Finally a few pictures

Here's what it looked like when I got started. This is a spot that was overgrown with cannas. Couldn't give those darned things away, so they were thrown out.























And here it is now. Seedlings are getting started, and I'm ready to cover it with plastic for yet another freeze. I've been tossing a tarp over it, but the plants are getting too large for that, so yesterday I added the PVC hoops to make a little shelter for them. That'll warm up the soil, too.

No luck with plants started from seed. About half of them sprouted, and none grew. They just sit there... a month old, and still as small as the day they sprouted. I didn't have a warm place to keep them, so it turned out to be a wasted effort. I'll have to get bedding plants to catch up on the time I lost. Lesson learned.

Planted first seeds today!

I had a pack of little 3 0z. plastic cups and used them as seed-starting containers by burning a drain hole in them with a soldering iron.

Started today:

Artichoke, Green Globe
Eggplant, Black Beauty
Sweet Basil
Tomato, Marglobe
Pepper, Big Dipper
Chinese Eggplant
Arugula, Roquette

Getting ready for Spring

Today we finally had warm weather, though winter is still looming. I bought five 10-foot 4X4 timbers and framed up half of the beds. I also bought ten 2 cubic foot bags of StarGreen garden soil from Lowes. It's the lower-cost equivalent of the Miracle Gro soil.

I built the frames and added a little of the soil to the beds, but time was a factor, since we have other obligations today. Hopefully we'll have all the soil improved by the end of the weekend.

No seeds planted yet. I need to get them going soon!

Received 40 artichoke seeds from eBay last week. Hope we can get them to produce in our climate.

Still too cold to plant

I stopped at Hebert's Nursery today and bought some seeds. They said they can get large bags of vermiculite for $25 each. Need to be ordered.

Bought these seeds:

1/8 oz. Hybrid turnip -- Service Seed Division
Sweet Basil -- Livingston Seed
Okra Clemson Spineless -- Livingston Seed
Cowpea California Blackeye -- Livingston Seed
Pea Sugar Snap -- Livingston Seed
Arugula Roquette -- Livingston Seed
Tomato Marglobe -- Livingston Seed
Carrot Nantes -- Livingston Seed
Chamomile German -- Livingston Seed
Catnip -- Livingston Seed

Perennial veggies

I started this thread on Gardenweb yesterday. I was asking about growing common vegetables as perennials, so that they would start out the season with an established root base, and bear an earlier crop.

Got some good answers, including one about okra grown as a perennial.

Fruit-bearing bananas

As I posted earlier, I placed an ad on FreeCycle asking for fruit-bearing banana trees. We got a response from a guy in town who had several fruit trees in his yard, and he planned to get rid of many, because they were planted by the previous owners, and they didn't interest him.

The digging has begun

This weekend, December 7 and 8, 2007 I began digging the first beds. The old canna beds were first. I dug out the bulbs, and couldn't give many away, so the rest went to the street.

Then I dug my first 4x9' bed (not exactly the length I'd planned, but close. I removed the turf by hand, and kept lots of earthworms that were close to the surface. I even found an old Civil War bullet!

I still need to dig yet another 4x9' bed, but I have until Spring to get that done.

When finished, I buried the whole thing under a deep pile of leaves I'd raked from the yard.

The whole thing looks awfully small, but it's as large as the garden I had years ago. I grew plenty of food in that little garden, so for sure it's a good start.

There's no turning back now. The ground has been broken, so even if I don't improve the soil the way I want, I'll still have a garden in 2008.