More seeding and early garden maintenance

Our early spring continues with the birds (these are waxwings) flocking up and the geese starting to fly overhead.

Jess and I continued the seeding yesterday, with some marigolds.

The tomatoes we seeded two weeks ago are now germinating under lights in the basement.

Outside, the garden is beginning to wake up with the early tulips in the back pushing up through the soil. These survived the snow we had earlier this week.

The spinach we planted in the cold frame has also come up.

I few years ago I snagged some wild onion seeds from the river valley and dusted them along the south side of the house. These have started to turn into a new patch and are back again this year. To encourage its spread, I spread the seeds from its heads last year around in the same spot.

We stopped in at Apache seeds this morning and picked up 1000 pounds of cow manure to add to the beds. Many places are still froze, but the top couple of inches of the raised beds were soft enough to stir in the manure.

Around front, last year's garlic is starting to emerge. I was a bit worried that nothing had emerged yet so I'm happy to see these shoots.

I left Jess to spread some of the manure around in the front beds. We're slowly improving the soil in a nasty little corner of the garden. She's also keen to pull out the irises below her window and put in some strawberry plants. But we'll need to wait a month or so before we can start that project.

With the weather looking better as spring break moves on, I am hopeful we can get the rest of the manure spread out (some of the bags were frozen) and maybe look for some onions to plant. If I get ambitious, I will also pull the Jerusalem artichokes and move them.

Tomato seeding

We've been busy the past few weeks with some early season chores. The snow is mostly gone except in a few spots (like the strawberry beds) and lots of stuff is starting to grow.

I noticed that we missed a few onions last fall and they are starting to put up early shoots alongside last years leaves. I decided to pull the winter mulch off the seed beds to warm them up. Since it will still be awhile before we seed, this is a good chance for weeds to get a head start. I actually spent 30 minutes last night weeding out front--amazing what will grow as soon as the soil thaws.

Inside, we have planted some tomatoes under lights in the basement. I'll likely pick up a few starts but we decided to try a bicoloured tomato from seed this year.

This weekend we'll likely seed some marigolds (need to find another tray in the garage). As you can see below, nothing makes Jess happier than playing in the dirt. She disappeared in the back yard for an hour this week while I was raking the leaves off the side lawn.

If I get ambitious this week, we may get some sheep dip for the beds and get them ready for beet and radish seeding in April. We need just slightly more thaw to get the onions in as well.

An early start to the gardening season

It has been a very mild winter so far and, with two days of +15C, much of the lawn is exposed and the river ice is just starting to get translucent.

What this means is that a few days of glass on the cold frame and the ground was nice and thawed. I left in an old kale plant that is showing signs of life and then banged in a bunch of spinach seeds Jess picked out at Apache Seeds this morning.

As I was puttering around, I noticed this violet had peaked out. I suspect it is one of last year's blooms--although the plants beneath the leaves looked very bright green. I also revealed a strawberry plant that was enjoying some heat n the south side of the house.

I pulled some pots out of the garage so we can start tomato seeds next weekend. I ran across the glass for two other cold frames. These boxes are still full of snow but I put the glass on to see what might happen this week.

The coyotes have been very active these past few weeks while we have been walking. I haven't managed to get a decent picture but I did get my camera out tonight as one watched walk by.

Merry Christmas!

The garden is well and truly frozen and we're enjoying winter (and the coming of spring!).

We should be back more regularly in February as we mull what to do this year in the yard.

End the harvest

This week we pulled out everything left in the garden except some sunchokes and a few radishes.

Jess helped me haul in more than 10 gallons of carrots and beets after school on Thursday (I think). Some were stubborn and she ended up ass-over-tea-kettle when one group of carrots let go.

I spent Friday night and Saturday processing carrots for the freezer. I also made carrot soup (needed ginger) and sweet potato biscuits. Today I'll bake the pumpkin and make pie and some gnoochi.

I took a rare sick day this week and stayed in bed in the morning. I felt better after lunch and made bread, which was delicious.

With snow expected today I cleaned up the last of the yard stuff (hoses and buckets and whatnot) and noticed the chives on the south side had put out a new set of blossoms.

I expect we'll be starting some Xmas baking this week (nice to have some stuff in the freezer for the holidays). The second batch of sauerkraut is also starting to smell good!

Hard frost

We awoke this morning to the first really hard frost of the fall. The frost really highlighted the lovely pattern of the carrot leaves. I expect we'll haul these out next week sometime along with the remainder of the beets.

We braved the terrible construction yesterday and hit the downtown farmer's market this week to pick up a big bag of potatoes and a bunch of cabbage. I've got it cooking away in the fermenting crock. I still have some of the earlier batch of sauerkraut in the fridge but thought I'd put more away.

I went for a brisk ride this morning under amazing blue skies. The birds have to yet stripped the mountain ash we have out back.

I suspect I'll also be roasting some tomatoes today and maybe Jess will turn the last of the zucchini into chocolate cake.

Cider and carrots

The past week I've been busy doing end-of-the-season work, like washing windows, putting away tools and turning under beds. The various violas keep flowering hard despite the overnight frosts.

I pressed some apple juice on Wednesday. Most of this we've frozen for the winter. I decided against trying to ferment it. I still have lots of cider from last year and I'm just a bit too busy at work right now. We have also been out spotting wild asparagus for collection next spring.

Yesterday I pulled all of the carrots out of the front garden. They likely could have stayed another two weeks but I have a lot of carrots in the back to deal with as well. I ended up with about 10 gallons (two pails) worth that I'm soaking right now.

Most we'll store fresh but the smaller ones I will blanch and freeze this afternoon. We've had a few more huge yellowstone carrots plus a large number of nantes. I think we'll roast carrots and beets for dinner. If I get some time this week, I'm going to move some of the raised beds and perennials around to make room for more veggies next year. And I'm still waiting for the sunchokes to die down so I can harvest.