It warmed up last week so I had a chance to get outside and work on my garden boxes and set up my cold frame. My plants were loving being out under the real sun, instead of inside under lamps.
Jarrett helped me turn over the soil in the garden boxes
Here's what we've planted so far: (by week)
March 1st-green onions, head lettuce
March 2nd-Broccoli, basil, impatiens, cosmos, petunias
March 3rd-peppers,tomatoes
March 4th-green onions, head lettuce, zinnia flowers, geraniums (these should have been March 1st but I couldn't find the seeds anywhere)
Once the seeds germinated, I took them out to the cold frame as it was beautiful. Unfortunately, I didn't have the automatic arm set right and it got a little hot in the box (82 degrees) and wilted some of the lettuce and a couple flowers. But I quickly got it set right, just in time for the cold to come back. Now our high (instead of 70's) is in the 30's and it's not sunny so the box isn't staying warm enough at night for the plants. So I'm bringing them in during the nights and then taking them out to get a little sun.
Everything else has started to grow-just hoping the cold weather doesn't kill them! These are the raspberry plants.
Here's a service berry just starting to sprout leaves
And the lilis are up and growing everywhere!
I spent one night last week making up my "landscaping guide." I've kept all the little tags that come with my plants when I've purchased them. I typed up all the info on the tags so I'd know how to care for the plants. Most, to my surprise, were supposed to be fertilized BEFORE they started to show new growth-so I'm a little late (nothing new!) So I spent one day pruning everything and fertilizing. Also purchased one of the soil pH readers to see what my soil is-it's clay and pure alkaline. Surprising though was it said most of the spots had adequate fertilizer.
So I had to adjust some of my soil as some of my plants, I've learned, really like acidic soil. The hydrangeas, ferns, raspberries, grapes and roses like acidic soil. The grapes need it down to 5.0-6.0 and I'm way over 7. So there is a product called aluminum sulfate that you spread around and work into the soil. I'll check it in a couple weeks to see how well it worked.
This year I'm not making the same mistake as I did last year with my nectarine tree! (I didn't really spray it last year and all the fruit got a fungus and wasn't edible!!) So I learned that I have to spray a dormant oil on it before it buds (early March) and then when it drops all the leaves in the fall. Then, I have a fruit spray that I have to use 5-7 times during the year-the bottle is very specific as to when to use-green tip, blossom, blossom drop, etc. I just never had any idea what you had to do to get fruit!! But I'm determined to make it work! The tree is doing fabulous! I stood on the top of my 6' ladder, and stretched my arms with my 3' pruners and I still didn't come close to reaching the top. I had to chop off at least 3-4 feet above where I could reach because I won't be able to reach the fruit when it's ripe! And the apple tree has FINALLY started to grow so MAYBE, just maybe we'll see an apple or two this year.
When you see me with dirty nails, you'll know that I've been digging in the dirt! I'm really hoping that we get some warmer weather (which so far isn't in the 10 days forecast) because I'm supposed to be planting the spinach and green onions into the soil April 1st. Here's what else I'll hopefully be doing:
April 1st-plant spinach in garden, transplant onions and lettuce (use hoops if needed)
April 2nd-plant lettuce out in garden if big enough (needs two true leaves), plant peas in garden (seed)
April 3rd-plant second row of peas, transplant broccoli into garden, start cukes in cold frame
April 4th-transplant tomatoes and peppers into larger pots and put in garden with hot caps-start more lettuce indoors
Here's praying for a little sun....
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