Twiggybet1's Blog

Well, yesterday, I got the green beans planted.  I put newspaper and mulch between the rows and covered the area with a large clear plastic sheet, just in case we get another frost.  Doesn't hurt that the beans just might sprout sooner, too.  Today, I planted my bargain salad greens:  spinach, endive, romaine, butterhead, iceberg, and mesculun mix.  I watered them with the hose nozzle in the "mist" position, since most of them are sown rather shallow.  I also concocted a doggy digging guard with some wire mesh and tomato cages.  I have monitored the dog closely all afternoon, and so far it seems to be working  (keeping my fingers crossed!)

My DH was just too tired to do anything in the yard when he got home from work.  My DD was out dining with some of her college friends, and (oops) I was too busy playing in the garden to think to thaw something for dinner, so hubby and I went for some quick carry-out.  We rarely do that during the week.  Kind of a treat, and hubby's idea, since my idea of opening a few cans didn't appeal to him.  Oh, well.  There's always tomorrow. 

I have a lot of plans of things I want to plant real soon.  Our last frost date for this area is approx. May 10, so I can get most of my stuff planted within the next couple of weeks.  I want to sow some leeks and onions, put in potatoes, and get a row ready for the sweet potatoes.  Although it's hard telling when the sweet potatoes will arrive, they didn't get here until June last year.  I was worried that they wouldn't have time to grow before it was time to harvest, but we did o.k.  Fortunately, I had ordered a shorter season "northern" variety.  To get the row ready, I hill up the soil and cover it with black plastic mulch in order to get the soil nice and warm for them.

I want to do something different with the winter squash and pumpkins this year.  It's probably a dumb idea, but I want to put them in containers, line them up along the fence line, and support them with trellises, if necessary.  I'm trying to make more room in the garden so we can try to grow a few rows of sweet corn.  We have never grown corn before, because we didn't think we had enough room.  But corn has gotten pretty expensive the last couple of years, and we all LOVE fresh corn-on-the-cob!  So...we shall see how this works out.  I hope both the corn and squashes do well.