Onions arrived!

Our onions arrived for planting! I ordered Red Candy apple, Walla-Walla, Allisa Craig, White Candy and Lancelot leeks. And while it seems like a lot of onions I'm actually going to share with in-laws so it won't be too much to plant.

Too bad we also got 6" of snow at the same night. I guess Mother Nature really doesn't want us to have early spring. Given that it will be low 30/day-20s/night for at least another week I'm going to be very much behind my schedule.  But once it gets clear of snow I'm ready to dig in!

Ready to plant potatoes?



I think nature is giving me a reminder that it's time to plant potatoes - at least on the calendar schedule. It's just too bad that today was snowing again and tonight dipping to 22 degrees. And more cold on the way until next weekend. Then I'll be able to plant these beauties.

There are only few bulbs for purple variety, because we'll keep them only to eat fresh - they really don't store well at all.  My Fingerlings, Red Bliss, Yukon and Kenebeck are also waiting to be planted. One more week.

Seedlings update

It's been a slow start at my garden but then weather is really not cooperating much either - we're expecting more snow tomorrow and Thursday so slow is not such a bad thing. But never the less, seedlings were started, first batch failed but second picked up. So here are my broccoli, salads and spinach, snow peas and some onions.

 

Onions is an experiment - I ordered onion plants already, but wanted to try growing my own from seed and see how it compared at the end. Another tray of greens started today to keep rotation moving without too much overload at harvest. I really hope that this weekend I will be able to prepare some of my beds that are covered with plastic and plant some of the greens directly. There is a lot of work to be done but for past few weeks all we got was rain and snow on weekends so nothing is ready. Oh well. Just roll with it.

Lovely flowers

Flowers always make me feel better, no matter what's happening around us and my hubby knows it all too well. Of course being in midle of winter, nothing outside is blooming and it will be long before first snowdrops or Lilies of the Valley, tulips, hyacinths or roses will bloom.  So today he brought me gorgeous roses - a day early for Valentines Day. And yes, the day is brighter already.

Here's to everyone else and hope your day also brightens up.

Snow and Seedlings

No garden updates for a while as everything is deep covered in snow. It was not as bad as some other areas but a good foot was added to the previous snow layer so have to wait for nice sunshine to melt it all down.

So in the meanwhile we're staying home, keeping warm with hot chocolate, making fresh bread and hearty stews.

I've been using a lot of our frozen veggies in cooking - green and yellow beans are wonderful, bell peppers are not holding up as well for stirfry and I'm definitely not freezing broccoli again.

 

And speaking of broccoli - first set of seedling trays have been set. In addition to the broccoli, I have few varieties of salads, bok choy, spinach, onions, arugula. I'll be adding a tray every week to keep rotation going. I've also ordered more onion and leek plants that should arrive in March.  And hopefully once the snow melts I can get my main garden tilled and seeded. Once the temperatures goes above 32 we'll restart our hydroponics - they were frozen solid when Mother Nature sent us plummeting down to 4 degrees at the end of January. Definitely catching spring fever now.

First harvest for 2013

Well 2013 is here and that means planning for the season is here also. Today I went through my seed inventory and made a list of what I need to add. This year will be slightly different than last - we'll focus on planting as many things that my hubby really likes to eat like tomatoes, potatoes, beans, peas, carrots (a LOT more!) and such to keep it producing for our dinner table instead of trying too many new varieties. I will have less greens like kale because he doesn't like them, but will add more spinach. We will also install drip-system to keep things watered properly - my winter garden was suffering this year because we didn't have it in place and I wasn't around to keep it really going as it should have been. But at any rate it still produces as you can see from picked carrots and couple of radishes for our meal tonight. And our hydroponics are still going strong - giving me greens for stirfry.

So let's hope this year is going to be very productive and nature will cooperate.

Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year and hope that 2013 will be a lot better than last, with gentle rain at night and pleasant sun during the day to keep everyone happy in the garden for the year. And of course for everyone to stay healthy and happy and may all your wishes come through.