I planted 2 tomato plants today, even though it is a little early according to local vegetable garden planting calendars. I’m hoping to get the grown nice and tall before the summer heat sets in this year. This is the first year to use the Walls o Water / Season Starter covers. They should protect the plants from any low temperatures we have from here on out (I hope!)
With the help from a den of Cub Scouts, we set up 3 new raised beds. They are 4′ x 4′ and made out of treated 2×12 lumber. I filled them with planting mix from Texas Pure, which contains 50% compost, 25% sand and 25% top soil/loam.
All of the vegetable plants made it through the recent low temperatures. This morning just before sunup, it got down to 17.6 degrees F. I didn’t cover anything up, and the plants look like they are all OK this morning. I was most worried about the sugar snap peas that just started popping up from the ground, but they look completely unharmed. Strawberries look completely unharmed. Onions look OK. Brussels and broccoli did get some damage, but they should survive.
I dug out my old tires and planted a few potato slips today.
The rabbits left us a few carrots. Five to be precise. Adjusted for size, it amounted to one and a half. They were very tender and delicious though. I hope I have more room next fall for a lot more. And I need a fence!
No pictures to share, but we planted about 8′ of sugar snap peas today.
The order I placed in October from Pense Berry Farm arrived yesterday, so I planted it all today. The blackberries are a special
18) Santa Rosa Plum
22) AU Roadside Plum
near 1,2,3) Prime-Ark Freedom Blackberries (quantity 6)
Both boys helped me transplant a bundle of white onion slips today.
I dumped out the three big wire fence containers where I’ve been storing leaves and kitchen scraps, then mixed it all together along with more ‘greens’ and water into a large pile about 5 feet high.
Over the past 2 days, I’ve planted 8 more fruit trees.
13) Asian Pear w/ grafts of: Hosui (12), 20th Century (3), Chojuro (6), Shenseiki (9)
14) Fuyu Japanese Persimmon
15) Sweet Treat Pluerry
16) Wonderful Pomegranate
17) Cherry w/ grafts of: Stella (2), Black Tartarian (4), Bing (7), Rainier (10) *
18) empty space
19) Pennsylvania Golden PawPaw (Grafted)
20) Sunflower Pawpaw (Grafted)
21) Mango Pawpaw (Grafted)
(graft positions given w/ North = 12 o’clock)
* = yes, I realize cherry trees won’t set fruit here because of our lack of cooling hours, but I wanted to try it anyway Continue reading