Garden in April, Eastern NC, Zone 7b

April 2, 2015

Beginning of MarchBeginning of AprilRight off hand, you can see the loss of snow. Other than that, it does not look very different. Oh, but it is!

VEGETABLES

55lbs of potatoes were planted. (10 more lbs arrived this week and were planted).

Peas, spinach, beets, and carrots have been planted 3x (every 2 weeks) in March. The first and second plantings are starting to show! Lettuce and cilantro have been planted twice and the first plantings are starting to sprout as well. Unfortunately, we had one night dip down to 24 degrees and we lost our beet sprouts from the first planting. 😦 (Spinach planted beginning of March)(Peas planted beginning of March) (Peas planted mid-March – just starting to pop through)

All of the greenhouses have been planted. The cool-weather crops have sprouted and are enjoying the sunshine on nice days. What is that, you say? Why, it’s CELERY!!!!! That’s right! I’ve been trying to grow celery for the past year and have never had success. Those are celery sprouts, my friend. Can you tell how excited I am?! 😀 Some of the warm-weather crops sprouted as well. Earlier this week, we got down to 24 degrees one night. I covered the greenhouses with a sheet but the warm-weather crops were gonners. I replanted them this week. They’ll be a little behind but what are you going to do? The cool-weather crops (namely the cabbage and broccoli) were frost-bitten as well. I pray they bounce back! What do you think?(broccoli) (cabbage)

FRUIT

The pear trees are blooming.As is the other peach tree. We have 3 apple trees. One was attacked by tent caterpillars 3 years ago and it is just starting to recover. One got some type of rust disease last year and I think it may be dead 😦 It is in the foreground of the picture below. The other is blooming. It is incredibly healthy 🙂 However, it does not have any other tree to  cross-polinate with 😦 We will definitely be buying another apple tree this fall/winter! I am so sad these apple blossoms will not turn into fruit 😦

Strawberry plants are still popping through.Raspberries are coming back to life (plant below was one I transplanted this fall).I missed some sprouts when transplanting. There are still a handful outside of our raspberry line. I am just going to let them be and I will move them this fall. Blueberry bushes have not yet bloomed. Frankly, I’m glad. When they bloom early, I am a basket case until we get past the last frost date!

FLOWERS

Most of the bulbs have bloomed. I have decided to leave them where they are and just order more this fall to spread throughout the garden 🙂 I have become a flower-lover (if you know me at all, I know how surprised you are)! Lastly, in garden news, we are continuing with our garden expansion (always).CHICKENS

Egg Harvests:

• 61 eggs in January
• 220 in February
• 286 in March (plus 11 under a broody hen)

Last year at this time we were swimming in eggs. We couldn’t get rid of them fast enough! Not so this year.

The first year, chickens lay small eggs, very frequently. Last year, we had 19, 1yo chickens and we were getting about 18 eggs/day. This year, we have 16, 2yo chickens and we are getting about 10 eggs/day. The eggs are bigger, but the chickens are laying less frequently.

Our chicks are two weeks old and they are flying all over the place in their box. I keep waiting for the weather to warm up enough to let them explore 🙂 This is my husband’s sense of humor. I know I’m not alone. Some of our hens have gone broody. I am not expecting much, as our roosters are so young and inexperienced but maybe we’ll get a chick or two out of all the moodiness.

How are your gardens doing? Everyone around me I have talked to has not been able to start planting yet because it has been too wet to till. We have been SOOOO blessed by the BTE method of gardening! If you have not watched the film, go do it now! 🙂

Linking up with Green Thumb Thursday

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Flowers of All Sorts

March 25, 2015

The bulbs I planted in the fall of 2014 are starting to sprout!(dwarf iris) (daffodils) (crocus) (tulips)

I planted these bulbs (244 in all) last fall and covered them with mulch to the depth recommended. Soon after, the chickens got into the mulch, lowering the depth, and even completely dug up some bulbs. Once those were replanted, I covered everything again. Turns out, I covered them too much that second time. I realized this week some bulbs were flowering UNDER the mulch! I spent part of a day this weekend uncovering the bulbs just a bit to give them more of a chance.

Surprise Flower

An interesting things happened this spring. Some bulbs I did NOT plant this fall started sprouting. I planted some bulbs 7? years ago and they never came up. I do not even remember what type of flower they were. My grandfather-in-law, who has since passed, gifted them to me. I am pretty sure the only reason they are blooming this spring is because they were covered in mulch! And not even on purpose. The mulch around these bulbs was kicked there from the chickens. Amazing what a covering does!  Can anyone tell from the leaves what type of bulb this is?I am excited to see what it turns out to be.

In other flowering news, our apple and peach tree that are covered in mulch are blooming. However, our peach and apple tree NOT covered in mulch are not. That is bad news when it comes to cross pollination 😦 (uncovered peach tree)

Another experiment in mulching involves the strawberries. I covered them, just as Paul said. I have been nervous that they will not come through. It is still the beginning of spring so I will just have to wait and see. A few have popped their heads through so that’s something 🙂How’s your garden coming along? Any flower/bulb advice for me?