I think spring is finally here! Gardening!

The daffodils are starting to bloom. I walked up to the garden to check on the strawberry plants and they're doing well. In another week or two, I'll remove all the mulch around them, but for now, I'm going to leave everything alone as I think it's still too cold.

Our veggies this year: broccoli, corn, peppers, peppers, and more peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, green beans (the bush bean) and yellow beans, and I'm not sure what else. As much as I'd love to do cucumbers this year, that blight last year is worrying me and we may not plant any. We'll try Brussels sprouts again. We didn't get any cauliflower last year, but may try some again. And we're thinking about some butternut squash. although I haven't had a lot of luck with squash either. But we'll see.

Anybody else thinking of their garden yet? What are you planting? It's not too soon to think about it.

I am planting what I plant every year - rocks.  The soil up here on top of this ridge isn't very good for much besides trees, unless you give it quite a bit of work.  So, I just let the muscadine grapevines and wild blackberry canes grow and call that my garden.

I wish I had room for a vegetable garden. Sometimes I plant lettuce in a big pot on my steps. I love to just open my door, pick some lettuce, wash it off and I'm eating a fresh salad 5 minutes later . Yesterday I planted some pansies in pots on my steps. I found white ones with huge flowers and mixed in some blue. They can live through a frost so they are safe to plant this time of year where I live.

At the end of may I will fill my pots with summer flowers. I love impatients. They bloom profusely from May until around Thanksgiving! I like to fill the pots with some tall flowers, short bushy ones and something on a vine like ivy or vinca.

DH is outside planting some new trees for our yard as I type this!  I was hoping to get my garden weeded and what not this weekend; but it was just too busy.  I did pick up my seeds.  I'm still hoping we might put in another raised bed.  My current garden is only 4'x8' and I'd like to double it.  I picked up more seeds than I will use in my small spot.  I picked out bush beans, peas (though I should have had them in the ground already I believe!), carrots, cucumber, cantaloupe, summer squash and zucchini.  I also lost my cucumber and cantaloupe to something last year; but I figure I'll try again.  I will also plant some tomatoes in a month or so.  We've still had some freeze warnings.

One thing I need to figure out is how to trellis the peas.  What I used last year didn't work.  I wasn't able to put my garden in till after my son was born; so I used some premade trellis' and I think it was just too thick for them to grab onto.  And they were put in even later also.  

In Winnipeg it's been snowing all weekend.
 

After a very rainy, tropical summer it's cooling down enough now to go out, weed and evaluate.  I love Autumn   I find Summer too hot in the garden.

I'm nurturing my papaya (I have three ... two ordinary and one red) and am getting the herbs going.

It's been snowing here since Friday and my giant container garden (leaky old water trough) is under nearly 10' of snow, a huge drift 10' high, almost 200 feet long and half as wide. The rest of the yard is under 3 feet or more, except where I have scraped it down to ice.........spring ain't here yet and according to the long range forecast, it aint happening any time soon, probably end of the month at the earliest. .

We needs to do garden cleanup soon! The asparagus will be popping up at any time.

I haven't really thought much about it yet. We always do tomatoes, cucumbers, string beans and some lettuces. Last year we also did kale, zucchini, eggplant, Brussels sprouts, a few varieties of peppers, cauliflower, broccoli and herbs. I'll have to see what looks like fun when the garden centers start selling the plants. .

I just saw on Facebook that one of the local orchards will begin picking asparagus this week!  Mmmmm!!!

I just picked the first of the asparagus. The patch is hurting a bit as a mole or something has been tunneling through it. I may have to look into buying more crowns.

Last weekend I planted a few different types of lettuce, three types of kale, Brussels sprouts, and a few other things I have already forgotten. :lol3:

We just love asparagus! Yum!

We were out over the weekend. Our original 12 strawberry plants wintered over well and have runners and new plants all over the place. And they're flowering! We have to get to Lowe's for bird netting before they start fruiting. Rototilling the garden this Saturday morning (weather permitting, as we're to get showers and t-storms Friday into Saturday). And then we'll start planting on Sunday night after we get the fence up.

Since it hasn't gotten really hot yet, I'm thinking of digging up some horseradish roots and making horseradish this weekend. I know that you really shouldn't dig horseradish after April, but it's been rather cool, so I'd like to try it anyway. I don't have any on hand in the fridge and will need it for baked beans at the end of the month.

Our lilacs are bursting! The scent is just intoxicating! On Tuesday night, I walked over and buried my nose in a lilac bloom and just breathed. Wonderful! Rick laughed at me.....he knows that I dearly love lilacs. And since the bushes are at the west end of the house, I can open the windows in the computer room and the scent will come in the computer room and run through the whole house. I just love lilacs!

[VIDEO][/VIDEO]Horseradish! That's different. Is it difficult to grow?

