First Carrots of the Season

What a delight to pull and taste the first, oh-so-sweet

First Carrots
of the 2014 Season

carrots of the 2014 growing season.  These carrots were planted inside one of the cold frames very late last fall.  As hoped, the seeds germinated quickly and then did not grow much until early this spring. 

Many of those planted are still too small to harvest, but these two made the grade.  We will definitely plant more "coldframe carrots" next fall in order to get a jump on the growing season.

55 Degrees Outside; 65 Degrees Inside, 88 Degrees in the Cold Frames!

It is a cold, gray, cloudy day here.  The 28 degree temps this morning forced me to pull out my fleece and heavy socks.  But check out the temps in our new cold frames -- 88 degrees!  Downright tropical.

Frost on the Hot Tub

We had a late frost last night.  It was 28 degrees at 6 a.m. this morning.  Thank goodness for our coldframes as our little seedlings would probably have bitten the dust.  Each year our last frosts seem to come later and later and our first frosts in the fall are doing likewise.  The times they are a changin'.

Dogwoods, devilish pea-stealing thieves, potatoes, and weeds...a garden update

Brocoli & Lettuce Seedlings
now in the coldframes

Walked out to garden yesterday morning and lo and behold, some evil creature (rabbit, deer, vole, troll,  garden gnome?) had consumed 95% of my pea seedlings.  Sadly we will harvest no peas from the garden this year.  However, having no time to mourn, we moved the cold frames to this bed and planted planted out our tiny brocoli and lettuce seedlings just in time for a major thunder storm.  They were snug and cozy while the storm raged about them.   Hopefully they will not suffer the same terrible fate as our lovely little pea plants. 

Before the storm hit, we were working like crazy to prepare more planting beds and did manage to get a nice bed created for the five yellow raspberry plants we received from Norse Farms in the mail two days ago.  I hope they flourish in their lovely new space.

Potatoes poking through the soil

More good news.  The potatoes are up and the onions we planted seem to be thriving.  We did lose about ten of the yellow onions; however, all the purple onions seem to be growing well.  The potato, strawberry, and onion/herb beds were all weeded.

There is much, much more to do.  But the garden looks happy after its manicure.







I saved the best for last...check out the Dogwood - now in full bloom.

Stay tuned, the Iris and Viburnums and roses will bloom next.

At long last...cold frames!

We were given these storm window panels several years ago.  The intention was to use them in cold frames..but they just sat in the basement gathering dust.  So I guess I should be grateful for the upcoming furlough days...without them I wouldn't have these beautiful cold frames.