April 27, 2020

here is a template garden plan

I use PowerPoint to draw up my garden plans. If you have PowerPoint and want to start from a template that I have made, you can download it here: Skippy’s garden plan template. There must be some good, simple garden design apps to recommend and link to here. Please let me know any recommendations you have.

April 23, 2020

my garden plans for 2020

I usually draw up plans for my gardens in the middle of the winter but this task got away from me this year. Finally, just in time for planting, I have made my plans.

April 23, 2020

a new package of honeybees

A week and a half ago, Monday, I installed a package of bees in my backyard. I didn’t have honeybees last year, but I missed them buzzing around my vegetable garden. Every year I install the bees wrong, no different this year. The queen comes in a little cage with a candy plug that take the other bees a day or two to chew through and release her. By that time, they are used to each other. My version this year was to accidentally crush the little cage while…

April 22, 2020

out with the cabbages, in with the tomatoes

My little unheated hoop house is working out very well this year. On Sunday I brought all my tomato, pepper and basil plants down to the hoop house. Since it was full to the brim with onions, brassicas and greens, I moved all of these out to the garden. They can stand the cool weather and I just covered them with a light row cover. The pictures here show the full hoop house, then after I emptied it, and then the hoop house with the tomatoes, peppers and basil. Still…

April 14, 2020

mice in my hoop house

I knew I had a mouse in my hoop house. It was leaving half eaten acorns in some of my plants. Then it started nibbling on the pea seeds in a couple big trays full of pea seedlings. I took the peas up to the house to grow and put out three snap traps with peanut butter. The next day I noticed nibbled Swiss chard. No mice in the traps. I brought all the chard up to the house. Then today, I saw they had started nibbling on the kale.…

April 14, 2020

incubating chicken eggs

I bought a very inexpensive incubator and I’m trying to hatch some of my chickens’ eggs. I candled the eggs at days 6, 8, 10, and 15 to make sure they were developing and discarded the ones that weren’t. I added more eggs to fill all the spaces in my incubator. It’s pretty straightforward to see the veins at day 6, but after that, it’s hard for me to figure out if the egg is developing. In any case, ones that were obviously not viable, I discarded. So today is…

April 9, 2020

Aurelia’s Garden – our new donation garden

Our new donation garden has a name! Aurelia’s Garden. You can follow us on Instagram – @Aurelias.garden. And you can get to our website here: Aureliasgarden.org. We are a charitable farm, growing food for those with limited access to fresh, locally grown produce. We will be gardening on a half acre of land that was previously farmed. A nice big space. We’re working on getting grants to fund supplies like equipment and compost. Also working on getting some good buys on equipment like wheel barrows, shovels, etc. It sounds…

April 8, 2020

turning Mom’s garden

On Monday I prepared my mother’s vegetable garden. Last year I set it up as six or eight raised square areas. This year, it’s five raised rows. I like to raise the soil where I’m going to plant so the paths are defined and soil in the beds doesn’t get compressed. Also, so I can conserve on compost by just putting it where I’ll be planting. It took me a couple hours to set up the rows and work in the compost. I first weeded the area, then used a…

April 8, 2020

yesterday’s harvest

Spinach! It was really sweet as a salad last night. I planted this last September. Some of it over-wintered in my double layer (row cover and plastic) winter tunnel, and some was only under row cover all winter. It’s a hardy plant!

April 3, 2020

my kitchen is filled with projects

My kitchen counter and window sill are lined with my projects. From the near end, I have seed potatoes and a few sweet potatoes sprouting, my sprouter is waiting for it’s next use and there are some seeds for sprouting and microgreens, potted basil and thyme (I just trimmed it for the split pea soup I am making), a tiny egg incubator with 7 chicken eggs that I hope will hatch on April 14, and at the end are my Christmas poinsettias that are still happy and I hate to…

weeks and counting until my last spring frost

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