April 14, 2011

cold frame seedlings

I had a zoom lens on my camera, so these photos show only parts of my cold frame. Its filling fast. My dad says the orchids don’t belong in a vegetable cold frame. Maybe not, but they seem to be enjoying it. They’ve suffered from the long dry dark winter inside and my neglect.

April 12, 2011

spring! finally – flowers in my yard

These are the flowers blooming in my yard this week. I planted 50 of the bright yellow waterlily tulips (top) in my front yard last fall and they’re in full bloom now. The bright cerise Batalini tulips (bottom left) are at my community garden plot. I love early tulips! They open in the sun and close when its cloudy. I’m so happy to see them after a long and snowy winter. I bought a tray full of bright little violas to plat in the big pots in my back yard…

April 11, 2011

Work Day

We had a fantastic spring Work Day at the Belmont Victory Gardens yesterday! We must have have well over 100 gardeners shown up. All of us ready for garden work after a long winter. Ready to rake, dig and join with our old friends in the beautiful start of another season. Once again, Bob kept my camera in action and took photos of the event. I love how good he is at photographing smiles. Things we accomplished: – The area in front of the new plats was cleared of rocks…

April 9, 2011

pea planting

It was a beautiful spring day yesterday. Perfect for planting peas. I cleared off a couple of my garden beds, added a few bags of compost and manure, and then put int 3 wide rows of peas.

April 3, 2011

sprouts

April 2, 2011

hellebores under snow cover

We got about 3 inches of snow in our April Fool’s Day snow storm. The hellebores and snow drops are covered for now. I think it will melt fast. I’m ready for some warm summer night patio dining soon!

April 1, 2011

good bye March

Our forecast for April Fool’s Day was first 12 inches of snow, then it went down to 1 inch, now is up to 2-4 inches. Whatever… Let’s get it over with and MOVE ON. My hellebores are blooming later than usual this year. I suppose because they were covered in 3 feet of snow most of the winter. Some years they’re in bloom in December. Today, my white ones are fully open and the deep red ones are thinking about it.

March 31, 2011

weeding

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March 31, 2011

calculating compost

Our community garden is figuring out how to get a nice compost product this year. Our priorities are a screened, delivered, organic product that fits in our budget. Here’s a nice site to calculate compost coverage: SOIL AMENDMENT CALCULATOR We have about 125 plots averaging about 15 square feet each (my guess). That’s about 28,000 square feet total. I’m figuring 2 inches coverage on all plots would be good. The calculator says we need 173 cubic yards of compost. That seems like a lot. At 15 cubic yards per truckload,…

March 30, 2011

mail ordered seeds

Here are seeds from my last mail order. I am trying seeds from an Asian seed catalog for the first time: Kitazawa. They look really interesting! Also a bunch here from an old favorite: Botanical Interests. I love their plant drawings. I was pleased to spot their Komen for the Cure seeds – Celebration in Pink cosmos. An over-sized package with a donation to breast cancer research. I bought extra so I can share, since bc research is my profession.

weeks and counting until my last spring frost