It's March and Snowing!!! Perfect Gardening Weather.

Yesterday I made my first expensi.... errrr... extensive visit to the garden center. It's that time of year to start thinking, planning, and even planting for Garden '09.

For X-mas, I got several pouches of seeds for root and leaf veggies (Thanks, Mother Mason). Little finger carrots, rutabagas, salad mix lettuce, and white Lisbon onions are all new additions to the garden line-up. They also are all cool season growers. It's recommended they be planted in early spring as soon as the soil can be worked. Well, since we grow everything in pots, that's pretty much whenever we choose.

So yesterday I went to Merrifield Garden Center and bought the infrastructure to begin sowing the seeds. I bought a couple long rectangular planter for the carrots, onions, and rutabagas. This is to simulate rows. I also bought three bags of potting mix, 7 small cups to start seeds, a tray to catch water from the cups, and a pouch of acorn squash seeds. Emily and I love acorn squash and since I never saw acorn squash plants last year, I figure I need to grow them from seed. I also bought some fertilizer for the lawn. But I could create a whole new blog just on taking care of lawns.

Remember, if you plan on growing things in pots, YOU MUST USE POTTING MIX. Garden soil will not work as well.

Of course this morning we woke up to a light blanket of snow on the ground. So I'll have to hold off planting the root veggies outside for another weekend. Not that they couldn't handle the weather. I just don't want to be outside in the snow dealing with potting mix and wet ground.

It also appears I won't have to worry about planting chives again. The '08 plant is thriving right now. The sun is shifting back north and providing sun for a couple hours in the backyard. By moving the chive plant into that sun area has given it new life to photosynthesize. I also fed it a couple weeks ago. So now it has the nutrients to get going. Chive mashed potatoes will soon be making their appearance back on the dinner table!!!

Who Needs Some Groundhog?

Yes, this blog has been dormant for a lot longer than the garden has been this winter. The presidential election, inauguration, and economic crisis have kept me busy at work. But fear not, the garden wasn't completely neglected the whole time. In fact, the garden of '08 never officially died.
The reason, mostly, is due to our very hardy rosemary plant. Rosemary can handle a pretty cold climate. It can stay strong until the temps dip below 20 degrees. I moved the plant to the front-side of the house in late November to get full sunshine throughout the day. It did okay until early January when the temperatures dropped dramatically. Quickly the plant lost its color and began to die. So we decided to bring it into the kitchen where it could warm up and at least get some indirect sunlight. And so far, that move has paid off. The plant came back alive and started sprouting. But unlike in the spring, the sprigs have not gotten that dark green look and a strong stem. I can only assume this is from a lack of direct sunlight and nutrients in the soil (I hadn't fed the plant in months). So today I decided to give it some Miracle-Gro tomato food. But that still doesn't address the sunlight deficiency. I will probably wait until the beginning of March before I stick the plant back outside.

Meanwhile, as you can see in the top picture, my chives plant has returned from the dead with a couple new green sprouts. Say what you want, Punxsutawney Phil, but this gardener thinks spring is not far away. Okay, in all fairness, the new sprouts popped up when the temps rose into the 60s this past week. So it may just be an aberration, but I'm hoping some sunlight and plant food will get the ball rolling on the chives comeback.

So that's the update. In the next week, I plan to map out what I want to grow in 2009. Thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law, we have some new options for this year. What certainly will be different is we'll be growing these new veggies from seed.