RIP Sprouts

Well, apparently one or more of the chickens broke past my cloche's defenses at some point yesterday, because when I went to check on the sprouts this morning it was clear that there had been a sprout massacre!

Only two sad little radishes were left standing!!! So sad!

I have hopes that some of the salad greens may still rally, and there is still a chance that some of the spinach seeds that I put in last weekend will sprout.

After a mourning period, I recovered the cloche much more securely and went and started some new seeds.

I'd been saving up some old egg cartons so I filled the bottom portions with soil and started more radishes in one and more salad greens in the other.

They are hanging out in the sun on our kitchen table right now. I've been thinking of getting a little IKEA shelf for going across our kitchen window which would be an ideal spot for starting seeds - that will just have to wait until I have the energy for an IKEA trip.

In the meantime, I'm still waiting to see if the peas will sprout. Right after I planted them we had a bit of rain, and last night there was a light frost.

If I don't see any action by next weekend, I'll plant more seeds.

Peas Please!

Despite having a cold, I was able to get a bit of gardening done this weekend. President's Day is traditionally when I trim our rose bushes, and do a bit of other garden clean up. This year, in addition to those tasks we put in two small raised beds in our parking strip.

We have a long history of trying to get anything other than grass to grow in this area, with poor success, so I'm hoping that this time we've come up with a system that will work.

The beds are 2"x2"and there is enough room around them that they shouldn't cause trouble for anyone using the sidewalk or the street.

I'm hoping we won't have any problems with dogs using them as a restroom - we saw a cute sign in town on someone's parking strip raised beds which read; "Please don't let your dogs pee on our food." So maybe we'll put up something like that if it becomes a problem.

In one bed I planted snow peas, and in the other bed I planted sugar snap peas. Each bed has a little support we put together from bamboo - although I read mixed information about whether or not these kinds of peas require support.

I planted two seeds at the base of each support and three in the middle. I also used an innoculant on the seeds.

It rained a bit shortly after I was done planting, so hopefully that didn't make the seeds too soggy.

I'm really looking forward to seeing some sprouts peaking up from these beds!

Spinach, Salad, and Peas, oh my.

Today was sunny almost all day, the perfect day for playing in the garden.

We started the day by heading to Portland Nursery and picking up a few things. I got a four packets of seed; spinach, salad green, snap peas, and snow peas. I'm especially eager to try the snow peas - every garden book and blog about the Pacific NW talks about Oregon Sugar Pod II, so I'm looking forward to see if they do well for me.

I also picked up some pea inoculant, a soil thermometer, organic fertilizer, garden soil and compost. Sadly our new composter won't be producing usable compost for at least a few weeks, but the way it's going, it might even take a few months.

When I got home I used the thermometer right away and it told me that the soil in our yard was 50 degrees! Much warmer than I expected, and also just about what all the seeds I purchased require.

I filled the raised bed in the back yard with one bag of the garden soil and mixed in some fertilizer. As I was working on this, I began to think that that bed might be better used for the spinach and salad greens, and the gardening book I've been using - growing vegetables west of the cascades - recommends starting spinach and salad greens under cover in February.

We had some plastic left over from winterizing the chickens, so I ran over to Home Depot for a few lengths of pvc, and soon after we had a cloche! Hopefully I can plant some seeds tomorrow.

My husband made me two 2x2 beds for our parking strip, and I think that's where I'll plant the peas. I may make cloches for them as well. The peas should be done producing by the time I can plant summer squash, so that rotation should work out perfectly.