Clearing the way...             

May 22, 2012

Wow!  The garden grows rapidly.  Seedlings planted indoors are sprouting!  Squash, melon and cucumber seedlings are sprouted. 

The peas planted in April are already 6" tall.  the radishes are ready to be thinned and the lettuce is just about ready for me to either thin or cut... depending on how large a leaf I intend to eat!

The May planting is growing just as well!  peas are 4" tall and radishes are doing well.  I planted a different lettuce mixture... mesclun mix... in May and it is coming up... all the different colors are really nice!  

 On a householder's note...  Today I swept all the cobwebs down from the west side of the house.... all the way from the gutters, the eaves, down the siding, down to the foundation.  Then I washed all the windows, found all the screens, vacuumed them all and installed them!  Now the air is circulating freely and makes the house very pleasant inside!  It is good to clear the cobwebs, increase clarity and improve circulation






May 21, 2012


Last winter we were wishing we had some nice juicy berries.  We did go to the store and buy some raspberries from California and strawberries from Florida.  They were yummy and we decided to grow some.  We had planted five blueberry plants last summer, and are hoping to get a handful of blueberries this year.  Now we are thinking of raspberries and strawberries ... some of our favorite fruits!  I ordered a dozen Heritage raspberry plants and 50 Ozark Beauty strawberry plants from Miller's Nursery in Canadaigua, New York.  They guarantee that their berries are virus free.  The company said they would not ship until it was the perfect planting time... they just arrived last week, so it must be perfect timing.  They arrived all wrapped up in plastic.  The raspberry canes looked like a bunch of sticks with a leaf or two just starting.  


Here is what they look like in the package.  

I spent much of the day planning out the new raspberry bed.  First I looked around at the part of the yard that is not already under cultivation.  Then I looked for the sunniest spot!  It appears that the west side of the property is the sunniest!  I located the rebar that identified the west corners of the property.  I attached string to them and pulled it taut so that I could see where the property line was.  Then I measured 5 feet in from the property line.  I removed a strip of sod 2 feet wide and 25 feet long.  I encountered lots of rock and a rather large anthill.  


Here is what that area looks like now.  

Next step will be to add compost and then plant the raspberries.