"Getting rid of everything that doesn’t matter allows you to remember who you are. Simplicity doesn’t change who you are, it brings you back to who you are."

Sunday, March 23, 2014

On Your Mark, Get Set...GO!

As you can see from my lack of posts, there hasn't been much going on around here to tell you about. 

We've all been in a rinse-repeat cycle lately, I think.

I've been watching the forecast lows which seem to be stuck in a 25-35 degree rut.  The highs have been bouncing around sure but it's the lows I'm concerned about when it comes to starting the Spring garden. 

And it appears that this coming week might, just might, be the last of really cold stuff.  Which means that I'll be playing in the dirt next weekend!  Yeah me!

Beside my computer I have a pile of daylily bulbs that need planting out front.  Since we took out the birch tree, I told SM that I think I'd like to do a mass planting of daylilies and other flowering perennials in that spot.  (BTW, the tulips I planted inside failed but the ones outside are starting to come up.)

I started some tomato and pepper seeds last week and the tomatoes popped up yesterday.  SM told me he wanted to try buying tomatoes and peppers from the local nursery.  That's fine.  I'll grow mine and he can plant his store bought ones and we'll see how they compare.

I've got a sticky note beside the computer to order my onion starts (Copra) this week from Dixondale and my sweet potato slips from Sand Hill Preservation.  They'll ship the slips closer to June. 

Try as I might, I haven't been able to start slips here at the house and none of my local nurseries have them and the ones that do sell out so fast that I've been skunked.  So this year I'll be ordering online to guarantee that I'll actually get some plants in my hands and into my garden.

I've got my lettuce, carrots and pea seed packets on the table just waiting to direct sow next weekend.

Yep.  It's almost here.  One month later for the onions than my usual time but only two weeks off for everything else.

Are you starting to gear up too?

10 comments:

  1. Whoo-hoo! So happy for you! Did you know sweet potato slips are SO easy to start? Just buy organic sweet potatoes from the grocery store and stick 'em in a glass with water. I started mine that way, and we've had sweet potatoes ever since. They just keep coming back. You can grow peanuts there too, if you like to make your own peanut butter (maybe the pooches like it). They are another crop that is so easy and keeps coming back.
    Can't wait to see your display of tulips and daylillies! Tulips are a fav and I can't grow them down here.
    Enjoy!

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    1. I bought organic at Whole Foods last year and tried to root them. Nuthin. I assume they were sprayed so THIS year I'll buy the slips and then start each new garden with slips from my own potato stock.

      So much DRAMA for a freaken sweet potato!

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  2. Nope, still way too early for us to gear up . . . to your extent anyway. Hubby and I did have a planning session yesterday morning regarding what we'd like to get done (other than the usual gardening) this summer season. But with three feet of snow still on the ground and more probably coming in the month of April . . . well, you can see our climates are different. (Understatement.) I don't start any seeds until into April because they can't go out until the first or second week of June. By which time your early crops are harvested!

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    1. I'm thinking we're ALL going to have a short growing year this year MP.

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  3. Weather has really warmed up here. Onions, potatoes, sweets, tomatoes, peppers, lettuces, leeks and chard all planted. Still need to get the new strawberry plants in. Expecting rain the middle of the week: thank God! Thanks for mentioning the daylilies...have to go over and dig up a bunch from my MIL's and plant them in my front flower bed! Lots to do in an itty-bitty weekend...they are just never long enough!

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  4. No chance of gardening here until maybe the end of April. Love your new header!

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    1. Thanks! Lets see if they survive the next few days. Lows around 25 tmrw. Brrrr

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  5. Well, I am ready, all right. But the weather is frustrating my every effort. I am SOOOO ready to start seedlings, but I think I'd be sorry later. So I sit and stew.

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  6. I hear ya. Snowing here again today, for the fourth time this month. Each time I've told myself, "This is the last gasp of winter." Maybe this time I'll be right.

    Once you get in this year's sweet potatoes, you might try starting slips the way we did last year. Set aside some of the little ones and around the end of April bury them in sawdust (we put ours in big tub and covered them with sawdust) and keep it moist and you'll have all the slips you need by the first of June. Preferably the sawdust should be old. Of course you can start them in water too if you don't need so many.

    So ready to get the planting done!

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