The cold rain has resumed, even the squirrels are soggy!  We didn't quite as far as I had hoped this weekend in the garden, but even still, progress was made.  Hubby made a 20' long raised bed for the blackberries, added another post to the grape trellis,  and a couple of my rhubarb went into the foundation plantings on the side of the house.....no clue where I am going to house the other three, though luckily they are not here yet so I still have time.

The majority of my seedlings (Kale, Onions, Hon Tsai Tai, Pack Choy, Chard, and Red Sails lettuce are out under the newly acquired hoops, boy have they made covering the bed easier!  During the last 2 warm days I have left the row cover on for a bit of shading from the sun as they transition, and at night and during cool days (like today) some plastic is added for heat retention and protection from the elements.

Future Blackberry patch on left, then extended grape trellis; I hate having the garden

 'half done' and a mess.

I took some soil temps yesterday evening, the raised beds were running about 60 degrees, the soil under the hoops was holding an extra 5 degrees of warmth, and the newly layered beds were reading eighty degrees.  Not nearly warm enough, I am hoping to see them heat up more than that before planting time, not sure how long it takes for all of these compost layers to "get cooking".  I also caved and ordered Leeks today, I have not managed to sow any of my seeds yet, and I am behind on my peppers as well which will take priority.  Half of them were sown this weekend along with the tomatoes.  The final tomato list is as follows, tough to narrow 40 varieties down to 20 or so plants......what is scary is that I only grew 2 of these varieties last year, I hope I am not in for a year of disappointments!

1. Mortgage Lifter
2. Moonglow
3. Amazon Chocolate
4. Green Zebra
5. Cherokee Chocolate
6. Black Krim
7. Sungold
8. New Yorker (DTM)
9. Rutgers (DTM)
10. Polbig (DTM)
11. Sibirskiy Skorospelyi (DTM)
12. Isis Candy
13. Black Cherry
14. Green Cherry
15. Bupree's Big Boy Hybrid
16. Pink Brandywine
17. Costoluto Genevese
18. Juliet
19. Principe Borghese
20. San Marzano
21. Amish Paste

(The cherry varieties were sown in the milk jugs, and most have failed to sprout so far despite the warm temps this past week.  I have either tomatoes or basil growing in one container, to soon tell which it is.  I emptied out the other container into a seedling flat in attempt to thin the soil and hope the seeds would germinate, but then I forgot about and left it out uncovered in the cold rain last night.  OOPS! Now I have surely done them in!)

Happy Gardening!

A Little Garden Housekeeping

Today has been a great day out in the garden. After the many inches of rain we received yesterday courtesy of Danny, it was a perfect time to rip out the weeds and the less than stellar performers. But most importantly I was a SVB serial killer, and proud of it! I squished at least twelve of these suckers. They had finally taken up residence in my zucchini. The plants are now destroyed, but I was happy to sacrifice a few developing squash for the pleasure of hunting those borers down. YUCK!


Today's sowings:

1. Sugar Ann Peas - 55 days; I sowed these in the cucurbit bed where I had ripped out cukes and marigolds, mostly for their nitrogen fixing services. If I get peas out of it even better!
2. Bright Lights Swiss Chard - Chard can be harvested at 'baby' size about 5 weeks after germination and is somewhat cold tolerant.
3. Napoli Carrot - 58 days; A cold tolerant, early carrot variety. These will hopefully overwinter under a thick layer of hay and plastic or row cover.
4. Red Russian Kale - Overwinters easily, hardy to 14 degrees F; These should have ideally been sown in early August but I just didn't have the room. I will cover the seedlings with row cover before any frost is predicted, and keep them that way through the winter. May be harvested as early as 60 days after sowing; frosts improve flavor.
5. Rouge D'Hiver Lettuce - 28-58 days; Cold tolerant red romaine type lettuce, should germinate in soil temps as low as 40 degrees F.
6. Renegade Spinach - I have had no luck with direct sowing spinach all season, but since spinach seeds should used the same year they were purchased I figured I would give it another go!

(edit: Almost forgot, I took seeds from the nasturtiums and marigolds for next year. It was a rediculously easy thing to do (and free), so I hope they will germinate!)