HOLY RED AND GREEN, CHRISTMAS, BLUE SPICE.......

.....Amethyst, Lime, Cinnamon - have you figured it out yet?  Need more clues?  Opal, Genovese Italian, Thai.....got it?  Sweet, Italian Large Leaf, Dwarf Greek, Lemon, and Pistou -- I think that covers what we have this year.  Basil!  Oh I forgot Mrs. Burns Lemon - that seed is on backorder right now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basil

We are interplanting our sweet basil as a companion with other garden veg - it repels aphids, mosquitoes, and mites.  It also acts as a fungicide and slows the growth of milkweed bugs.  In addition, planting basil with tomatoes helps control hornworms.

RAIN, RAIN - PRECIOUS RAIN

We were blessed with precious rain this morning.

LOOK WHAT CAME FOR BREAKFAST

When we get up in the morning we always look out our south kitchen window to check on the horses and the gardens.  The horses are quite often entertaining.  This morning they were milling around and looking at something and took me a bit to see what they did.  At first I thought "what the heck is that in the pasture ---hmmmm looks like a big, shaggy sheep dog (I have old eyes).  But as you can see it wasn't.

ONGOING ........

As you know, the weekend provided us with more beautiful weather.   We were able to keep putting down mulch in the Bella Garden.  This is where the majority of tomatoes will be housed.  In two weeks (May 1) we will do one 100' row and use a floating row cover to protect them to try and get a jump start on the growing season.  We have two early varieties,  Stupice and Oregon Spring, and potentially some Black Krims.  It is a gamble planting that early.  The elevation that our gardens lay at and the proximity to our creek creates a much colder environment than even by our house.  We are quite often 10 to 15 degrees colder than what is recorded at the Red  Wing airport.

GARDEN HELPER

If you're not wathcing her close enough she steals the marking stakes from the rows and when the garden gets edible she will decimate the pea row and top the asparagus off. Other than that it's defintiely a dog's life. Meet Amber Jo Carson.

"POTTING ON"

Given the tremendously warm weather we are having the tomatoes are growing like crazy. The majority of them are ready for bigger pots and that continues to be an ongoing process thus the term "potting on." The biggest challenge is going to be where to house them over the next four weeks. Peppers are not far behind and the cabbage are on steroids. The current watering process of all the indoor plants is about 30 to 45 minutes. Watering and turning, watering and turning. We don't have a greenhouse or poly tunnel yet, so our south facing three season porch is converted to a green paradise.

The cold frame continues to do it's job with lettuce, beets, swiss chard, and radishes bursting out of the ground. I added spinach, sweet basil, cilantro, and more beets yesterday.

Along with the potting on process new seeds are started. Herbs and flowers. Basils (sweet, genovese, thai, opal) fennel, lambs ear, oregano, marjoram, and the list goes on. Flowers too numerous to mention.

We continue to prep the gardens. Laying mulch for the tomatoes and peppers in the Bella Garden. Establishing beds in the Noeilia Garden, which received onion sets and bunching onions yesterday. The Amaya Garden will soon receive rows of carrots and finally the Yuli Gardens will be filled with the herbs and flowers we are starting.

DIRT

Precious, beautiful dirt. Lots of it. Can you smell the fresh turned earth? Can you feel the dirt in your fingers? Soft, grumbly...ohhh the rich aroma!!

Due to poor planning on my part, our first growing season, this year we had to till again in mass quantities. From here out our beds will be permanent and crop rotation will allow us to cover crop and only till as needed in small areas - we hope. Every day is a learning process.

We rented the tractor from Ripley's Rental in Red Wing, had it for the day, and went to work. We retilled our existing fields and added some other areas for herbs and flowers. We would like to thank Evan for driving and Amaya for misting us with water.

HIDING UNDER THE COVERS....

Hiding under the cover of the cold frame are lots of goodies. Last Tuesday, March 30, Michael planted some lettuce seeds and on Friday they had germinated. Michael had built the walls of the coldframe last fall and set it out. He didn't have time to add the cover. On Sunday, March 28, he added the cover. By Tuesday, the soil temp was 80 plus degrees. Granted we had an exceptional March but we'll take any blessings we can get. Yesterday we added red romaine lettuce, mesculun lettuce mix, cherry belle radishes, evergreen bunching onions, tall top early wonder beets (for the greens), kale, large ribbed dark green swiss chard (experiment), and tango celery (an experiment). We located the coldframe on last year's kitchen garden near the house. Just think, it is the first of April and in another week we should be enjoying at minium the lettuce Michael started last week. Yes!

PROGRESS AND COMPANIONS

Saturday was a busy day. We had family visiting, Leah and Yuli, Bella was here also and we put her to work starting companion plants for the tomatoes. We use french marigolds and we try to plant at a 1:2 ratio. In addition, this weekend, we will start the potting on process. Today we will "pot on" about 150 tomatoes. Michael was able to get outside and continue the prepping of the gardens for tilling and mulching and of course yard clean up is an ongoing process. I found hollyhocks growing, but only a handful of tulips have arrived this spring.

WHAT KEEPS VAMPIRES AWAY?

I'm kidding about the vampires, but it is certainly a crop we eat a lot of it and we are super excited to see the first little blades poking out of their winter hiding place. This is our first year growing our own garlic and we planted 12 varieties, all of which we purchased through Seeds Savers in Decorah, IA. We planted late last fall, covered them with straw and shazam, here they are. It's a year of experimenting to see which varieties will do the best in our soil. My concern is we didn't plant enough!!

IDENTIFIED - SIBERIAN SQUILL - aka - Spring Beauty

Our little spring flower has a name - the Siberian Squill (Scilla Siberica). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberian_squill.

Thank you to Matt and Pam for hunting down the little flower from Siberia!!

There were two other suggested prospects - Campanula (Bellflower)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campanula
and Campanula (Harebell) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campanula_rotundifolia. Both of which look very much like this spring beauty, but are taller and bloom later than the Squill. Thank you to Leah and Judy for coming up with the Bellflower and Harebell.

We belief she came down the hill from our neighbor, Judy Johnson. Judy mentioned she had a little flower that fit this description but could only remember they were in the lily family. Judy could recall obtaining the flower from her mother years ago. We hope they continue to spread across our lawn.