or November! I filled a whole 4X4 with seeds today! It was wonderful!

I planted:

German Giant Radish
Celeriac
Oregon Sugar Pod II Snow Peas
Golden Sweet Snow Peas
Purple Vienna Kohlrabi
White Vienna Kohlrabi
Kongo Kohlrabi
Red Romaine Lettuce
Tom Thumb Butterhead Lettuce
Baby Romaine Lettuce
Giant Noble Spinach
Green Onion
Alfresco Greens Blend

It felt wonderful to work in the new compost and plant something!

Jennie

I thought I found a hat today, at a local ACE Hardware, $40, but had an SPF of 50, still to steep. I also priced overalls at Wal Mart, $30 for men, and online $50 for women's, come on when in the heck did Converse High tops and overalls get so darned expensive???

Either the price of cotton, or some weird fashion trend I haven't figured out yet.... or supply and demand. Any which way, it's sad.

As Scarlet O'Hara said "Cotton oughta go sky high this year" and they are saying it will.

I found wonderful straw hat at my local feed store a couple of weeks ago for only $7! And it actually fits. I had been looking for one for a while but couldn't find one big enough, then I go to the feed store to get hay and find my hat.