Back in the Garden

Today I was back in the garden again for the first time in a long time. This February has been the coldest and wettest that I can remember. We had a record 10 inches of snow while John was here on leave (of course.) Usually we have a lovely indian summer in February, but this time I was stuck indoors until now. Finally some pretty weather, but alas the garden is too wet to do any digging. I must get my onion transplants in!

Here is Garry, John and Claire with the snowman they made. For comparison purposes, Garry is 6'3''.

What I did today was rake back the leaf mulch from the area where I intend to plant the onions and I put an additional 6 subterranean waters (aka milk cartons) in the ground. I am going to plant my onions in large blocks this time, instead of long rows, in an attempt to save space.

I had such a good time being outdoors and looking over the garden. I picked a whole colander full of Brussels Sprouts! I also learned that it was not a good idea to cover the sprouts with a row cover. The B. sprouts that I left uncovered where fine, in-spite of the snows and freezing weather, but the ones I had covered with a row cover were full of aphids. They hadn't hurt the plants any and washed right off the sprouts though. My mustard greens are still going strong and my garlic looks good.

Brussels Sprouts

Here is a picture of the transplants I am growing for the garden. The set up is on the kitchen table and you can still see we have a few pumpkins left. I am growing tomatoes,  3 kinds of peppers, lettuce, two kinds of cabbage, and swiss chard. I found that I had no broccoli seed when I started this, but then remembered that I had a bag of seeds for making broccoli sprouts (for eating in the salad) so I only have one broccoli plant! I am only growing a few transplants because of space limitations, but this will give me a head start on the garden. When I plant these transplants, I will also plant seeds for a later harvest.

As soon as the garden dries a bit I can transplant the cabbage, lettuce and swiss chard.

Another indoor gardening activity has been to grow sprouts for our salads. I bought a little sprouter and some seeds for a mixture of sprouts and have had great success with this. Everyone loves the sprouts on a variety of dishes.