What have you done today in the Garden?

Well, after reading Sjoerd's and Carolyn's posts, in comparison I've been pretty lazy today in the garden.
I raked over the freshly turned seasonal garden and planted two rows of sugar peas. Hauled two large buckets of compost to the raised beds in back of the barn, preparing to plant lettuces, carrots, and turnips. Of course, I had help with Timi the cat rolling around in the dirt and Buddy sitting on the garden table, supervising.

 

Jane! you are NOT lazy. everything takes effort to accomplish. somethings just seem like more than others. greenhouse is usually not arduous.. its more tedious at times... like planting 2000 impatien seeds. these went into 3 trays that have 288 cells in each tray. tedious! 2 seeds to a cell for 2 varieties and the others were 3 or 4 to a cell. Sjoerds tasks take way more effort than mine does on his lottie.

 

We still have a foot of snow outside.... No gardening for me.....

Well I did cut some branches of forsythia for forcing.

 

We've been having high winds and rain now for several days....so no garden work. We will be planting more seeds after tomorrow. The second half of the greenhouse needs emptying and re-filling as soon as we can get around to it.

I completely agree with Carolyn about you not being lazy. You aren't lazy at all...you do way more things than me 'cause you have a real farm and that requires real work. I just piddle compared to you.

Carolyn's work is real too, as she does markets and the growing bit must be done on a grand scale. Sometimes I feel like I do not do all that much compared to some of you...take Odif--there's another big-time grower.

I am actually a stupid gardener, always trying to do too much at once. If I could do everything in one day, I would. Not enough daylight like when I worked in Alaska....now, a chap could really spend some waking hours there in the summertime.

So coming back to your comment about "lazy", I see it more as you pacing yourself and choosing your moments to graft.--That's smart gardening, Jane.

 

Sjoerd... you work just as hard as I do if not harder. no way would i ever dig out all the soil and replace it. no way. cleaning all the paths, putting down chips, covering all the beds with the cut grasses you store, the bees. you do a lot of things I would never spend the time doing. we all do things differently and they are all different things. just the way it is. My 10# bag of green manure seeds is till sitting on the steps in the shed. never had time to clean up the garden and get it out last Fall. just the way it is. I went and bought it fully prepared to get it done but life got in the way.

anyway.. on to today. moved all the plants from the seed house to the big house. hip hip hooray!

 

I made yet another futile try at planting turnips and carrots. Fine seed + wind= disaster! When the wind blew the packet of turnip seed out of my basket, I took that as a strong suggestion to plant another day. Since I was outside and anxious to do something, I weeded the onion patch and put composted manure on two of the raised beds. Those two beds are so prepared!

 

I placed all of my seeds in starter soil! At least all of the tomatoes and peppers... Still have the cucumbers and bok choy left to plant. This should have the plants ready to harden by late April or early May.

 

Transformed one area into one of my hummingbird/butterfly flower/garden beds. Mannnn is my back sore...but planting in it is a joy now. Have a few plants in there along with a veggie so far. Still have a quite a few plants to put in there before i move on to the next area, which is right beside it, next month. Pacing myself.

 

Jane your not lazy and every individual can only do what they're able to and that goes for me

 

Great work, Hummer.
I am enjoying seeing and reading about your changes there at your new home.
What kind of mulch is that that you have on that first corner plot?

 

Today is "shovel and sift compost" day. I'm happy, the gardens are happy to get compost, but my back is less than thrilled!
My darling husband mowed the back yard with the walk-behind mower with the bag on, and now the hens are knee-deep in fresh grass clippings in their outside coop. I love the sound of happy hens!

 

We planted more seeds for the germinating sill in the bedroom.
We planted several types of toms, kapucijner peas and two types of spinach.
We really are getting in the mood now.

 

Went out and purchased fertilizer, tomato stakes, seed starter medium and some more vegetable seeds.

Tomorrow will be amending soil, arranging space for the containers. That involves a lot of lifting... Oy.

 

Hi C, just be careful with the lifting...our garden is all clean and i'm watching what plants are re-coming back to see I new need buying again

 

We had a major outside burn today. Multiple piles of brush went on the burnpile. Beautiful day for it: blue clear sky, chilly but not too cold, no wind. Sunny. We got a lot done.