Vegetable Garden Update-February 09

Tina's Vegetable Garden Update:
February is the month everything in the garden is transitioning. Crocuses are blooming here with all the other spring bulbs following soon after, spring is in the air. What is better in the spring than getting out those seedlings and preparing your vegetable garden for its new year's food bounty? Nothing! So get ready...here comes spring. And onto my veggie garden. I wasn't sure I'd have anything new to talk about, and I really don't but I do have some new transplants just waiting to be planted in the garden. A big freeze is expected this weekend so while these Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and red cabbage are hardened off, I'd just as soon wait until the big freeze passes. Perhaps next week they will be tucked into the garden. I looked back at last year's post with these same vegetable and found I planted the last week of February, so I am right on schedule.
The onions and garlic are looking pretty good. There is lots of new growth and the weather has been cooperating wonderfully. They are not bothered by hard freezes when the days are moderate, as they have been lately.

By next month I will have planted my seeds which include: kohlrabi, beets, mesclun, radishes, lettuce, and peas. I have found it does not pay to rush the seeds in the garden. The seeds planted later when it is warmer catch up with the seeds I have rushed into the ground a bit early. March is the month for seed planting for me.

Normally I plant potatoes about this time each year, but I am not sure if I will or not. I have been moving a few things in the garden and my overflow vegetable garden is one of them. Normally I put potatoes in it since my veggie garden is pretty full, but probably not this year. We'll see.

Skeeter's Vegetable Garden Update:

There has been some activity in our Georgia garden since last month. We decided it was time to turn the natural fertilizer (compliments of horse's Silver and Georgia) over into the soil for quicker composting. Our neighbor offered the use of his gas tiller for the task. Only problem, how do we get the tiller over the small fenced in garden since we don't have a gate? My brain went to work.

Last year was our first attempt at a veggie garden due to possible struggles with deer and rabbits. We went with a small garden as a trial basis and put a short fence around it, basically to keep the rabbits out. The deer can jump over any fence we install unless it is a 7 foot or taller structure. We did not want to invest a lot of money so we went with a simple wire "stick it into the ground" type fencing. The openings were too large and Peter Cottontail could easily slip through this so we twist tied some plastic fencing onto the wire. Above is the result and it worked fine last year to keep rabbit and squirrels out of the garden. I hung dial soap in small bags around the top of the fencing and the deer never bothered the garden.
I came up with an idea on how to build a gate with some stuff we had laying around the shed. A long piece of PVC piping that was found under the house the first time the Saint crawled under for some reason or another. We have had this pipe for 8 years just sitting in the shed waiting on a project. We also had some steal rebar left over from a project the day before. We reinforced a neglected planter that you will see another time.
I took wire cutters and cut a opening into the fence. The Saint cut the PVC pipe in half for me. I twist tied the metal fence onto the PVC then twist tied the plastic fencing onto the metal fencing. The rebar was hammered into the ground and the PVC piping will slip right over the rebar making us a gate. I never have to step over the fence and risk injury again!



Click on the video to see how this gate operates.

With an opening to the garden, the Saint was able to till the soil, although not an easy task with a wet soggy area. I did not catch a picture of the Saint in the garden as I was too busy watching the interesting machine doing this job so quickly. He had the entire garden tilled within 15 minutes. With a shovel in hand, he would have never completed the job as it was too muddy. Poor thing was sinking into the ground like quick sand but the tiller kept moving and he completed the job.
We were sure to clean up the tiller really well before we took it back to our neighbor. He told us to get the tiller any time so we hope to till the soil one more time if not two before planting season.
I sure hope the soil dries out for spring planting or the garden may start out a Container Garden as last year. A surprise crop! Last spring, I had sprinkled carrot seeds in a planter on the East side of the house. I was late getting them into the soil and they did not produce one carrot for us. I left the green sprigs in the planter for the winter. We have never had luck growing carrots. This is the planter we had made a few repairs to the day before the Saint tilled the garden. As we made the repairs I plucked a carrot stem and look what came out of the ground! A nice sized carrot that we peeled and enjoyed.After working in the veggie garden, I decided I needed to get the repaired planter soil turned also so I dug out the remaining carrots and look at the crop I plucked in February! I made glazed carrots and we sat in the swing outside and ate our sweet treat as the birds sing in the trees above.

A perfect ending to VEGETABLE GARDEN UPDATE, In the Garden...

Note: I am sad to report that one of the providers of the Natural Fertilizer, the white horse Silver, trotted over the Rainbow Bridge a few weeks ago. She was a happy, well cared for horse during her 27 years on this earth! We will miss Silver and remember her with our fertilized soil this summer...