Everything's Growing!

I have been so busy these days, but I spend as much time in my garden as I can.  My two biggest regrets are that I have not had the time to prune my fruit trees, or blueberry bushes, and I still haven't done anything about protecting them.  I have been spending what little free time I have starting seeds, pruning, cleaning up the yard and amending the soil.  Here are some pictures of what's going on around here:

My thyme seedlings have developed their first set of true leaves, so I thinned them out by using tiny scissors to cut out any extras, and then I transplanted them into newspaper pots that I made:

How tiny these plants are!  I can't wait to smell these leaves this summer!  Hey!  I just noticed that the "cup" has "for His Kingdom" printed on it, upside down! The other has the words "Christian" and "philosophy" on it.  It's thyme for His Kingdom!

I planted 2 kinds of cucumbers, 2 kinds of marigolds, some zinnias and bachelor's buttons on the 17th - the cucumbers began to sprout after 1 day; everything else is sprouting today (19th):





 

I hung up a new light in my basement, since I was running out of room with my other 2 lights.  I calculated that I have about 250 little plants growing down there! So, I needed another light.  I learned in my WMMGA class that you don't have to buy special, expensive lights.  I bought a shop light for $20 and 2 T5 fluorescent bulbs.  I couldn't insert the bulbs at first, and ended up going back to Home Depot where a saleswoman showed me how. I then bought 4-foot chains to hang the lamp from the ceiling, so I can adjust it as the plants grow.  The chains that the light came with were only a few inches long:

 





Outdoors, things are popping up all over the place!  All the daffodil bulbs that Jamie planted are coming up:

 

 



Sadly, Jamie and I are going to have this tree taken down in November.  The kids grew up swinging from its branches.

Also, I see signs of peonies, bleeding hearts, chives, foxglove, forsythia and apple blossoms, plus tiny blue flowers that I don't know the name of:

And of course, the weeds are here:

 

 

Well, I guess these are "winter annuals"!  James asked, "Mom, what are all these tiny white flowers?"  I said, "Weeds". "What are weeds?"  "Plants that are growing where you don't want them to grow."  James felt sorry for the weeds.

 

A few weeks ago, the end of March, I planted lettuce, spinach and green onions in with the garlic:

 

 

 

The garlic is taking off:

 

 

 

And of course, there's Shadow.  He thinks it's his garden.  The neighbor's dog, Abby, thinks it's her garden, too.  I had to chase her out the other day, because she was rolling around in the manure I put down.  Sheesh! I have a hard enough time with the deer and the rabbits, never mind a dachshund!

 

Speaking of pests, notice how there are no fences in any of these pictures.  I had a "fence guy" come out this week to look at the yard.  Still don't know how we're going to fence it all in.



Garlic, Lettuce, Green Onions and Spinach

I noticed last week that my garlic is growing.  I planted the little cloves in October (? - I'll have to check on this) and was so pleased to see their little green tops poking through the soil.

I remember reading in Joy of Gardening that it's good to grow green onions, lettuce, spinach and even carrots with the garlic.  I'm not planning on growing carrots this year, but I did sow lettuce, spinach, and green onion seeds in the garlic bed on Saturday, the last day of March.  All the books/seed packets say that the seeds should be sown directly as soon as the soil can be worked.  It seems like it should be so easy, but again, this is a first for me:  I read the back of each seed packet and tried to carry out the instructions.  We'll see how well things turn out!  I planted the onions in only half the bed - trying to avoid the garlic, and I planted 4 "bands" of lettuce, so that I can do some "succession planting".  Finally, I planted spinach in the other half of the bed.

After I planted the seeds, I realized that we haven't opened our pump, so I didn't have a convenient way to water the seeds.  Then, I couldn't find a watering can, and I couldn't find enough hose to reach the bed from the outside faucet.  Thankfully, it rained yesterday, and we're expecting more rain this week. 



I like this picture because all the garlic tops are visible.  That's my shadow.

Here's my other Shadow... in the shadows!