Garden update #1 2023

Gardening season is gearing up as of late. 

First up, winter sowing. I'm HOOKED, particularly for brassicas.  I sowed seeds in milk jugs in January. They were covered with snow. I didn't fiddle with them or check them.  Opened a few and this is what they look like!  I transplanted into singleton containers and some directly in the garden.  It was SO easy and germination was impressive.

I have tomatoes, peppers and basil inside going strong under the grow lights. Loving the 'hot box' I made for peppers (foiled the inside of a box and popped them in there so the heat is retained), but learned the tomatoes don't like the hot box.

I rooted some willows and pussywillows from friends (thank you!) and planted them in the wet spot way in the back field.

My husband scored these wooden packing boxes for me from his work. Raised beds are the plan for direct sow rooty veggies with tiny seeds that are harder to start in wood chips.  In my Back to Eden garden the garlic is looking great. My first winter over of lavender was successful.  Trees have all been pruned and I did a bunch of grafting. Eager to see if the grafts are successful. (Hoping so!)

The barn still has excavation to do, but I have my clothesline back. I dug up more burning bush and barberry, finally circled the house and have re-done all the gardens around the house edges. Only took me 10 years. Now to decide where to put the raised beds and to fill them. Leaning towards lining them up like a fence perpendicular to the house. 

We're putting chives in everything we eat and trying to use up last year's stash (pumpkin bread from pumpkin I froze last year). I still have a gallon and a half of raspberries, this is the most we preserved ever.  Someone eats raspberries just about everyday, all that we picked last year.  I'm also almost half the way through selling raspberry sucker plants.  This year I will likely sell out with just my facebook friends and not even post on marketplace.  It's a busy time of year, but a good time to be a homesteader.