There is no new gardening right now as we we are sick and it's all rainy and stormy out!  I guess that's a good time to be sick :)

the kholrabi, pickling cucumbers, leeks, tomatillos and tomatoes that we planted inside are starting to poke up and an inspection of the garden this morning shows that all the cabbage and brussel sprout seedlings Jen planted are doing really well.  Some of them have been nibbled on by baby slugs but they are still growing well so I guess that's OK.

We'll try to get pics up of the seedlings later on.

Flowers!

I thought I'd save this for it's own post, we have flowers this year!  Roses, climbing honeysuckle, gloriosa climbing lily, daffodils, peonies lilies, fritillaria and more...it's going to be beautiful when everything blooms!  Here's some pics:

This is the new bed we dug last fall, we need to make it larger so the lawn mower won't knock the flowers over, it has lilies, peonies, fritillaria, baby daffodils and thyme

Today it was really warm and beautiful out!  We planted a lot of seeds both in our beds and in the house under the grow light.  I'm so excited for them all to grow-the yard is going to be gorgeous with our roses, the climbing lily and the honeysuckle along with all the vegetables.

Heirloom yellow wax bush bean seeds and purple bush bean seeds went in the large bed along with our Gloriosa climbing lily and my tomatillo and some leeks that we'd been growing in the house.  Radishes, broccoli rabe, and  walla walla sweet onion starts went in the small bed.  Cilantro starts and beet seeds in the blue pot on the porch and pickling cucumbers, more leeks, more cherry tomatoes, kohlrabi, basil and more tomatillo seeds are starting inside.

We have been talking about which squash to buy, we don't have seeds for those.  I think we're getting yellow squash, zucchini, spaghetti squash and possibly some sunburst.  We didn't have a lot of luck with the sunburst last year though so I'm not sure if we'll try again.  Here's more pictures of the garden:

strawberries:

cabbage and brussel sprout starts:

 planting the tomatillo:

blue pot, cat helper, potting bench and cute boots:

Experiment update

So my experiment worked great! the dogwood branches were retrieved and were bendy and sturdy enough to make a frame to go over the tomato bed.  All that was left to do was plant the tomatoes and cover it with some plastic.  Then Jen came up with an even better idea...why not just leave them in their 4" pots for a few more weeks and cover them with the seed lid?  It's working great (and tied to the fence in case it tries to blow away!) and in another few weeks when they are too tall for the lid I may re-create my fabulous cloche bed cover.  Some of the pics are on the other camera which I can't find the cord to so I'll have to add them later but here's the one's Jen took today.

 Here's the lid with the tomatoes underneath and me being a dork with my tied up twigs, I'm saving them for future projects even if we don't end up using them for this project.

This is the Italian Plum tree branch, it finally started blooming and smells really nice. As you can see it was quite warm and sunny out. Gardening was a wonderful way to spend the first day of Spring Break, especially with the 66 degree weather out!

This is our NGP (Non Gardening Partner) I taught him how to knit but he just isn't interested in playing in the dirt with us. :)
He is quite supportive of growing wonderful food stuffs and always comes to check out how much progress we are making.
I am thinking of electing him for taking some of these photos.

I'm thinking there must be a way to use the dogwood twigs I cut today and some saran wrap to make row cover for the tomato seedlings and putting them in the ground...this sounds like an adventure for tomorrow!  Problem is I'll have to retrieve the dogwood twigs from the ravine where I threw them.  hmm...I'll post some pics tomorrow and we'll see how it goes!

I forgot to mention. I have already killed more than a dozen spaghetti squash starts, and as many oregano and thyme. RIP... I didn't bother to take photos of that carnage. Appearantly you can't plant starts in late February and expect good results.

Here is our purple green bean plant that is growing indoors. See, its got a tiny tiny little bean. This pic was from a couple weeks ago, I already ate it, and it was good!

Here is Lacy 'pruning' (hacking to bits) the red dogwood in the front of the house. At least she decided to wear pants to go gardening today. :P You should see the pics I am not allowed to post...

Here are the blueberry plants we got from the West Seattle Nursery last month. They have a lot of cute little buds on them. Mmmmmm... blueberries... I probably won't get to eat any though.... someone around here is addicted to them.

Observe the mess. It means we were working hard! Those little black containers on top have cherry tomatoes being burnt by the sun. They weren't too happy that I left them outside last night.

Here I am, hands dirty, in my very sexy apron and new gardening boots. Those are cabbages and brussell sprouts I have just given a home to.

Lacy, standing next to the yellow plum tree that she hacked to bits. Doesn't she look proud? She says now is the time to prune them. I hope it doesn't die...

This is a brussell sprouts planted in between the rows of cabbages. I figured cabbages grow out and the brussell sprouts grow up so they should be happy together... well thats the thought at least.
I picked these little plants up a couple weeks ago at Truevalue Hardware. They weren't looking so good because the first day they spent outside it snowed!!?! In March! They did recover though.

This is the newly planted Purple Cabbage purchased at Rite Aid! It was bought today and was getting a little wilt-y sitting in the sun (it was a really nice day out!) So I planted all of them, about a dozen, in the taller raised bed.

Spring is here!

Today is the first "official" day of my spring break and the first day I've seriously gotten out into the garden beyond short little 15 minute spurts.  Jen & I pulled out blackberries and knotweed that are trying to creep back in thru the mulch.  It's amazing how they are so resilient!   if even a tiny piece is left it starts to root up.  ug.

the italian plum tree that I was able to prune earlier this year is looking good, leafing out and I'm interested to see if it grows a lot of fruit this year or not.  I don't feel really confident in pruning fruit trees yet so I'm just not sure.  I dug up the yellow plum that had volunteered on the fence-line behind the italian plum and planted it in a more ideal location.  I broke some of the roots (1 was under the fence & into the neighbors property and the other ran down the ravine somewhere) so I'm a little nervous about it's ability to survive.  It's early spring though so it should be fine.  I also did some pruning on it that I'm  really nervous about, I followed my book exactly but we'll see.  Poor little tree looks a bit butchered!

While I was doing that Jen planted purple cabbage and brussel sprout starts in the deep planter bed.  I'm excited to start planting!  It's almost warm enough out to start transplanting our little seedlings we've been growing all winter.  The cherry tomato seedlings are outside enjoying the sun and we will hopefully be planting them in soon too but I'm worried that it is still to cold at night. I don't know-it is warmer than usual out so hopefully it's OK.

2009 Gardening extravaganza