Spring is almost here

I always love when the Hellebores bloom.  I was taking out the recycling and glanced over at the plants and saw they were in bloom.  Spring planting is not far behind

A couple of weeks ago, Sean and I went to the Community Forklift.    He loves this place.  It is a funky place to wander around and think of projects.  We were looking for a new window for the cold frame and something to put down between the pavement stones.  The bonus was seeing some bicycle rims so I can make a new trellis.

I want to do something like this

On Saturday, Sean put the new window on the cold frame

The seeds have arrived! 

The seeds have arrived

Today, Sean and I went to the Manassas National Battlefield Park and spent several hours walking the trail around the sites of the First Battle of Manassas (there was a second battle but that part of the park was on the other side).  We have a book on hikes around DC/VA/MD and we are trying to be more active on the weekends.  What does this have to do with seeds?  I was commenting on the way home how this time of year was very calm.  Normally, I am always thinking "I should be out in the garden" - either in my yard or vegetable garden.   This time of year there is nothing to do but plan for the Spring.  Although this year, the winter has been so mild, a couple of weeks ago I spent the day weeding the front yard.  The Bittercress is taking over the front yard and back lawn.  Luckily the roots are shallow and it's very easy to pull up in the wet soil.

Bittercress

Yesterday, I received in the mail a booklet called "Plant Invaders in the District of Columbia" put out by the Urban Gardening and Forestry Outreach Cooperative Extension Service - part of the University of the District of Columbia.  Who knew such a group existed?!  I had no idea. I will have to explore this group more thoroughly.  The booklet lists 14 of the most common invasive plants of the city. I think most of them are growing in my next door neighbor's yard (the rental house next to me).  Every summer it's a struggle to keep the honeysuckle, ivy and porcelain berry from taking over my yard from the neighbor's yard.

I have ordered some seeds and they have arrived. I didn't order too many this year because there are lots of seeds leftover from last year.  My gardening neighbor and I go in together on seeds plus the local nursery was having a sale in Dec - 50% off seeds.  So I didn't need to order too many this year.  I get almost all my seeds and potatoes, garlic, sweet potatoes and shallots from Territorial Seeds in Oregon.  I've used them for years and have been very happy.

I am going to try something new this year.  I ordered cucumbers and zucchini that are especially bred for containers.   I will try this in the front yard and see how it goes.

The end of Feb, I will start the tomato and pepper seeds and if this weather keeps up being warm, I should be able to start planting lettuce and greens the beginning of March. 

It's April!

I would blog more often except my daughter, who happens to have her own laptop, prefers to use my computer to do work.

Yesterday I transplanted the spindly tomato plants - not sure how they will do.  There were certainly enough of them and I ended up putting some into the cold frame too.  Here are some pictures of the various blooming plants around my front and backyard garden.

Spindly tomatoes!

Transplanted into bigger pots. Now resting on the back porch

A cardinal on the garage roof

Lungwort

Another kind of lungwort

Leftover broccoli seedlings - I planted a bunch around the back yard.

Quince, ready to flower

Mahonia berries

The last of the winter leeks, harvested on Saturday.  Destined for leek and potato soup tonight

Seedlings and worms

I tried starting broccoli seeds this year - inside and outside in the cold frame. I also planted lettuce and spinach in the cold frame.  The broccoli from inside the house has sprouted although it's pretty leggy.  The one goal I had for today was to replant the broccoli in a bigger pot but alas, I did not get to it.  The plants in the cold frame have also sprouted.  I'm going to try and plant tomatoes, peppers, cukes, squash and flowers in mid-March too.  We'll see how it goes.

My worms have arrived!  I was going on and on about the worms and Sean exclaimed he was going to have to learn as much about worms as I did about professional cycling - and since I think I'm fairly knowledgeable about cycling these days, he has a lot of catching up to do.

A friend at work is a biology professor and in a passing conversation with him, he mentioned he tried vermicomposting and that it didn't work.   I asked him about it and learned he had a Can o Worms system he was willing to give away.  The contraption is now sitting in my basement and the worms came this week. I consulted my book "Worms Eat my Garbage" by Mary Appelhof for how to set up the wormbed.    I shredded some newspapers and moistened them and put the whole mess on the bottom tray of the system.  Then dumped the worms and dirt onto the newspapers.  In an hour, I checked on the worms and they had all moved to inside the paper.  Over the next couple of days I have been putting kitchen waste into the tray above the worms. The idea is the worms will migrate up to the tray above, leaving worm castings below.

Worms!

Cold frame seeds

Broccoli seeds

Let the 2011 gardening season begin!

Our last frost date in DC is usually mid-April.  The time to plant broccoli transplants is mid-March.  This year, I thought I would try and start seeds myself.  So, if I was going to stick to the timeline for broccoli, this was the weekend to start.

Years ago, I bought this pot maker thingy from gardener's supply so today I unearthed it and made a few newspaper pots.  I have a whole seed starting kit in the garage but that is more appropriate for the tomatoes and peppers.

I also took my friend Kathryn's advice and planted some broccoli seeds in the cold frame - also put some lettuce and spinach in the cold frame too.

Broccoli in paper pots.  This is now sitting on top of the radiator, in the south facing window.

Cold frame, being prepped with more soil.

Seeds planted

Between my friend Edouard and myself, we really have almost all the seeds we need for the season.  I still want to order a few more from Territorial Seeds and Seed Savers Exchange.

The robins were going crazy in the backyard today. Most of the snow has melted and in the fall, I raked most of the leaves under the viburnum.  The robins love this leaf cover and go wild flinging leaves left and right.  I also saw a male cardinal and a hairy woodpecker.  A great day for viewing the yard.