I have Spring Fever BAD!!! Can’t wait to get my hands in the dirt and start my garden! Anyone else afflicted?? Lol ~Lissa
Making firewood has been my priority for the last couple years, and I've really neglected my flower beds. What with the mild winter, I've gotten ahead with the firewood, so I'm looking forward to digging in the spring. Some beds are so far gone I might as well cook them under black plastic.
Still enjoying winter, but yes I am starting to think a bit about spring. The days are noticeably longer now and soon there will be more signs of spring. One thing I am doing now and throughout the winter is building my ongoing compost pile. It consists of layers of kitchen scraps, coffee grounds/filters from work and church (about 10 gallons a month year round), snow, and leaves I hoarded this past fall. The pile is cold now, but I will know it is finally spring then it starts heating up. I also have been collecting paper grocery bags of fish remains which I keep frozen out in the shed and some under a tarp in the garden that I will bury in one of my large compost piles as soon as things thaw out enough to do so. The earliest here I have planted anything in the ground outside was late March a few years ago. It was radishes, kale, lettuce, etc. and it really gave no advantage over waiting until April in terms of harvest time. The first thing we see here for eating is asparagus around the last week of April at the earliest. About this time we see rhubarb unfurling, then the garlic starting to emerge.
Im thinking spring. i started using a wood lathe this year and i can get a lot of wood shaving from it. I took a huge trash can full out to the compost pile last week. i really need some greens to put on it. or maybe horse manure
I’ve been looking through seed catalogs and that got my fever burning Hot! Am going to get some new seed starting trays this week and get the HoMade (this is not a typo haha) mini greenhouse thingy going in a spare bedroom. We’re also looking at our Murry Hatchery catalog for some new chicks. We have a water trough set up we use in the spare bedroom for them. I’m getting really excited!!!!! ~Lissa
We also have a rhubarb patch, I absolutely LOVE making strawberry rhubarb jam and rhubarb sauce that goes well on everything! I want to start an asparagus patch this year, but need some education about it first. Any advice you can share? ~Lissa
Nicks parents have a horse barn with lots of composted horse manure. Hopefully I can get him to use the bobcat and scoop me up a big load into the truck so I won’t have to shovel it... lolll ~Lissa
I’m a firm believer in the black plastic method! I have an old pool cover that i use to break new ground when i start new garden plots or beds. Takes alot of the work out of it! ~Lissa
One of my rock gardens is covered in witchgrass! The only advantage to it is that it 100% drowns out any other weed or grass. I use that bed for young tree saplings that aren’t ready for their permanent placement. I plant the saplings in 3 gallon buckets, drilled with several holes, until they are a few years old. When I’m ready to move them out it’s easy to dig up the bucket, pull the rootball out and replant it. As for the witchgrass, i keep it at bay by trimming it down with the weed wacker...lol. ~Lissa
I have two 6' x 12' beds that were so weed infested, I just gave up and put wood stacks on top of them. I put down a double layer of water-permeable pool cover first, the kind that stretches over a pool with tension cables. When I was young and enthusiastic I started way too many flower beds!
That’s the same pool cover I use. Been moving it around and using it for a few years now, still lots of life left in it. I also started too many flower beds to keep maintained. Some of them i let go and returned them to the yard. Like you said in previous post, firewood has been more of a priority for me too, and the vegetable gardens. There’s just not enough time in the day! I was looking through the flower thread and you have (or had) some real beauties! Hopefully I’ll get some more flowers planted this year ~Lissa
I do a lot in containers. I've got tropicals and succulents I overwinter under lights, and I get some annuals for free that are culled from a big box garden center, thanks to a friend. It scratches the garden itch, without much work.
PLant them in a ROW, not in a patch in a non-pattern that makes no sense like my father did. You end up using spreading more compost than necessary if you do and in a row are MUCH easier to harvest. My brother dropped me off a nice fresh batch of FREE horse or cow manure when he got a brandy new trailer. Did a crappy job composting it. Let it sit in a heap over the winter as it smelled FRESH !! It was not long enough. We have persistent weeds now we never had before anyplace I spread it. Ugh. Not me !! I haven't used a snow shovel yet.
Out of the way or to the side like you would do for rhubarb because you'll cut a few in the Spring then let them grow and they'll just be there 3 to 4 feet tall taking up space all Summer storing energy for next year.
Do you know if rhubarb and asparagus have any problems or companion benefits if the are grown in the same area? I’ve got a bed worked up well with compost and I add old, rotted manure to it every year. It’s about 14’ wide and around 20-25’ long. On one side is my big, long row of rhubarb. Other side is available, I usually just find something to plant there each spring. Last year I grew my bell peppers there but it’s up for grabs! ~Lissa
I have a space along a stone wall that half is a row of rhubarb along the wall and the other half is asparagus. One plant of asparagus comes up through (sometimes literally) the rhubarb leaves as it is too close. Neither fares any worse or better than the others so probably doesn't matter either way. Only have the one example though. That rhubarb plant really needs to get dug up and divided as it is a mass of crowns. So the asparagus might come up with it. Actually 6 of the rhubarbs could use digging up. It won't kill it not to dig it up and divide it but divided would yield more rhubarb than undivided. I find most important that most plants need a certain amount of space to grow to a good size and they do best if they get that minimum required space .
Buy some crowns and plant in rows or beds if you want. Just be sure to give each crown plenty of room as they are heavy feeders with very extensive root systems. You won't be able to harvest much before the third year, but it is worth the wait! I started with 12 crowns, then did another 12 the following year, and now have it growing randomly in different places in the garden from seed that the female plants produce. Once it starts coming in we are eating it steady every other day, plus it is great to be able to break off a plant to eat raw while working in the garden. It is very good this way and nothing like store bought asparagus. I stop harvesting in June sometime and let it grow to a beautiful fern that are upwards of 6' tall. I leave them all winter and cut them down the ground right away in the spring. Top dress fall and spring with finished compost and you will be good to go.
