Interplanting

I took advantage of the small spaces between the garlic to interplant  lettuce. The lettuce grew amazingly fast and I do believe the garlic shaded the lettuce enough to keep it lasting longer in the garden. It will take until July when we harvest the garlic to see what effects the lettuce may have had on garlic size. Interplanting really cut back on weeding and overall, I am impressed with the results.

Chomping on Chives

The chives in the greenhouse have been up for about a month... I always look forward to this tasty spring treat! Along the base of the chives...volunteer Heirloom Forellenschluss lettuce has come up.

The garden chives are about 3 weeks behind the greenhouse chives....We will soon be harvesting these too!

And on a Happy Note... Garlic has decided to spring up too!

Lettuce like gangbusters

2 lb. 5 oz.Harvest this morning....We are going to be eating like rabbits this week!

Weekly Garden View

We are happily eating fresh Lettuce from the garden daily...A savings of $1.59 a head (pricing from Super 1 Foods this week)

The garlic is looking great...We have finally finished off the remainder of last seasons garlic harvest, so  I am looking forward to fresh garlic. The garlic scape's will be here soon enough! 

Glass Gem Corn was transplanted into the garden this past week and seems to be doing good.

Let us eat Lettuce!

Finally, the day has arrived for us to get our hot little hands on our first lettuce harvest of the season! Tom Thumb was picked out of the greenhouse bed and Four Seasons was plucked straight from the garden, both heirloom varieties.

Mixed with left over Iceberg lettuce we already had from the store.

A perfect side, to accompany dinner tonight!

Seedy Sunday

Sunday was spent outside doing yard chores, transplanting starts, and starting more seeds. This year I will be attempting to grow the beautiful Glass Gem Corn from Native Seeds. These seeds will get a little head start in the greenhouse.

Sweet little packet of Forget-Me-Nots from Susie B. that were handed out at the last  gardening club meeting...Have now been started.

also started today...

• Succession Planting #4 of lettuce Romaine, Iceberg, Four Seasons,& Tom Thumb
• California Giant Mix Zinnias
• Dill- Fern Leaf and Mammoth
• Chamomile
• Sicilian Violet Cauliflower
• January King Cabbage

Soggy Sunday

A soggy Sunday today, but I am happily playing in the greenhouse... My second planting of lettuce starts were out-growing their pots, and itching to be planted. They have already caught up in size, to the first planting that was directly planted in the garden, earlier this month. 

For fun, I am planting these in the raised beds in the greenhouse. 

They will be replaced by pepper plants once they have been harvested.

Looking forward to our first fresh salad of the season.

It shouldn't be to much longer now!

In the greenhouse this week

Cabbage, Broccoli, Onion & Lettuce starts are about ready to be planted in the garden.

They sure are enjoying their time in the greenhouse.

I also picked up this cute little Tiny Tim Tomato plant at our local grocery store....

It had me at hello...with that cute label and blossoms! 

Lucky for me Tiny Tim is an heirloom.  

A Productive Yard Day!

I had to relocate the chives last weekend...and it looks like they are having a good time in the new spot!

The Lettuce starts have been planted in the garden a little early.

I will be reusing the paper cups they were started in, as cold caps for protection from the frost.

Cold hardy Kale and Spinach have also been moved from the cold frames and transplanted into the garden.

Summer Love Sweet Pea Mix has been seeded around the garden entrance, in hopes of a spectacular Summer display.

We were busy knocking out our garden chore list today. 

• Troy was very diligent working on the greenhouse 
• the boys were in charge of raking the entire yard, cleaning up piles and burning.
•  I pruned all shrubs, vines and rose bushes, cleaned out and amended the flower beds, planted more seeds, transplanted starts and made dinner. 

All in all, it was a very productive yard day!

What's growing in My North Idaho Garden

Still slow growing here in zone 5b.... 

 The Spinach, Lettuce and Kale starts that over wintered in the cold frames are now starting to take off.

Let the gardening begin

I couldn't stand it any more... I just had to dig out the cold frames and to see what was actually going on inside the boxes.

At first glance, nothing really exciting! 

I was surprised to actually see anything growing in them at all. Lack of planning on my part...

This box contained carrots that we never got around to picking... and with no extra care on my part, they were left to defend for themselves against the brutal, frigid temps that we experienced later this season.!

After clearing the old tops away...I noticed that many of the carrots had turned to mush.... there are a few diehards in the bunch, that are determined to survive no matter what! 

The Kale, Broccoli, Lettuce and Spinach happened to be left over seedling starts from last season that had been left to die, unloved, and long forgotten about!

The dirt in the frames was pretty frozen. If I plan to overwinter anything this year, I will need to take measures to amend the soil and mulch heavily with straw.

I am just excited to get the boxes opened up and to get gardening!

The good... the bad... and the ugly!

The Good... Lettuce seedlings are doing quite well and have been transferred from starting trays  into individual cups.

The Bad... We are running out of room under the grow lights in the house..

 The cold frames are snowed under and greenhouse is not finished yet.

However, the Lettuce had the chance to enjoy natural daylight... and spent the day outside in the cold.

and now The Ugly... 

This is a case where the ugly is a good thing....Compost! 

We keep the "Chum Bucket" with a lid on it, out on the porch and just empty when it is full. 

Well, it's kinda hard to empty it, when it was frozen solid...Today warmed up enough to finally empty it into the compost pile.

where it will wait to be turned under later this Spring.