Saturday March 15

My family cleaned the leaves off the fenced in garden during the week.
One rosemary plant did not survive.
I had forgotten to tell them about the thyme and then I smelled it. It looks great!
In the original garden I used the pitch fork and turned up about 6 inches of dirt and broke up the clots.
Lots of great earth worms.
I planted four rows of Alaskan peas. I started soaking them on Friday morning. The seeds have been in my frig since last year. I hope that they come up.

On the south side of the house a few daffodils were starting to have blossoms. Sunday morning in the sleet I picked 5 of them and brought them into the house. One was starting open and another one was beyond a simple bud.

Today (Monday) three of them are open and the other two are opening. I hope the other daffodils around the house decide to hurry up or slow down so I get to see their blooms.

peek of a daffodil

I'm worn out, but as it was 13 this morning, I did motivate myself for a walk.

At the end of the walk I thought that the ground may actually be thawed to plant some seeds.

I was able to hoe the ground well and sprinkled some seeds next to the rosemary plant in the back plant box - black seeded simpson lettuce, radish and spinach. I even put a few spinach leaves at the very front of the new garden closest to the mailbox.

Then walking back, I saw the very top of a daffodil! I did look for crocus and didn't see any growing. The grape Hyacinth are starting to green up!

Maybe tomorrow I'll see if I can put my shower door on one of my box gardens.

To do:
Amend soil behind the house where the pine tree was.
Amend the soil at the north of the new bed (where I planted the spinach)
What to do with all of the leaves in the garden?

15 Feb Scattered some seeds

I didn't make it on Valentine's Day to plant some seeds.

Saturday evening I remembered that I hadn't planted anything yet. So about 5pm I ran outside. I had intended to plant seeds in the back raised garden. I couldn't even get the hoe to scrape anything in that bed.

I ended up scattering some radish, black Simpson lettuce and spinach seeds next to the compost bin and putting some leaves over them.

Today (the 19th), I should try again since we had a very nice thaw yesterday.

Galdiolas - finally dug on January 4th

Finally dug up the Gladiola bulbs on the 4th in the almost dark before the artic temps arrived. I actually haven't felt the bulbs yet because I was wearing gloves.

I know that we didn't get them all, but my husband was trying to help and it was getting chilly!

We did find some daffodil bulbs that had already started to sprout a couple of inches. I don't know if they will have gotten buried deep enough or not. They have 10 inches of snow on them now!

Christmas Cactus Care

I brought my Christmas Cactus in from the porch a few weeks ago when we were having our first freeze. To my surprise, buds formed already!

In years past, I have had buds and then no bloom. I looked up this reference.

http://www.organicgardening.com/learn-and-grow/tips-christmas-cactus-care

I misted the plant this morning and watered it. I need to add to my to do list is to fertilize it. I don't know if I have any high potassium fertilizer or not on hand.

I've not repotted mine for years, I guess I should do that too after it blooms.

My pink Christmas Cactus came from my mother-in-law when they moved from Iowa to NJ.

Moving things around

Saturday late morning (November 2), we moved the forsythia from our backyard to the side yard of our neighbor. I trimmed off lots of the long branches that seemed spindly and made it easier to transport. The plant was still as tall as I am.

Then we moved the hydrangea that was on the far east side of the house to the west of the rain barrel. I believe that it was getting too much sun where it was because it was not blooming as much as the other hydrangea. I need to figure out if I need to do any fertilizer for it. This was a bonus project!

In the process of digging out the hydrangea, we sheered off the shovel! We have picked out this shovel many moons ago at my Grandmother's house. It was such a good shovel, we will surely miss it!

More fall moving to do:
- remove iris
- move dutch iris to between the box garden and the fence and maybe between the box garden and the bigger garden if there are enough (reduce mowing)
- dig up the gladiolus

Salsa Verde/Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

I've had a basket of tomatillos sitting on my counter for a few weeks now since the frost.

Today I finally got around to making some salsa with them. I loosely followed this recipe from Allrecipes.com.

I added some red onion and lime from one lime. I had two pounds of tomatillos and had four jalapeños left from the garden.  My tomatillos got a little more roasted than I expected them too and I think I lost a ton of steam in the oven.  (One reviewer said that it took 20 minutes, 10 minutes on each side was too long for me.) My amount yielded a little over two cups of salsa though pretty thick salsa.

Tasting it, it wasn't very hot, but my jalapenos weren't very hot this year. I'm excited to try again tomorrow to see how the flavors meld together. I don't expect that we will each it plain with chips, but bean burritos are on the menu for later this week and I expect it will be a tasty topping.