Barefoot Kitchen Witch - In the Garden

Continuing to Summon Spring

Our squash plants are thriving, and if they can just hang on a little longer, we can move them outside to one of the winter/protected gardens.  The round pot has marigold seeds in it.  Julia’s growing those.  Flowers take longer, so we’re not concerned that nothing’s up there yet.

Our leeks and onions are up and looking good…

I’m so excited that we’re growing leeks.  SO excited!

And over the weekend, Bill planted an assortment of tomatoes and peppers.

We’ve got them all stowed under the latest incarnation of our indoor greenhouse:

The previous versions were partial boxes with wire cages and bird netting protecting the seedlings from the cats, but getting at the plants was always a huge pain, because we’d have to untangle the bird netting from the wire in order to get at the plants for any reason.

With this version we’ve got the plants and their lights draped with plain old 5 mil plastic, which is anchored in place with empty paint cans, clamps, and a piece of firewood.  No danger of any wire scratching our hands, and it’s much easier to get at the plants when we need to.

Yay!

Planting Onions and Leeks

We’re jump-starting spring around here!

The other day we (and, of course, I mean “we” in the royal sense, not in the sense that I participated in any way other than by taking pictures) planted some of our onions and our leeks.

We grew the Bianca Di Maggio last year and loved them.  Flat, medium-small Cippolini-type onions.  They grew happily in several of our raised beds and provided us with lots of onions and no problems.  I think we’re planting around fifty of these, and then another variety or two in addition. 

We’re seriously growing leeks this year, too.  I emphasize the word “seriously” because Bill planted them last year, but they weren’t in a great spot and didn’t do well.  He didn’t plant a lot.  But I adore leeks, and have been using them more often lately, so we’re giving them more space and a better shot at survival.

I hope they like our gardens!

 

I’m so happy we’ve started seeds.  I’m ready for Spring.  Granted, we’ve had a relatively mild winter thus far, so it’s not like we’ve been huddled around the fireplace every night, teeth chattering, hands outstretched in an effort to regain our body temperatures before heading off to bed. 

But still. 

I want Spring. 

So we’re creating it for ourselves, until Mother Nature catches up.

How about you?  Have you started seeds?  What are you growing this year?