March Madness

Am I wrong, or didn't the groundhog say that we would get an early spring?  This cold weather is killing me!  I've been completely out of sorts these pass few weeks.  Between stresses from work and trying to get ready for my spring planting, I've neglected posting and have generally been a little bummed out. :-(  Anyway.....  I've been itching to get out in the yard and start planning and planting and cleaning stuff up.  If I haven't mentioned before, my plan is to expand the garden this spring mostly because the boy doesn't want to mow the lawn.  And I'm planting an Asian veggie garden, which I am most excited about!! 

I went out in the garden this morning; it's been a while because of the weather. In the fall, I decided to try my hand at winter gardening.  I have to say lettuces do exceptionally well...

I have to admit, the fall planting was a complete experiment.  I think I planted way late.  Most of the veggies I planted out in Sept. or later instead of July or early August so they didn't do as well. My cilantro was a complete surprise....

The powdery white stuff is diatomaceous earth (not any illegal substance) to help keep slugs at bay. They completely flourished during the winter.  The carrots did exceptionally well, too.  No pics since we ate them all. Sorry.

Collards...

They didn't grow as big.  I'm hoping once it gets warmer, they'll have a growth spurt so I can see if they do taste sweeter than a spring sown crop. 

My rogue spinach.  I had thought the seeds I had planted next to my collards were dead until this guy sprung up!

Beer traps work, BTW...

And here's how my spring planting/planning is going...

I went ahead and planted garlic yesterday (an unplanned addition but I couldn't help it)...

 Korean Peppers...

Last year, I had problems with my peppers.  The first set died and I wasn't sure why.  After some research, I decided to try planting the second set of seeds in containers not toilet paper rolls filled half way with potting soil and then topped off with seed starting mix.  I also watered with either distilled water or tap that had been sitting around to allow the chlorine to evaporate.  I did the same this year with the addition of the heat mat, which I HIGHLY recommend, and I had 100% germination and all of the plants were super healthy.  I also decided to plant two of the seeds from last year's crop (they were planted in the container with the popsicle stick marker).  These seeds were the first to germinate and to grow their first true leaves!

Tomatoes....

This year, I'm growing Yellow Brandywine, Emerald Evergreen and Riesentraube tomatoes. So far, so good! With the heat mat, they germinated in half the time.

I did have some false starts this season.  I had to restart my napa cabbages and kale.  I also started rapini, which I wasn't going to grow in the spring but now that the garden will be bigger, why not!

In the garden, guess who was the first to say "helloooo"...

Yep, garlic chives!! Never fails.

Yesterday, I was collecting worm castings and found an empty worm egg (the reddish round thing at center), a first for me! 

My second worm bin has been in full reproduction mode. Tons of tiny baby worms everywhere!  I think my second bin is almost at full capacity now and I'm having to collect castings around the same time as my original bin, which means a lot of work! I'm trying now to collect castings a little at a time over a week or so instead of spending hours collecting at one time. 

This weekend has been busy and the rest of March I think will be even busier. I'll continue cleaning up my beds and hopefully, planting out more lettuces and cole crops towards the middle or end of the month depending on weather of course.  I'm so looking forward to the growing season and some warm weather!!