Garden in April, Eastern NC, Zone 7b

April 4, 2016

Garden at the beginning of March

Garden at the beginning of AprilSooooo much has changed already! As we walk through the garden, you can see to the right, the fencing has been taken down and in its place is a big mound of mulch. That mound of mulch is one of our many potato patches. Behind it are some brassicas I transplanted from the greenhouses. To the left of that are some winter squash and nasturtiums that were transplanted from the greenhouses. As we continue, there is another patch of brassicas. Sorry for the blurr…These were transplanted from the brassicas that overwintered on accident (brassicas I planted and had planned on transplanting last fall but never got around to it). I am definitely doing this every year! I put a shade cloth over them to protect them from bugs but nothing to protect them from the cold. It seemed as though they died but they came back this spring! I thinned them out and planted them in the cover to the left. I am going to transplant the rest this week.  Between the two covered areas, I planted peas. they are just starting to push through the mulch. And the purple sprouting broccoli under the cover to the right are doing well (as well as some cilantro that overwintered). The next section has some more potato patches, some lettuce I transplanted from the greenhouses, and boxes. In the boxes, I have some eggplant and tomatoes, transplanted from the greenhouses, some overwintered spinach and carrots, and more potatoes! We moved the old chicken tractor (we grew tomatoes on this last year) past the boxes and are going to grow different types of melons over it this year. To the right of the chicken tractor is another patch of brassicas aaaaaaaaaand…another potato patch! This is the first one I planted and it has started sprouting!

As far as our perennial vegetables and fruits, more raspberries are popping up in our raspberry patch (we need to go ahead and put up supports), strawberries are popping through the mulch (and flowering!), the blueberries are being polinated, the new strawberry plants (June bearing) are becoming established, the asparagus are popping up (newly planted bed!), and the trees are setting fruit!(peaches) (apples – can’t tell if it has really set fruit or not…) (pears)

I finished most of my TO DO list for March (plant potatoes, plant all of the greenhouses, plant cool weather seeds). All we lack to do is expand the chicken runs. For April, the TO DO list is pretty straight forward. PLANT, PLANT, PLANT and then plant some more! Our last frost date is April 21st. I have planted everything early because we have had an incredibly warm spring so far. Of course this week, some of our nights are dropping below freezing. Wonderful. I am going to cover the transplants with tops of milk jugs and hope for the best!

What are you doing in your garden? Are you harvesting already? We are harvesting some PSB and spinach here and there but mainly just waiting. There is SOOOO much work to be done! Always. Happy Gardening! 🙂
Check out what others are harvesting at Our Happy Acres today!

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Harvest Monday

March 28, 2016

We are starting to be able to harvest, thanks to some overwintered veggies. Some spinach

A few carrots

And a few purple sprouting broccoli survived the winter under minimal protection.

I will order thicker agribon next year for the broccoli and sprouting broccoli. The cabbage did not need much, if any, protection from the cold. From the deer on the other hand…that is a different story

Peas, beets, carrots, spinach, and lettuce have all been planted but it will be awhile before we are able to harvest anything from the spring garden.

All of the fruit trees are blossoming. (Pear) (Peach not mulched. Just starting to bloom.) (Peach tree mulched. Bloomed several weeks earlier than the other.) (Blueberries with a carpenter?mason?bumble?bee. I don’t know but those fat bees that never sting are our main pollinators this time of year. LOVE them!) (Apple Tree)

The raspberries and strawberries are doing well.The raspberry patch is newly mulched, keeping the weeds at bay. The raspberries are popping through the mulch.As are the strawberries. They are a little yellow when they first pop through from being sun deprived all winter but they green up really quickly. We already have a couple of flowers.

Speaking of raspberries and strawberries, I planted about 75 June-bearing strawberry plants this week and 10 June-bearing raspberry canes. I am hoping for non-stop berries from May (possibly April) until September, starting next year.

And we have a chicken sitting on some eggs due to hatch early in April. Spring is here!

Check out what others are harvesting at Our Happy Acres today 🙂

Garden in March, Eastern NC, Zone 7b

March 7, 2016

Here is our first harvest of 2016:She joins the rest of the girls, who now outnumber the boys! 🙂 (# 1, 2, 6, and 7)

There are joys and challenges of having a newborn in any season. I can’t take her out in the garden to sit in the bouncy seat while I work like I would a spring, summer, or fall baby. However, it’s winter — I’m not spending much time in the garden anyway 🙂 So it works out.

