right now

right now

Apr 12, 2012

Well, BRRRRR!

The cold is back, and supposed to hang around until this weekend, but come Saturday it's game time for those seedlings, rain or shine, cold or hot! Lows should climb to the mid 50's on Saturday so I'm hoping won't have to worry about freezing those poor seedlings after tomorrow night.  

Speaking of, they are in bad need of planting, like two weeks ago!  I checked the calendars from years past and sure enough this is unseasonably cold at night right now, I usually have them in by April 6th.


I start them later every year, and note to self, I will not start them until March in 2013!

With the cold and wind, I have no real progress to blog about so here are some photos I shot yesterday of what is going on in the garden right now...

I don't remember planting these, but I must have LOL!



Lettuces and Turnips, with some tiny invisible Scallions growing in the middle of the bed...



Bad News of the day yesterday -NO PEAS this spring!!!  Below, this bed was packed with 4 rows of seedlings about 2 inches high last week and now all that is left are big "Vole Holes" and random Lamb's Quarter that has creeped in. The bright side is that now I don't have to anxiously wait until the pea vines stop producing to have the bed for summer squashes LOL... there's always fall to try again :(  Fair warning, I have NEVER seen so many voles in my life already this season, it's not going to be pretty this year...



Cascade Hops are growing inches a day it seems since they popped out of the ground - 



Look at these mounds of mums already!  Looks like I'm going to have to cut them back in June to prevent them from budding too soon.  My "Ditch Lilies" are self spreading pretty well in this area under the Crepe Myrtle trees.  I'm sure I'll regret putting them there some day but for now I'm just hoping they will help choke out the other weeds :)



Speaking of weeds... couldn't grow these Johnny Jump-Ups worth a darn in the pots I planted them in last year, but whaddaya know, they seemed to have migrated here by themselves - these little rogue "weeds" I will let stay!



Unbelieveable... I had petunias winter over in this pot?!



Just plain P.A.T.H.E.T.I.C.  -



Using up the last jar of 2011's dried tomatoes in hummus -


The exciting event of the day is...

Bubbles!


The starter is ALIVE!  Sourdough soon hopefully :)


33 comments:

  1. This weather is ridiculous! We are having March weather in April. I don't know what we had in March.

    I would be hoping mad if the voles got to my peas! I had a groundhog a few years ago and I was a made woman.

    Sorry, I had to laugh at your tomato plants. They are just a tad big :) I have been starting mine later every year too. Hopefully my starting schedule this year will work out just fine.

    Do you believe that I finally managed to get my broccoli & cabbage out to harden off a bit today? I was afraid to put them out when it was too hot.

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    1. I can't grow broccoli until fall it just gets too hot too quickly, I hope yours does great! Yes, my seedlings are too big - I hope that doesn't stunt them too badly this year, I always find the smaller ones come out healthier!

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  2. I'm am so insanely jealous of your tomato plants. Mine still look like they were just transplanted from their soil starter; they are only three inches tall, MAYBE! Although I suppose it's my fault as I've been keeping them outside since they were already hardened off and it's been cool at night. Oh well.

    I LOVE sun-dried tomatoes; which type do you use to dry?

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    1. CR, don't worry, you want to have small tomato plants, I find they are much healthier and catch up growth wise within 2 weeks! I used whatever small cherry type tomatoes I had in the dehydrator, just squish each one between your fingers and chuck it in!

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  3. My tomatoes finally have 2 true leaves! LOL! It will warm up soon enough and then we'll all be complaining that it's too HOT!
    I, too, am worried about the voles and other critters this year. We hardly had a winter to thin them out. We had green grass almost all year so nobody went hungry.
    Oh, and your iris are lovely, even if you don't remember planting them.
    Judy

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    1. Judy, I'm kind of scared actually - I've only ever noticed voles eating my bulb roots or under the perennials where I'll push down and find a tunnel right under the hops or something. This year there are like 4 or 5 holes in each 4x8 bed every morning... yikes! Looks like I may have to resort to mousetraps or something, can't wait until I stick my hand into one of those forgotten traps, you know it will happen LOL!

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  4. Ohhhh your greens look lovely. I'm craving a good salad fresh from the garden but it will be months before I'll have one.

    Can't you cover your tomatoes at night to keep them from freezing? I know lots of people here who plant their tomatoes early and cover them every night to make sure they don't get killed by frost. A few posts and a large piece of plastic anchored down well and then removed early in the morning is what people use here but then we don't have the wind you get so maybe that wouldn't work. Here's hoping those tomatoes make it.

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    1. Sparkless, I have 37 tomato plants so there won't be any covering going on LOL, it's easier to just keep them in. After tonight though the lows should be in the 50's so they will be planted tomorrow!

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  5. I finally got my tomatoes in the ground yesterday. Our weather said it would stay about 50 at night. Nope. Now we will have two nights down in the upper 30s. I guess it is time to cover the plants and pray!

