2020 Garden Update: March 10

We've had warm, wet weather recently, and the forecast suggests that spring is really on its way now, with highs in the 70s and no lows below 50 in the near future. Everything in the garden says, "Spring! Spring!" Meanwhile, the first plants for the season are turning up at the local garden center, but for now I'm sticking with the cold hardy selections that can handle a few more cold nights if we get them.

The lettuce is doing very well, and last night we actually got to eat some of it because it was time to thin the micro greens and make room for remaining heads to grow to full size. The green peas are also shooting up, and they'll probably need their trellis to go up this weekend. I'm trying to err on the side of caution where my squash and tomato seedlings are concerned, but they are hardening off in their Jiffy pots and starting to look like proper plants.

As we head into mid March I'm definitely getting excited about the season ahead with the new garden. We have been bringing in bags of soil over the last few weeks and getting the raised beds ready for planting. The daffodils are blooming profusely, and we even got several more after a neighbor secured permission for us to remove them from the empty lot across the street (construction there would have buried them under concrete in the next few weeks). I'm eager to see how the garden will look come summer!

Sadly, my cucumber seedlings wilted, leaving me with just one Dragon's Egg seedling. I'll try again with the Salad Slicer from last year, which never had any wilting issues, but I'm disappointed to have lost all of the DAR Cucumber seedlings so early. The tomatoes probably need potting on to get their stems buried, but so far all of them are doing quite well. The squash, though, are practically begging to go in the ground! They'll have to wait a little longer; I don't want to lose any to a last-minute frost.

In the flower beds we've added some sedum, a couple of creeping phlox, and the rescued daffodils. We've got more daylilies and a big order of gladiolus coming soon. We managed to get the crepe myrtle removed from the front bed, as well, creating a nice big space for more planting. (It was too close to the house and had to go - why do builders always put trees too close to the house?)

This part of March is all about anticipation and restraint. It's so tempting to get out there and plant everything the first warm week, but we know that March is fickle! Once April arrives, we can really get cracking.

2020 Planting Record: February 11

The first round of lettuce has sprouted in the raised bed, but the Lincoln green peas have not yet shown any signs of germination, so I ventured out this morning while it wasn't raining to get a few more cool crop seeds started.

Seeds planted on Tuesday, February 11, 2020:

Salad Bowl Lettuce (Burpee)
Little Gem Lettuce (Baker Creek)
Garden Sweet Green Peas (Burpee)
Parisienne Carrots (Baker Creek)
Little Finger Carrots (Baker Creek)

Except for the Little Gem Lettuce, all of these are seeds left over from last year, so I expect slightly lower germination rates. So far all three of my lettuce varieties are sprouting nicely, and I'd like to have at least a second round of lettuce before it gets too hot.

Last year the Garden Sweet Green Peas were a bit hit and grew readily, and I'm feeling impatient about the Lincoln peas not sprouting yet. We'll see if this new round of Garden Sweet takes off!

Garden Sweet Peas from 2019

I have yet to have any luck at all with carrots, but since I have the seeds I am giving them one more go. It's a bit early to sow them, but my garden is very sheltered with its narrow space and high privacy fence, and I've got more of the seeds in a large pot that can be moved if some truly terrible weather heads our way. I would really like to grow a few decent carrots!

The problem with cool weather crops here in North Alabama is that our winters are wildly variable and spring gets very warm very quickly. We can have 60-70 degree days throughout the winter and then rocket up to 90 degrees early in the spring and stay there through October. I often wonder if our planting schedules and general advice really take the effects of climate change into account. I'm experimenting with the carrot seeds to see if I have any better luck with them by planting them in weather that feels more like a typical old-fashioned spring than our actual spring feels like these days.

2020 Garden Update: February 10

We've had wet, warm weather much of the last week here in North Alabama, which means lots of plants are sprouting and growing outdoors. With a cold snap moving in this week, I'm hopeful that my sheltered backyard will be protected from the worst of any frost, but the only seeds already planted there (green peas and lettuces) are cold hardy, anyway. Still, there has been plenty to do whenever the sun comes out!

