Last day of March, and in the garden.

From past years I discovered I needed to be planting earlier than I usually do. Well Although mid march would seem to be ideal this year, a week or two behind, I at least have most things planted.

Yesterday Home depot had a 'black Friday' sale weekend, so I got a few half price plants that I didn't start from seed. So today I planted a few things. I planted the rest of the Jalapeno peppers with just a mixture of Moo-compost mixed in with a bit of bone meal. I also got Marla a few Bell Peppers so I did the same thing along with the cherry tomatoes. These cheery tomatoes I wasn't' able to plant as deep as the homesteads, so I will follow these and see which does better. The depth was only a few inches about the root ball

I still have my eggplants and hopefully some Zucchinis. Wish me luck.

How deep to plant Tomatoes?

The last two years I planted transplants that I bought at the store, so they when as deep as the root and that was it. I can't say for sure that this was the reason that I had no success with the tomatoes, but this year I'm changing it up.

With starting from seed this year, I had about foot tall starters. I trimed some of the lower leaves and dug a whole about 8 to 10 inches. I missed out on adding the Moo-Nure, as I said in my previous post, but I added Mater Magic I got on sale from Home Depot that is organic and is suppose to really grow big maters!. I will see if any of this make a difference than the last few years.

Planting with Moo-nure

After planting my Tomatoes I was getting ready to plant my peppers and remembered I had Moo-Nure and Bone meal left over from last year. So I added this to my peppers. We will see how it goes.

Raised Beds!

Oh why, oh why did I add more beds? Probably to have a better chance of a lot of produce. This weekend I had ordered some garden mix that consists of about 30-70% mushroom compost (the percentage depends on who you ask, it was always a different answer), and wood chips, sand etc. It doesn't look completely decomposed, but I will have to keep an eye on it for that reason. But other than that, it seems to be some good quality mix. Which it better since I paid a hefty price for it.

I spent all weekend fighting the rain, and wind to get three more beds filled. Now I just have to figure out how to fill them all.

I only now need to find time to plant the plants I do have and hopefully get the watering system up as well.

I'm looking into some better ideas of compost tea, last year did not do so well in that department.

Mid March in the Garden!

March is here and so is spring. Its been in the 80's for two weeks now, and I am just now getting my plants ready for the out doors. So they have been going in and out for a week and are now out side in the shade, today was the first day for full sun for a few hours.\

I was informed that now my region has changed to zone 8a, and that means the last frost date is ranging from March 1st to March 30th. I knew the for cast from the week of Feb 15th was good for planting. If I had had my plants ready and my new beds ready, I would have planted by now.

New Beds you say? Yes, I am getting my garden mix delivered this weekend, and planting will follow soon after.

If I had to do again, I would start some of the slower plants in mid to early January by seed to be ready for Mid March transplanting.

Hardening off plants.

It's mid-March and has been unseasonably warm, and I had the idea of putting my plants out side. Well this is what happened:



It was windy and direct sunlight to these cucumbers, and boy did it look bad. Apparently this is wind burn/ sun burn. I did not do it correctly this is the key to hardening off plants
Take Your Time.


For the first few days, the plants should go out in a shady spot, without direct sunlight and very little breeze. Then gradually add more time, and add direct sun light. Some say it can take from one week to ten days.

To heal this plant, I brought it back in for about a weekend and it still has these burned spots, but a lot of new growth looks very healthy. I am going to attempt now to slowly harden off some of my plants so I can plant in about a week and a half. I could probably plant now, but some of the evenings might be too cool for tomatoes and peppers.