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    1. Christy, I hope they do fine! We put so much time and energy into these little green things, don't we? LOL...

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  6. Love your snippet posts of this and that. For as big as your tomatoes are, they still look very healthy. How different are our seasons? I haven't even started my seeds yet . . . but soon!

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    1. Mama Pea, I am surprised too that they seem to be pretty healthy for the most part. It doesn't take too many years of gardening to realize that bigger is not always better in some instances!

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  7. The weather is SO CRAZY everywhere. It was so nice here in March, and now it'd FREEZING! Well, not really freexing, but 38 degrees right now. Your plants look amazing! I can't wait to be out in the dirt again...

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    1. Patty our months of March and April seem to have been reversed everywhere!

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  8. Gee whiz, lady. You sure do have some big tomatoes :-0

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  9. Don't your dogs kill voles? Possibly not enough. . . Those poor tomatoes would probably rather be in the ground and cold than kept out any more! Love the invisible scallions.

    Yep, March and April flipped here too.

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    1. Stefaneener, Sprocket the half Jack Russell would go after them, but I'd have to keep her fenced in to the garden somehow, and then there's that A.D.D. thing she has going... LOL! Invisible scallions, hahaha, there may be more invisible vegetables to come if the bugs and voles are bad this year :)

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  10. I know how you feel. I dont start mine until March anymore mostly because It takes so much time to water them all every dang day and make sure they are all happy - not too dry, not too wet). I need to take the plunge into making perennials my friends so I don't have this massive seedstarting panic attack every year. Its becoming a chore... Those maters look great Im sure they will be worth it!

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    1. Gina, that's funny because I'm the opposite - love perennials and have bad luck with the annual flowers! Together we could rule the world :)

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  11. Cripes. Monster tomatoes. Hope you can get them in!

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    1. Sue, tomorrow is the day! Lows in the 50's for next 7 days, looks like it's a "go"!

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  12. Thank you for a lovely photo of your gladiolas they were my moms favorite. and I assuming that a vole is a reptile ,say SNAKE,I'm outta here

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    1. Judy, nope not a reptile! Voles looks pretty much like Moles (little mice looking things with "paddle feet" that are actually kind of cute but they live underground). Where moles will eat insects, worms and the like, voles eat vegetation, namely the roots of MY PLANTS! They will often tunnel up at night and you will find their holes right next to the plants, and they do it at night, stealthy little things. About the only way to deal with them is to place mousetraps next to the holes and check in the mornings. Unless, of course you are a Caddyshack fan, then I'm sure there is no limit to what you can dream up if you have the time LOL

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  13. I can't believe how big your tomatoes are already! They are way bigger than mine, and I planted mine out two weeks ago. Which had me worried the last two nights when it got colder... I think all of them survived the cold, but now I'm (already) battling bugs. :-( Yeah for the bubbles in the sourdough! I actually took some of my sourdough and froze it to see if it would work, and what do you know, it did. Now I have some in the freezer just in case my starter goes bad.

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    1. Anke, they are TOO big! Started them the same time as usual, can't figure it out but I'm definitely waiting next year, the smaller ones are so much healthier to set out. I hope yours are doing fine and great idea on the starter, I'll freeze some too once I bake a few times and know it's good!

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  14. Holy cow, your tomatoes are huge! I hope the warm weather comes back with a vengeance so you can get those babies in the ground. I had a few large tomato plants last year that I couldn't get in the ground right away, so I potted them up, and buried the stems as much as I could. I love doing that with tomatoes, since roots grow off of the stem.

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  15. You are not kidding about the weather. I'm in the CA Bay Area and we had a thunder storm last night and hail this morning about 9:30. This is not normal for us at all! By now I would have all my summer vegetable out in the garden and the popup greenhouse put away. Now I'm not sure if I should go ahead with the planting this weekend or hold off.

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  16. I had a vole problem too, so when I put together my newest beds I put hardware cloth under them - sees to have done the trick so far, but we'll see! I got a late start on my tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers - didn't plant them until April 4 (I was on travel) but as I went back and looked in my garden planner, I realized that last year, the 2nd batch I started was the same time, and they actually came out better than the earlier ones, so I don't feel too badly. Besides, here in Northern Va, it isn't quite yet time to set them out anyway, so I think I'm good.

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  17. Ok, I had no idea what a Vole was. I had to Google it. Now that I've seen the pictures that explains a few holes we have in the yard! I had no idea what they were.

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  18. Sorry to hear about the peas.

    I am contemplating seeding those little Johnny Jump-ups everywhere between my fruit bushes, they sure beat crab-grass and other random weeds!

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  19. Peas are one of my favorites! Sorry to hear you're missing out on them! Those tomatoes are quite big!! :) Hopefully, you got them into the ground!!

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  20. I am trying to work up the nerve to put my peas in next week - it's so hard to judge what kind of weather we'll get - it's going to be 80 today! It is impossible to be calm about spring - no matter where you live. You just want to PLANT! Bet that hummus is delish!

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