Spring is actually finally here. We had 70 degree weather last Friday and Saturday and then snow on Sunday. I spent some time in the garden Friday. I must have had morning/all day sickness in the fall, because it is a mess out there! I raked and cleared some of the beds so the kids could help plant peas after school. Now they’re in the ground, the task is just keeping them watered until the city turns on the secondary water system in a couple of weeks and we can hook up the drip water system.
I ordered some asparagus plants from Gurney’s. They arrived bare root and now they’re in the ground as well. I also ordered a huckleberry and an elderberry plant from them and they thankfully came in little pots with dirt so I don’t have to figure out where they’re going to be planted just yet.
In other messy garden news, I let the lettuce go to seed last year, then didn’t collect the seed tops off the lettuce plants (I’ll blame that on being pregnant as well). In fact, I didn’t do anything with the lettuce plants–they’re still in the garden bed looking like a mess.
But on further inspection, underneath the toppled over lettuce plants and down wind from them are growing what appears to be about a million little lettuce plants. We’ll have to be thinning these if they live. We’ve still got a good couple of months that it could freeze around here, so it’s questionable if they’ll even make it. I should probably cover them on cold nights and ensure a head start on my lettuce production.
In even more gardening news, the rhubarb that I brought home from my mom’s last spring is alive. It never got planted–it lived in a pot all last year and now it’s growing again. I’ve got quite a few things from her place still in pots. We’ll see how many come back.
The horribly expensive primo-cane (Prime Jim) blackberry plants in pots are also alive. That is good news, because, like I said, they were horribly expensive. They were recommended by our local extension agent because our springs tend to warm up then freeze then warm then freeze again which doesn’t work well for blackberries that fruit on their second year canes. He has blackberry plants in his yard and rarely gets any berries off them because of the way our spring treats them, so this variety fruits on first year canes and should be better producers. This is another plant that I didn’t know quite where to put in the dirt and so they lived in pots all last year. They really need some real dirt so they’ll grow bigger and be happier and maybe produce blackberries, but until I’ve got a place that is going to get watered (read: it’s hooked up to the drip system), I’m not putting them anywhere that they’ll die. They don’t have Gurney’s lifetime guarantee and they were horribly expensive for blackberry plants.
And the seeds I planted last week are already mostly up. There are a few varieties not sprouting yet, but it’s only been a week, so they’ve still got time.
Happy garden time. I love new plants. I just wish I knew whether we’d be staying here or moving this year so I knew whether to plant all my plants in the dirt or just grow in containers! I’m wanting to move in a bad way with this baby coming, but not sure how soon or if it will happen. Probably some plants in the dirt and some in containers would be a good compromise. :)
Keep preparing! Angela
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Jennifer W. says
I love it. I’m also expecting a baby soon, and I want to move really badly. Gardening while pregnant or with a new little one is extremely hard, so all I’ve planted this year are tomatoes and bell peppers. I don’t know if we’re going to move this year or not…If we do, I’m hoping it’s during the summer…I think containers and in ground is a good compromise, just in case you do move.
Grace says
I’m in the South so my enormous (and perhaps overly ambitious) garden is well under way. All of the early stuff is growing like mad and I’ll be heading to SC this weekend for more weeding and planting. I’m trying my first extended season garden this year, since we can grow so long down here. At my suburban Atlanta home I’m growing in containers. I usually have pretty good luck with that. Good luck with your garden!
Kris Watson says
I couldn’t see my feet when I was pregnant — and I wear a 12! I am amazed that you can do any of this !