It's tomato weather: hot and humid. Yesterday there was a heat advisory warning with heat index temps exceeding 100 degrees. It's about time. It's really starting to feel like summer and the vegetables are reacting well:

• Tomato
• Basil
• Corn (already knee high)
• Beans (have begun to wrap around the corn
• Winter Squash

Phew! What a great weekend ( Read more... )

I ate my first pea off the vine today. You can see them from the driveway and they look delicious.

It's been hot and muggy by Milwaukee standards. In a place where people yearn to watch the Packers beat up opponents in the snow and cold, the temperatures here are in the mid-80's and there not a cloud in site.

Planting
This morning after pulling two loaves of whole-wheat bread out of the oven, Leah and I went out into the garden an planted:

• Pole ( Read more... )

Leah and I had a three day weekend, so after looking at garage sales and farmers markets we decided to head to Cedar Rapids to visit my folks. We had a really good time celebrating Father's Day and my birthday. Leah made a strawberry-rhubarb pie and Mom made a cherry cheesecake; needless to say we ate a lot ( Read more... )

One week ago, Leah took the morning off and we planted marigold in the vegetable and flower gardens. We also planted cosmos. In terms of vegetables, I put the corn in the ground.

As of this week, the corn has not sprouted, but everything else seems to be growing well outdoors and in. I'm still struggling to find balance with the tomato starts. I ( Read more... )

In planning the 2011 garden, today was planned as the planting day due to it's status as a weekend and the first one after the average last frost. However, seeing the slow start the plants are getting in the garden, patience has ruled out. Leah has taken off Thursday and we'll plant that morning ( Read more... )

In the garden, it's been two weeks since we put the cold weather plants into the ground.Things are sprouting in the pea and lettuce beds. The transplanting didn't go as well as we hoped; we are pretty sure much of it froze. We've been getting good rain and sunny days, so some of the kale has survived. The indoor starts are doing well; almost time ( Read more... )

This being the first year that we've started from seed on such a large scale, and the new climate, it's been tough to let go.

So much time and effort is put into ensuring that starts have the perfect environment to begin their lives healthy and strong. We eat our meals next to them, watching them germinate and worrying about every little detail.

And ( Read more... )

This morning I was in the garden by 7am. It was a great day for planting: overcast and misting. It had rained the night before, so the soil that the plants were going into was moist. The air temperature has been above 40F for most of the day. I mussed the soil up a bit in the beds and mixed in 3 cubic feet of composted cow manure. Here's what's in ( Read more... )