My indoor seeds are doing well, with the Purple Bumblebee tomatoes germinating really nicely in spite of being seeds left over from last year. The sunflower and cucumber seeds are also sprouting robustly. Hopefully the few stragglers will make an appearance soon. The zucchini, the Purple Russian tomatoes, and the straightneck yellow squash are the only seeds not to show any signs of life yet, and all of those are also leftovers from last year.

Outdoors we are slowly bringing in garden soil for the raised beds (always a big expense and a lot of work when you have to start from scratch!). We went back to the old house and divided some of the daylilies and irises already growing there and transplanted some babies to the front yard beds at the new house. There will be plenty growing for the new owners at the old place, but now they won't have to be divided as soon over there. Hopefully our transplants will spread and grow as well as they had in the old garden! If the cold snaps should kill any of our transplants it will be OK because we can replace them later.

The daffodils are coming along in the front and back beds, and we have our first flowers now, which is very exciting. I'm already wishing we had planted more bulbs back in the fall! This coming fall I will have a better sense of the new garden spaces and what I want them to include and look like through each season, but I expect to have 15-20 years with this garden to make it everything it can be.

While I'm at it, here's a reminder to novice gardeners not to plant mint in open areas or large beds. It will take over! The previous owner planted mint in the front beds, and I have been pulling it up nonstop ever since we moved in. I love mint, but I always grow it in a container because it's so opportunistic. Put your mint in a nice big pot and let it poke along through the winter. It is really hard to kill!

That's the garden update for February 10, 2020. I'll post a report on the progress again next week!

Time to Start Seeds!

It's February, which means it's time to get several garden projects started for 2020. Luckily we had a beautiful sunny day and warm weather this weekend, perfect for trips to the garden center and some time outside. A few hardy cool weather crops can be planted in Zone 7a right now, while others can be started indoors from seed. I've got big plans for the new kitchen garden this year, so I've got both outdoor and indoor seeds ready to go!

We have a lot of work to do in the kitchen garden this year because it's a new space with the disappointing soil you'd expect in a new construction area. We'll be adding garden soil to the raised beds as the spring progresses, but today we only needed one box ready for the green peas and lettuce. Last year I started both much later than I should have, and the hot weather arrived early, so we had less time to enjoy them. I've got green pea seeds planted in the back half of the garden box and three rows of lettuce (one row of each type I have) in the front half, with a concrete block in the center to serve as a stepping stone. Ideally I'd have access to the box on both long sides, but the small space and sloped yard mean the boxes have to be against the fence (we've also found at least two cables barely buried by internet providers, etc., so we have to work around those, as well).

My lettuces this year are Salad Bowl, Little Gem, and Meveille des Quatres Saisons, the last being the freebie I got with my Baker Creek Seeds order. I grew Salad Bowl last year but hope to have much better luck this time because I'm getting it started on schedule and won't have to worry about the heat so much. My green peas are the Lincoln variety from Baker Creek. I have some left over from last year and might plant them a little later. Everyone at our house loved the green peas last year, and I know we'll eat as many as I can grow!

I also got my indoor seeds started today. I have 26 Jiffy pots with a variety of squash, cucumber, tomato, and sunflower. I've set up my seed starter space in a sunny upstairs room where the cats can't knock the cups over (assuming we keep the door closed!). For most of the seeds I planted 2-3 seeds in each cup, with two cups per variety. Because the new garden is small I will have to choose the best seedling to plant and give the runners up to gardening friends. I don't really need to grow the sunflowers from seed indoors - they'll grow just fine from seed outside in April - but I like the morale boost of sunflower seedlings, and I have several kinds this year that I'm really curious to see grow.

