Global Weirding...April10, 2009

Global Warming? or as someone wittily rephrased it, Global Weirding? Tornados in Arkansas, storms across the southeast - normal for the spring, but where IS spring? So far this week we have had frost warnings, 75 degree days and now severe storms. If the storms come through this area with the large hail and winds the weather Channel is warning about, I am going to have a serious talk with someone. My collards are in full swing. Last week I pulled four plants to make way for some bush beans, and my husband and I had pintos with homemade chow chow, fresh collards with balsamic rice wine vinegar, and cornbread... pure ambrosia... Southern cooking is such comfort food -and such a cultural quilt from slave influence to Scotch Irish to Native American.

Tomato seedlings are literally dying to go outside... hopefully by Sunday. Potato plants are peeking out of the soil in the experimental bin we set up for them, the beets, turnips and carrots are all starting to show true leaves and the garlic and onions are more than a foot tall. We saw the first tiny head on one of the broccoli plants today. I love watching the birth of plants! Cucumber, squash and zucchini seeds went into their peat pots today - with the wildly swinging weather I waited to start them til it was almost time to get the tomatoes out - running out of room under the lights!

Has anyone else noticed the upswing in gardening this year? Definitely a sign of the bad economic times - hopefully one that more people will keep up with even after things turn around. There really is nothing like that first homegrown tomato sandwich....

Waiting for Godot... March 28, 2009

And Thank the Lord the rains are almost over...four solid days now of rain, rain, rain.... I know we will appreciate it this summer, but for now I am anguishing over the fate of my tiny carrot, beet, spinach and turnip seedlings outside. Will be up at dawn to check them out. The tomato seedlings are taking over the kitchen. Peppers not far behind. Collards in the beds outside are ready to start picking... try them with some rice vinegar and cornbread and its heaven on earth.

My new adventure will be container blueberry bushes - they arrived this week already in bloom. It will be painful to debud them, but from what I have read, necessary for their longterm health - like so much in life!

Starting Seedlings...March 14, 2009

Ready for spring... really. This past week it was 80 degrees... past two days 40 and raining. Sigh. Keeping the tomato, eggplant and pepper babies rotating under the lights and telling them only a month more... The garlic, onions and shallots look great outside and we are trying a potato bin for the first time. Carrot and beet seed first plantings are done and we are waiting anxiously for the delivery of our first container blueberry bushes!

In like a lion... March 2, 2009

March 2, 2009... Coming in like a lion for sure... Four inches of snow and 27 degrees this morning... can't see the broccoli and collards, but hope they are still alive under the snow. The onions are under their plastic cover, but since 17 degrees is projected for tonight, we will be lifting the plastic this afternoon and adding straw, then covering it all with plastic again. Fingers crossed! This is the SOUTH???

Tomato seedlings are safe inside and growing like weeds...

hope they can last another 4-6 weeks inside.

Snow now?... March 1, 2009

March 1 - and snow is falling! Prediction is 4-6 inches tonight - a lot for this area of NC. Pulled our last carrots and spinach today for quiche tomorrow with cooked carrots...yum.... The last raised beds are in and the soil/compost is settling. My aim for this year is to produce at least 250 pounds of produce in our 224 square feet of raised beds. Totals so far (mainly carrots and greens) are 5 pounds for Jan. and 6 pounds for Feb.

Watching the seeds grow...Feb. 9, 2009

Tomato seedlings (18 varieties) are up and growing... A few cells haven't come up but most are up - can't wait to see how the different varieties do. Thought this would be a year of experimenting in heirloom varieties, different organic fertilizers and different mulches... will keep a journal and try to dtermine which do best in my zone 7 hot and humid summers in raised beds.

Found a storm door on Freecycle.org in my area and created a makeshift cold frame to protect the collard babies while they hardened off. So far they have come through 18 degrees and 2 inches of snow followed four days later by a 70 degree weekend... can anyone spell climate change? Moved some out to the raised bed since we need to make room for more seedlings in the *cold frame*.

Cold Weather Gardening...February 4, 2009

We feasted on roasted vegetables yesterday featuring fresh carrots from our "hoop tunnel" bed. Eliot Coleman's Four Season Harvest book (http://www.fourseasonfarm.com/) is inspirational. We had already wiped out the turnip and beet greens from the bed, but still have more carrots and spinach left. The temperature that morning hit 19 degrees and we actually had two inches of snow - our second of the year which is unusual for our area in zone 7 - but the carrots were fine in their little home :-)

The kitchen counter is now the official seedling nursery - already started

collards, green onions and broccoli... the counter under the new fluorescent light was getting crowded, so we located a glass storm door offered on Freecycle (check out http://www.freecycle.org/) and made a makeshift cold frame in one of the raised beds - the collard babies are doing fine under the glass even with the arctic temps the past two days. Makes room for the 18 types of heirloom tomatos I started two days ago....