I bought tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, pumpkins, kohlrabi, beets and a few other things I can't remember. The rest of the garden needs to be weeded before I can plant them. :lol3:

Winchester said:

Our lilacs are bursting! The scent is just intoxicating! On Tuesday night, I walked over and buried my nose in a lilac bloom and just breathed. Wonderful! Rick laughed at me.....he knows that I dearly love lilacs. And since the bushes are at the west end of the house, I can open the windows in the computer room and the scent will come in the computer room and run through the whole house. I just love lilacs!

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Oh I looooooove lilacs!  My favorite scent, color, etc!!  Last year for mother's day my Mom and Step-dad got me 2 pink lilac bushes.  (I guess they were out of purple)  Some insect got at the leaves during the summer last year but they came back good this spring.  I had buds but it never truly flowered.  Hopefully it will within the next few years as it's more established!

I found those bunnies have been in my garden.   I saw damage to some of the first leaves of my summer squash and now my bush beans.  I'm going to go re-plant some seeds since it's still early enough.  I stuck several bright, metallic pinwheels in the garden and I'll be planting marigolds that I picked up today.  I like having some blooms among the veggies!  

Right now everything is poking up: bush beans, peas, carrots, cantaloupe, cucumbers, summer squash and zucchini.  I will put in the tomato plants tomorrow or Saturday.  I picked those and some flowers up today.  I also got some herbs and containers to grow them in.  Rosemary, mint and I forget what else.  Basil probably.  I just need to keep those rabbits out of everything!!  DH built me 2 large trellis' a couple weeks ago.  I'm thinking of trying more pinwheels raised up on those.  I'm not sure what else to do.  When we expanded the garden DH got a lot of extra dirt from the garden center while he had their truck.  I need to get the dirt pile out of my front yard and into all these pots I've been collecting! 

We were going to pick up the rototiller this morning. That was before we awakened and realized that it was pouring down rain. Rick called, cancelled the tiller for today and he'll go in and pick it up now on Monday. 

So you're going to try cukes again this year, Mooch? I want to so badly, but I'm paranoid. We may try them again, along with some kind of preventive to (hopefully) ward off blight this year. I have to investigate a little bit.

Put your fence up! That will keep those pesky bunnies out!

I am trying them again.  What did you find to help ward off the blight?  I think I had that wilt thing last year. I'm not sure if that is the same thing you had.  

We had a ton of rain overnight.  I was actually running around our yard in my nightgown trying to bring my newly planted flowers and newly seeded herb pots under the patio table for protection.  It was rumbling already and just started to sprinkle when I finished.  Within a couple minutes of coming inside the deluge started!  Thursday the kids and I went to Walmart's garden center.  I have to say; I was impressed with their selection!  Usually I wait too long and the variety isn't great.  Now I want to go dig up some space for flower beds!    DD wanted ever single type of flower that came in pink.  We settled for a mixture of pinks and purples in geraniums and petunias for the hanging baskets.  They had a good variety of veggies too.

Yesterday I got 3 tomato plants in and filled 2 hanging baskets with flowers.  I potted 4 large pots with herbs (spearmint, basil and lavender) and filled 2 extra large pots and planted some Forget-me-nots from seeds for the front porch.  For some reason I just love starting things from seed. I need to find a better way to do that in the house.  I need to get the marigolds in still.

I also took a small log (about 6" diameter) and put that across the edge of the fence where the rabbits are coming into my backyard.  I'm hoping to get out later and just line that fence section with it.  The ground sloped a bit there so when we put the fence in it left a small gap.  Enough for the bunnies.  

no room for a garden here in our tiny apartment

Ok help!!  What kind of fence do you get to put around a garden to keep rabbits out?  DH just found a bunny hole in the yard and I can see at least 3 tiny babies moving in it.     It's so close to the patio too.  That really surprises me; but there they are!  I don't mind them in the yard so much; but I do mind my garden!  I need to attach whatever kind of fence will work to the raised beds.  My beans seem to be what has had damage already. 

Our wire fence looks like chicken wire and is about 3.5 feet tall. It won't keep baby bunnies or really, really small critters out, but it will keep other animals out.

Something like this: http://www.lowes.com/pd_102025-8003...nce&pl=1&currentURL=?Ntt=wire+fence&facetInfo=

We put metal poles into the ground about every 7 feet or so and hook the fencing onto the hooks on the poles.

This will NOT stop an animal from digging through at the bottom of the fence! We found that out....groundhogs are very determined! We put cinderblocks at that spots where they like to dig through. I might have some pictures at home of the garden with the fence; if so, will post them tonight. But really, a tall poultry-wire type fencing will work.

Just don't forget to cover plants up at night when it's a frost like they say on the news to do.

Thanks I'll look for something like that. My little man had me at the pediatrician today so we haven't made it anywhere else.