Seeds started indoors on February 2nd:

Green Bush Zucchini (Baker Creek)
White Scallop Squash (Baker Creek)
Lemon Squash (Baker Creek)
Straightneck Yellow Squash
Hartman's Yellow Gooseberry Tomato (Baker Creek)
Purple Bumblebee Tomato (Baker Creek)
Purple Russian Tomato (Baker Creek)
DAR Cucumber (Baker Creek)
Dragon's Egg Cucumber (Baker Creek)
Dwarf Teddy Bear Sunflower (Ferry-Morse)
Dwarf Sunspot Sunflower (Ferry-Morse)
Gold Coin Sunflower (Baker Creek)

I'm using Jiffy pots because I'm trying to use less plastic going forward, and they're easy to label clearly, so I should be able to tell which plants are doing the best from each category. I'll post updates as the seeds sprout!

New House, New Garden

As I mentioned in my introductory post, I decided to start this kitchen blog because I moved to a new house in October 2019, which means I have a whole new garden to build and develop! Our new yard is much smaller than our old one, but with good planning and efficient use of the large patio area I should have plenty of room to grow quite a lot of vegetables and flowers.

The Challenges

This new house is less than five years old, which means the soil in the yard is pretty poor, with quite a bit of construction debris in the mix. Luckily, raised beds and containers are my preference, and the flowers I'll be planting directly into the ground aren't fussy. The small backyard has uneven ground and a long dogleg section, and other areas for planting are partial to full shade. I'll be learning a lot about shade loving plants this year!

The blank canvas in September 2019.

The Benefits

At our old house, we spent a lot of time on grounds maintenance in the very large, woody backyard that we could have spent growing flowers and vegetables. Our new yard has just enough space to grow things I want to have without the intense upkeep of a big yard with lots of trees and lawn. I like to think of it as more British allotment size than American yard size! The new backyard is also a blank canvas that I can plan and develop from scratch. We'll be working to make the established beds with the builder's usual suspects (dogwood, azalea, generic shrubs, liriope) more interesting, too, but there's also plenty of opportunity to develop those because we don't have a lot of old growth to clear first. I have a large patio area at the new house that I can fill with annuals and container gardens, and I have a lovely back porch where I can sit and enjoy the view during the warmer months.

Getting Started

The beginning of a garden in November 2019.

Our first job after moving was to transplant our beloved Oakes daylilies to the new yard and move some of the nicest of the garden boxes for the future raised beds. I brought over the big pot of mint and some rosemary plants grown from cuttings of my old rosemary, but the previous owner already planted rosemary in the front beds, so I'll have to think about the herb garden priorities come spring. We also bought about 100 daffodil and tulip bulbs and planted those in both the beds and the most sloped part of the backyard. We interplanted daffodils and tulips with early, mid, and late spring blooming seasons with the equally varied daylilies, which should mean that we have a colorful show for people and pollinators from early spring all the way to fall.

Garden boxes in January 2020 - late afternoon.

We also transplanted a beautiful Lady Banks rose from the old house, and so far it's doing well. Ideally it will grow over the naked fence and spread - we put up wiring to support it as it does. Our weird winter weather might wreck some of my plans; we've had cold and then spring like warmth and now a very cold snap again, just as all the plants had decided it really was spring.

We found a collection of leftover fence posts tucked behind the carport and upcycled them into raised beds along the back section of the yard. That area gets good sun but has buried cables under it, so we don't want to dig or plant anything with deep roots there. Those beds will be for the pollinator patch and other sturdy plants that don't need a lot of watering but do want more sun.

Current Progress Report - January 2020

It's now mid January of 2020, so much of the work is on hold until March, but I've got 4 raised garden boxes for vegetables, 3 long beds for pollinator flowers and various herbs, and two areas in the backyard devoted to daylilies and daffodils. As we wait for spring I'll be collecting containers for my patio garden, ordering seeds and bulbs, and drawing up plans. In my next post I'll talk about the vegetables and flowers I most want to grow in the new garden!