Here is a look at what the garden looked like last month versus what it looks like currently…

Garden at the beginning of February:Garden at the beginning of March:At first glance, you will see:

1. A LOT of tarp has been ripped up and recovered with new mulch.
2. The hoops are uncovered (though they are still covered with fencing to keep the deer away).
3. The bushes and trees have been pruned.

If you look a bit closer, you will see:

Many of my broccoli plants died BUT…A few sprouting broccoli survived and…There are some small cabbages that did not rot and have not yet been eaten.

You will also see we have some spinach that survived the winter, mostly uncovered…And some carrots as well! This past month, I have been pruning…Planting seeds in my milk jug greenhouses… (I have planted all of my cool weather seeds and most of my warm weather seeds. I need to make a few more greenhouses to plant more tomato seeds.)Planting asparagus crowns (no pic) and I just started planting potatoes this week. I planted 50lbs last year. This year, I will plant 60 or 70lbs. I planted the early season potatoes first…Purple Viking, Purple Majesty, and Mountain Rose (5lbs each) were planted here and then covered with 8 inches of mulch.

The TO DO list for the rest of March is:

• Finish planting potatoes
• Finish planting seeds in the greenhouse
• Plant peas, spinach and possibly some other cool-weather crops like lettuce, and root vegetables
• Plan out and expand the chicken run so we can cut back on our feed bill

What are your plans for March? Are you planting yet? Happy Gardening!

I will leave you with another spring bulb that has bloomed already 🙂(Crocus)

Garden in January, Eastern NC, Zone 7b

January 6, 2016

Here is what the garden looked like at the beginning of December.And after a very warm and wet December, here is what it looks like at the beginning of January.

The grass is greener, what with the warm, wet weather. But the blueberry bushes have lost most of their leaves.

My husband had some extra time this weekend and decided to help me cover the strawberry beds, rip up some tarp, and haul a LARGE amount of mulch!

Strawberry beds before…

And after (covered with poop and mulch).I scraped all of the poop off of the roosting table, spread it over the strawberry beds and over some bare ground after he ripped up some tarp. Then, I spread all of the mulch he hauled. The kids’ job was to weed where we were spreading mulch.

(that patch of green is a small patch of overwintering spinach)`

We got SOOO much done, it seems, but in reality, we only weeded, put down manure, and covered about 1/10th of the garden with mulch. Ah well, there’s only so much we can do at a time. All of that pitching, hauling, and raking of the mulch does a number on your back, arms, and hands!

We have picked the spot for our new raspberry plants so the next time my husband has a free day, we will weed, rip up tarp and cover that area with manure and mulch as well.

The garden looks a bit different now than in the first picture. The temperatures really dropped yesterday and we had our first snow! Just flurries. Not much stuck. Anyway, before the snow, we covered everything with the lightweight garden fabric. Part of me thinks we should have gone with the heavier garden fabric but it is only going to be in the low 20s for two nights then it will jump back into lows in the 40s and 50s. I am hoping everything will be okay and I will put the heavier fabric on when the low temps are here to stay.

Here is an overview of what the garden looks like in early January:Brassica transplants to be…? idk. transplanted later? eaten off of? We’ll see. Purple headed cabbage. Hopefully we will get an early spring harvest from these. celery cilantro Carrots & spinach Brassicas (broccoli, sprouting broccoli, and cabbage)

I love seeing the changes from month to month. I wonder what it will look like at the beginning of February?

Harvest Monday

January 4, 2016

It has been FOREVER since my last post but there has basically been no news.

It has been very warm and very wet as of late.(this was in the middle of a rain and it dried up the next day, thanks to the mulch but still…very wet in eastern NC)

The spring bulbs are extremely confused.

As are some of the sprouting broccoli.(yes, that is sprouting broccoli that is going to seed!)

We were able to harvest three cabbage heads (two were a little loose and could have been harvested later). How can you tell for sure?(one of the smaller ones)And a few carrots.

I made enough coleslaw for 5 meals (froze 4) so that will be nice in the weeks to come as something has decided to eat all of my kale in the garden 😦

We are in a cold snap (mostly 40s for the week when it has been in the 70s lately) so I need to go ahead and cover everything with a heavier cloth so they will all survive.

I’ll write a post later this week about what the garden looks like at the beginning of January, compared to the beginning of December. And as soon as I get my seeds, I’ll do a post on that. Have a nice Monday! Check out what other gardeners are harvesting at Our Happy Acres.