Last week saw a flurry of activity here, as the weather finally began to resemble spring. I felt like a bear coming out of hibernation after a long winter! Warmer temperatures and windy conditions helped dry out the wet soil too. It was certainly good to get out and do some work, and I was able to plant potatoes and onions here on Saturday. Since onions are fairly heavy feeders, I amended the soil with some organic fertilizer, including a bagged chicken manure based product called Chickity Doo Doo. Hopefully that will help grow some nice onions this year.
onions after planting
I also weeded and fertilized the garlic beds, applying blood meal to give them an extra shot of nitrogen. The garlic beds were less weedy than last spring, which no doubt is partly due to our colder winter, but is also a result of better weed control in general throughout the year. I lost a few plants over the winter, but for the most part the garlic is looking good and growing nicely. It’s typically ready to start digging here in sometime in July.
garlic after weeding and fertilizing
On Friday I was finally able to get the tiller out and break ground at the Impact Community Garden. We are scheduled to plant potatoes and onions there later today. And hopefully we can plant broccoli, cabbage, lettuce and kohlrabi sometime next week. I have plants almost ready in the greenhouse, but they still need to be hardened off. I need to get them planted here as well, once I get the beds ready for them. And I need to sow some radish and carrot seeds here as soon as possible. It’s a busy time of year for sure!
broccoli seedlings
Another current project is the rooting of sweet potatoes from the purple fleshed variety we are calling Carla’s Purple. I am rooting one of them in water, and one in a container of soil. The one I rooted in water is showing some nice sprouts already. Sweet potatoes can be sprouted in either water or soil, and I’ve done them both ways in the past. For sprouting in soil, I just lay the potato horizontally in a container filled with a good quality potting soil or seed starting mix, and cover with a couple of inches of the same soil. A shallow container like a bulb pan or dish garden planter works well for this. Bottom heat from a heating mat will speed the sprouting process.
Carla’s Purple sweet potato rooting in water
For sprouting in water, you insert toothpicks in the root end of the sweet potato and suspend it in a jar filled with water. Norma Chang has a great article (with photos) about how to tell which end of the sweet potato should be put in water. I can’t describe it any better myself, so I will refer you to her Growing Sweet Potato Slips from last year if you need help with that. I am really looking forward to growing this lovely purple variety that was given to me by our friend Carla.
In non-gardening news, I have decided to set up a Facebook page for Our Happy Acres. I envision this as a way to reach a slightly different audience, and also as a way to post updates and items of interest that don’t really warrant a full-blown blog post here. I know, I know, I said you would never see me on Facebook, but there I am, fork in hand in the profile photo, just like my Gravatar. My wife thinks Twitter will be next, but I don’t think so. We will see!
we won’t be seeing these in 2013
Last week also saw its share of drama, when Randy’s Tree Service came to cut down a few dead trees for us and wound up cutting down our lovely, large pie cherry tree. They also ran over one of our two year old pawpaw trees in the process. They have done work for us before, and did a good job then, but their performance this time was extremely unprofessional and inexcusable. They have told us they will ‘work something out’ in the way of adjusting their fee, but how do you make up for a mature and producing cherry tree? All we have now is some photos and a few cherries in the freezer. It is safe to say they will never be welcome back here again.
pie cherry tree loaded with cherries
And to close on a happier note, my wife found the first asparagus spears poking out of the ground yesterday. Soon we will be enjoying one of my favorite homegrown vegetables. This will be the 7th year for most of this patch, so it is coming into the prime bearing age. Last year we hauled in 30 pounds of it, and if it does that well again this year I will be a happy camper for sure. Go asparagus!
first asparagus of 2013
Rest assured I will be back here, there, and everywhere with more adventures as they develop. Until then, Happy Growing from Happy Acres!
I just “Liked” you on Facebook. I am also a fan of Kitchen Gardeners International’s page and it was nice to see them share your link on seed starting with a mini greenhouse.
I am really sorry about your cherry and pawpaw trees. What the heck were these people thinking. Word of mouth goes a long way. I hope they attempt to make amends. Although no amount of money can match the value of a fully producing cherry tree.
To lose a mature and producing cherry tree, how heart breaking. Would the company not replace and replant one for you? With the warmer weather (finally) fresh asparagus will most likely be gracing your table this week. I should fertilizer my garlic, thanks for the reminder. Thanks also for the mention.
I put Suburban Tomato on Facebook recently too but so far I’ve just linked to my posts maybe I will but updates on their too but I suspect I’ll end up getting confused about what I’ve said where and to whom. I promise next time I go into it I will “like” you though.
I can’t believe a professional tree service would mess up that badly. How very sad.
I used to have a Facebook account, but I got rid of it. I just couldn’t take them anymore. I’ll have to live without my family updates.
So sorry about the loss of the cherry tree. That’s very sad!
So very sad about the loss of your two fruit trees. That breaks my heart, and I didn’t even know your trees. I treasure my fruit trees, so I can imagine how you must feel. Best wishes for getting a new tree started ASAP. I hope the Facebook project doesn’t take away from your blog, because I enjoy reading your BLOG.
How could they mistake a cherry tree for a dead tree? What idiot’s! They need to find a very large replacement tree and plant it for you.
Oh my, accidentally cutting down a mature fruit tree, would be like a surgeon accidentally cutting off a limb in my book. I’d be livid. It’s the not tree per se, it’s the time it takes for a tree to become productive. So sad to think of all those potential pies…lost. I am glad to see your asparagus is doing well though, and welcome to Facebook! I’ll be sure to stop by!
Livid is the word for it. It is possible that the man with the chainsaw was more used to cutting down trees, than to growing and nurturing them. Which is no excuse at all.