Forgiving Seedlings

I have found that seedlings are somewhat forgiving of my care. I thought that I had watered my seedlings in the shed and walked in there yesterday to find that I was wrong. I was in shock to see how badly they had shriveled. Well, lots of water later, they are surviving. The cotyledons of my tomatoes are yellow, but the leaves are okay. I need to be more careful about their care.

There is so much to do in the spring that I feel that I almost need a list to check off just to get everything done.

Saturday happenings

Today was a busy day. We went hunting for morel mushrooms this am and found 3-4 pounds! Guess what was for dinner? Morels are great in egg, crackers and fried in butter. We are dehydrating the rest for later.
On the way to mushrooming, we saw a calf that had just been born. We pulled off the road and watched the calf attempt to stand a few times before being successful. I felt bad for it because it was 49 degrees, drizzling, and extremely windy at that time. What a horrible time to be a helpless wet calf!
After mushrooming, we went to the nursery and bought 2 Redhaven semi-dwarf peach trees and one semi-dwarf North Star Cherry. I wanted one more apple tree, but the nursery did not have Honeycrisp. I ended up buying it from Jung's online.
Now I think it would be a good time to go to bed and read some gardening catalogs.
Good night.

May Day Blooms

The crab apple blossoms are especially pretty this year. Last year they did not bloom due to a late freeze. The smell is wonderful.

More of the same crab apple.


I don't think that I remember the strawberries blooming quite so early as they are this year. Maybe I just haven't paid that much attention either.

Lilacs have to be one of my favorite spring flowers. We are fortunate to have a hedge of them across the backyard that makes for a scented outdoors! I remember as a kid, my Dad pruned them down to probably about 2 feet. (I live in the house that I grew up in.) I thought for sure that they would die. Nothing quite like a man pruning!

Now this is not a flower, shrub, or tree.... Maybe it is a tree monkey! Actually this is my youngest daughter. She was following me in the yard as I was taking pictures. The next generation of gardeners is starting!

Lettuce

I started various lettuce seeds today. Some of my seeds are up to three years old, so I am not sure as to how successful I will be. When I went through my seed, I found that I have a ton of lettuce seeds! I did not even plant all of them. Rather than plant them in the garden directly, even though I could. I chose to start them in a flat and see what my success rate is. I am hoping for some yummy salads! My camera does not take the best pictures, so you have to click on the picture to see it better.

Today's planting

Today my husband and I planted our potatoes. We bought seed potatoes from Wal Mart. Nothing fancy. This is the first year that we actually let them "cure" after cutting them before planting them in the dirt. I was reading on on of my favorite blogs, Skippy's Vegetable Garden, that she uses supermarket potatoes with good success. I have done that before, and will probably try that again. I like the thriftiness of it. I have read that some supermarket potatoes are treated with a chemical that retards the sprouting. I must never buy those potatoes.
Our onions that we planted are starting to sprout a bit.
My broccoli seedlings came out from under the lights today and are on the back porch to harden off for a couple days. I was so tempted just to plant them, but I would hate to see what would happen.

Start of raised bed planting

Well, the planting in raised beds has started! Bless my husband's heart, he moved quite a bit of compost and soil for me so that I could get some plants going. I sure hope that this method of gardening pans out well. We are really hoping for the benefit of no/less weeds as well as less compaction of soil.
Yesterday I planted Candy onion plants, super sweet onion sets, and red onion sets. There is so much to plant already. I was a bit under the weather yesterday with respiratory crud, that I did not have the "umph" to get much accomplished. There is a slight chance of rain tonight and tomorrow.
Good night.

Raised beds and etc.

Three of my new raised beds went out today. Now I just have to get them filled up with both dirt and plants! I hope that this works well. I am really hoping to not have to till the soil and be able to keep it less compacted this way. It was a dreary day here today with rain and drizzle. Tomorrow promises to be nicer with warmer temps and sunny skies. That will help dry the soil so that I can start working in the garden and move some soil.

Lots of birds out today. I was able to get a couple pics of the chickadees. A cardinal was chewing out one of the other birds in the lilacs. I was hoping that it was going to try and nest. I try to keep out plenty of food even in the summer as well as water to keep them around and happy.

Here is a picture of the robin outside my window where my computer is. The blue jays have been bothering them as they build a nest. One robin was being extremely careful. He (or was it a she??) was watching all around with a mouth full of nesting material. It was as if he did not want anyone seeing where the nest is. I guess you have to be secretive when there are so many predators!

Here is a picture of what my oldest daughter calls her Dad's "man cave". I think that it would make a heck of a garden shed. What do you think? :) I am hoping for great things out of this shed!