Fantastic Weekend

Despite being tight on time (coached t-ball and soccer on Saturday), rainy day on Sunday “daddy day” with the little man, I still managed to get the last two blueberry bushes into some cedar whiskey barrels before they expired and set up the self-watering planters.

After a good scrubbing, I filled my old self-watering containers with a mix of peat, perlite, compost, plant food and soil. I’ve got six containers ready for five tomato plants and about a dozen assorted pepper plants.

The final step in the garden preparation will be to get the seedlings planted this week after work.

PS there is nothing more rewarding than baking with boy. We made corn muffins and oatmeal raisin cookies and it is great watching your son enjoy fresh healthy homemade food.

Wanted ad: Pressure Canner

In case anyone out there has a pressure canner they no longer use or want…or if Santa reads my blog, I am getting ready for my gardens bounty. It’s time to graduate from simple water bath canning of my tomatoes and jam and start canning more from the garden and kitchen.

I’ve been looking at the Presto 23 Quart Pressure Cooker/Canner.

Freecycle, Craigslist and eBay have not been overly productive, hopefully someone out there can come through with a little garden-magic and help get an under appreciated and used canner a new home.

Mother’s Day is planting day

This post is late, from last weekend.

Last week/weekend our four-day rain total was just over 1.5 inches.

I took advantage of the moist soil and planted 28 potatoes and got my carrot seeds in the ground as well.

Last years strawberry plants are looking very promising and I hope to have some fruit soon.

My only real dilemma is space. Three of my six raised beds are already filled and I still have my herbs, blueberries, squash, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, and beans to plant.

Buying enough 2×8 cedar to build some new beds is cost prohibitive this year and I really don’t want to use treated lumber. I found some great inexpensive plans for some cedar raised beds from Ana White’s website, but unfortunately Lowes, Home Depot and all my local lumber yards don’t carry the cedar pickets.

I might need to pull out the self watering containers and set up an auxiliary garden area. Either way, I need to finish hardening my plants and get them in the ground. The thermometer reached 80 yesterday and with the fear of frost gone, I’m ready to get my seedlings in the ground.