Garden planting 2013

Lucky you...my snow is still deeper than my garden soil!
I do have my indoor seeds going though...
Beefsteak tomato
Plum tomato
Sweet million Tomato
Tumbling Tom yellow tomato
Hungarian Beefheart tomato
Hungarian Hot Peppers
Hungarian sweet peppers
mixed peppers
Leeks
Tarragon
Marjoram
Cilantro
Summer Savory
Rosemary
Sweet basil
Parsley
Chives

nothing here....just starting to clean out the beds....not even indoor seeds 😳

well for indoor, I have mainly onions, tomato's and peppers but I was thrilled to see that the daylilys are popping up in the one bed, the chickens pulled back the cover enough for me to see this and I will be taking that as a cue to cover the beds and get them planted this week!

Worked on mom's front garden this weekend. She has snow drops, tulips and mums coming up. There is a little raised box for a few herbs and they are starting to green up as well.

As the snow has gone down (lots of snow left yet) I have been finishing the hoops on more beds. Then getting those covered in plastic to shed further moisture and helps to heat the beds up quicker.

The chickens love these 'tunnels just for them' and go in there and 'plow them up' for me. 🙂 Actually, they are helping to get rid of the snow still in them.

Rhubarb is starting to peak thru. Lilacs are showing slight signs of green on the tips. 🙂

So far a variety of toms and peppers are up about 5 - 6 inches under lights.

Break over, time to get back to recovering my lean to grnhse., then on to the next one.
Crazy busy time of the year, but I love it! Being outside, seeing new leaves, about to hatch baby chicks....gotta love it.

Two photos, showing the value of cracking out that snow shovel just one or two more times when it comes to uncovering a few of your area's in the garden to help get your fresh spring veggies started a bit earlier, as you can see in the one photo the main garden still have a very good snow pack on it, but in the area that we cleared and then put black pots over the crowns, within a week the rhubarb are starting out, this will allow us to have fresh rhubarb for the house weeks earlier then if we had just left it and waited for the snow to melt out on its own.

Nothing in yet, but lots of plans! Plans to create a few new gardens so that each one has ideal location for certain crops. I've informed the family that I want to learn canning, and have bought a few books that just arrived to start learning. I've been told Grandma has a killer pickled beets recipe that I've got to get my hands on!

Even though I'm a culinary student, I'm still pretty picky in my vegetable favourites (Although broccoli was always my #1!), but I'm planning on just about everything, since I know someone will eat it. That, or hide it in spaghetti sauce!

Just took some photos of the piggy plows doing their thing, this was a huge compost out pile that was dumped out over a weed area, allowed to mature for a year, weeds overgrew it, eaten down to close ground crop by the sheep, and now this spring, the pigs are working it up for me, when they are done, I will run the chickens over it and then rake it, plant it out into a massive squash garden, with straw mulch inbetween the plants and if history repeats itself, it will grow baby grow!

I have started peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes indoors. Outside I planted peas, kale, lettuce, and onions and then monsoon season hit southern ON, so I am not really sure what I have left out there :-/ I had planted all of my pea seeds, so hopefully some of them managed to survive and not get washed away. Will be working on planting some other things next week, including beets and carrots 🙂

So far I got peas, green and yellow beans, lettuces and chard in the garden. Radishes are poking up already. The window sill has some cucumbers, tomato, pepper, zuchinni and hot peppers and cabbages waiting for transplant in the small garden.

My main effort is still quite the muck pool. I've got piles of compost waiting to go into it, but it hasn't drained yet. Can't wait!

Nothing here yet. I'm hoping at the end of april I can start seeding my little garden. Also want to plant one or two apple trees (neighbour has an apple tree so cross pollination is covered.) BUT I have a huge slug problem in my garden.... any help/advice would be appreciated.

Can you have a duck? they love slugs? if not beer traps are good,

I've given ducks a chance once, and they do a hell of a job taking out slugs and believe it or not snails. My ducks also took out many seedlings. I might have missed something there. Or should I have known better then to put ducks in with seedlings?

I hate wasting the beer. I sometimes let the kids at them while they are waiting to head off to school. They like to throw them in the short grass and watch the birds go nuts over them.

You did it wrong LOL, you lay out boards around the garden, small one and meduim ones etc, and then in the morning, you carry said boards to the birds flip them slug side up and leave them for a hour, feeds birds then put the boards back.. Never let the ducks in while seedlings or when things are fruiting, second way to use then, make a ark that fits the size of your walkway, and beds, and have a set and move them along in any area that the boards can't control the population, which rarely happens.tend to use the ark more for the chickens but can move a duck if needed..