Watering in Winter!!!

Folks,
For weeks now the weatherman has been reporting that we are in a severe drought. It is true we have 1/4 inch cracks in the soil right now. For the past two weeks I have watered the beds each weekend. I have never had to water in winter EVER!

The rock irises opened up yesterday in the 75 degree heat. It was just one yesterday, today it is three. I always have looked forward to these opening up. The yellow crocuses are nearly done can you believe that?

Daffodils and other crocuses are poking out, one daffodil has a bud so far. Most of the newly planted bulbs are not even poking out yest, except for a large crocus that we should be seeing in a week or so. I did find a daffodil bulb on the ground that did not get planted.

Here is a look at the greens in the cold frames.

 Curly Kale, eating all we can of this, it is yummy! This is maybe 1/6th of the beds.

 My favorite greens, mustard greens!! Your are looking at maybe 1/4th of the bed, I have another bed that will be ready when this is done.

Rape, maybe 1/4th of it the bed. Weird name yet the greens are very tasty and it thrives well here.

Looking at a flicker just above the suet feeders, not seen him on the suet, but suspect he is eating it. All the suet feeders were empty this morning. Going to get a trailer load of compost from the landfill today, might help a little with our on going droughts here.

Hellebore blooms and salad greens

Yesterday it reached 57 degrees and in the morning I noticed the Helleborus niger blooms were open, Oh and thanks Daisy you should know where the paths are when you go to the bathroom in the yard. It is muddy enough out there without Daisy's surprises everywhere.

Today I got off work early so with the balmy 50 degree temps I walked around the garden. I watched the ground a little more closely as I walked about.

Here is the Helleborus Niger blooms that have been covered five times in snow thus far. The stems are short but appear to be growing.

 I think this is some of the Snowdrops planted in the garden last fall. I found only 3 sprouts like this. This morning I looked for dwarf irises, did seen a thing, this afternoon I see 5 sprouts of dwarf irises!

Pansies sure look better than a week ago when covered in snow and ice.

 Here is a peek inside the hoop cold-frame, kale on the left and in the back, lettuce in the middle and on the right and featured below a lettuce mix that Meg planted seeds in November. Note that there is no path inside, we planted this not planning on building a cold-frame over it. Once these greens are done I plan on adding compost and making two rows with a path in the center. Can you see the peas?

 The other little cold frame. On the left my favorite mustard greens, then rape in the middle and in the back more lettuce that we have just started picking.

 Here is a batch of mustard greens picked today.

Same tub with kale on top of the mustard greens. Last night I picked about 2/3 the amount show here and we steamed it, oh my....... Looks like I might have to give my current customer some of this kale as it won't be long before we have more than we can eat.

In case your wondering the table is the bistro table I made with concrete and sea glass, it was a mock up of our kitchen counter tops.

Birds, more birds. The Brown Creeper I have seen it twice at the peanut suet feeder today in the past hour. I did get a photo, they do not like flash. The toenails are super long guess that is how they walk up trees so easily. Next post stay tuned.

Garden growing update end of March

Yellow Pear Tomatoes I planted on March 17th. Meg thinks I put too many seeds in each container, maybe I did..


The main veggy garden. Notice the Eastern Redbud in full bloom after three days of rain ...The green under those poles is the Super Sugar Snap Peas. All the veggy photos below are growing in the above garden.

The new flower bed to be between the house and the pond with a new creek stone path.

A primrose I've had for a very long time is about to bloom.

Fingerling potatoes the first sprouts!

Arugula we have three patches of these.

Mesclun Mix salad greens looks so yummy!

Curly Kale my first try at kale, three small patches of it as well.

Super Sugar Snap Peas

Clematis Henrii starting to bud, this plant is over 12 years old it is spread out everywhere.

Carolina Columbine, just moved to a new location after coming up in the topsoil pile. We picked up a new red columbine yesterday and should be planting it soon.

Hostas found in the topsoil pile, I have some huge leaved hostas, these are not them.

The front butterfly garden! Looks pretty bad right now. The tall broken off plants are Bronze Fennel behind this is Mountain Mint given to me by some gardening friends that live in the NC mountains. The green is the far back is double day lilies and invasive blackberries. This garden needs a lot of work, there are some nice Phlox from Big Bloomers in there!


Dot the Wonder Dog bored to heck after three days of rain.