*~March Food Growing Mamas Thread~*

[FarmerCathy]

Well, its that time of year again mamas. It's starting to warm up (well, at least here). We are starting to see green again and some of us are starting our seedlings.

So far for me I've got little seedlings popping up in the green house and a cover crop to mow. Getting ready to put the garden in while getting married in the same month. Hahahaha! At least I have help this year.

I think I have ordered all my seeds, but whatever I missed is just going to have to be left out. This year should be another windwhirl and I will be moving to the East coast in August. So, whatever will be, will be.

Good luck growing this year! I'd love to hear what everyone else is doing in the garden or at least thinking about what they are going to do in the garden this year.

[claddaghmom]

I'm so excited to be here! I haven't messed around in the dirt since I lived at my parents house as a kid. We finally have a teeny backyard space to call our own and I am itching to get out there. Next week is our spring break from school...woot!

[ShwarmaQueen]

We are starting a 8x16 veggie garden. Tomatoes, peppers, melon (if there's space), eggplant, carrots, onions, squash, beans, and herbs. Very excited!

[FarmerCathy]

Sounds great ladies. Here's some pics of my little seedlings so far:

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...hp?albumid=297

[Ruthiegirl]

Originally Posted by FarmerCathy

So far for me I've got little seedlings popping up in the green house and a cover crop to mow. Getting ready to put the garden in while getting married in the same month. Hahahaha! At least I have help this year.

Congrats!

[Ruthiegirl]

I am finally starting to feel confident in my gardening. Got my seeds started on time. Ordered compost. Plan is in place. Just waiting for another couple of weeks before the big fun begins.

So far, I have tomatoes, eggplant, chard, basil, onions, and parsley seeded. The potatoes and peas are ordered. Plans are in place to dig a bed for strawberries and asparagus. The berries I planted last year are looking good.
The kale overwintered well and we'll be eating that soon. The garlic is just poking through the soil and seems healthy.


My big goal this year is develop myself as the Master Weeder. I will weed. I will weed. I will weed. I can plant, I can dig, I can compost, but I have been resistant to weeding. No more! I must be better at weeding.

[TheGirls]

I have seedlings going too! I've never planted this early (last frost is may 10 for me) and I'm out of town for a week so I'm hoping they survive! But when I left I had 16 happy looking green onions & 2 broccoli. When I get home it'll be 9weeks to last frost and I'm starting lettuce, spinach, and peppers.

I'm really hoping to actually GET peppers this year. Last year was such a bust in the pepper department...

[lakeruby]

woooohoooo! I love this time of year. I check on my little flat of tomato and pepper seeds several times a day and call my DP in to look when each new variety pops up. I also want to start some flowers and herbs. I haven't bought any summer squash seeds yet, but I plan to buy seedlings from a local farm. We just composted our garden bed and our blueberries are already putting out buds! Yay for spring!!!!

[ShwarmaQueen]

I HATE WEEDING TOO! Is there really a big benefit to it? Looking for motivation...

Also, are potatoes easy? My DH wants me to do them but if there's any effort involved then they might have to wait until next year.

[FarmerCathy]

Originally Posted by Ruthiegirl

Congrats!

Thanks! So excited!

Originally Posted by Ruthiegirl

I am finally starting to feel confident in my gardening. Got my seeds started on time. Ordered compost. Plan is in place. Just waiting for another couple of weeks before the big fun begins.

So far, I have tomatoes, eggplant, chard, basil, onions, and parsley seeded. The potatoes and peas are ordered. Plans are in place to dig a bed for strawberries and asparagus. The berries I planted last year are looking good.
The kale overwintered well and we'll be eating that soon. The garlic is just poking through the soil and seems healthy.


My big goal this year is develop myself as the Master Weeder. I will weed. I will weed. I will weed. I can plant, I can dig, I can compost, but I have been resistant to weeding. No more! I must be better at weeding.

Yes, think of yourself as zen weeder. Ohm. I love weeding because I feel so much better after especially if I'm feeling in a funk.

[ShwarmaQueen]

Seed Mail!

Just got my Baker Creek order and they threw in Parisienne Carrots (mini carrots) as a freebie! I'm so excited about these! Has anyone grown them before?

[MissMommyNiceNice]

Hi, girls!

Well, after much wrangling, I have finally secured a greenhouse to contract my plants for market. I have also secured a deal with our local heritage farm to feature my heirloom plants in their gardens! They are ordering 20 flats from me. It's exciting. They had originally ordered more, but had to scale back due to budget issues. Whatever, they're using all my plants!

I did finally settle on the varieties I am having this year. I had to order more seeds emergency & have them sent priority (ouch!) but I need to deliver them to the greenhouse on Monday to keep to schedule. Whew! :

Here's my offerings this year:

Tomatoes:
Mt. Princess
Violet Jasper
Orange purple smudge
eva purple ball (like my all-time fave)
Matt's Wild Cherry
Cherokee Purple
Amish Paste
Green Zebra
Crnkovik Yugoslavian
Abe Lincoln
Yellow Pear
Roma VF
Yellow Brandywine
Riesentraube (grape sized)
Big Rainbow

Peppers:
chocolate habanero
chinese 5 color
keystone giant bell
orange bell
serrano jalapeno
red cherry
tequilla sunrise
Nardello's sweet italian

Plus, all the other things I offer but get started later!

I have a friend starting a website for me & I have a WAHM membership here so I can try my hand at online marketing & mailing my plants to select clientelle.

As soon as this snow melts, I'm going to make a trip to the local hormone free dairy farm for a big tub o' poop and get working the raised beds.

Spring, spring, spring is on the way!

[krismarie]

hi mamas!

we've had unusually warm weather the past week and it's got me longing for spring!

Originally Posted by FarmerCathy

Sounds great ladies. Here's some pics of my little seedlings so far:

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...hp?albumid=297

that's exciting! we probably won't start any seeds for another month...

Originally Posted by Ruthiegirl

My big goal this year is develop myself as the Master Weeder. I will weed. I will weed. I will weed. I can plant, I can dig, I can compost, but I have been resistant to weeding. No more! I must be better at weeding.

that is OUR LIFE for the first months of summer... every spring i get all ready to stay on top of the garden...we'll see how it goes this year with a new babe and all.

[Smithie]

This is my second year gardening. We dumped three cubic yards of composted chicken poop into the soil in December. So I'm hoping for some more robust veggies this year. This is also the second year for the berries, so hopefully productivity will be much better.

My peas, lettuce, spinach, arugula, broccoli, carrots, chard and onions went into the ground last week here in sunny South Carolina. I do not believe that mere mortals can grow onions from seed, but what the heck, I had some seeds so I tossed them in along the back fence.

Our state farmer's market has a big flower festival coming up where you can buy a nice variety of organic veggie seedlings, so I decided to start nothing indoors this year. I'd rather support the people who enjoy it and are good at it.

My garden is about 13' by 24', which is obviously not big enough, because there is no such thing as a garden that is big enough, but nonetheless I hope to do a better job with weeding this year, and spraying the insecticidal soap. DH's aunt gave me a water bath canner, MIL gave me a food dryer, the baby is old enough not to wail every time I leave her - I have no excuse not to have a great gardening year!

[Rabbit8]

I live in the Great White North, so our growing season hasn't started yet. It's been SUPER warm for March though...like crazy warm. I'm not complaining though! lol

My daughter adores gardening too, she's only four but already really into it. Over the past couple of months I've been buying those potted tulips you see in the stores; not only is it nice in the winter to have fresh flowers, but she loves watching the buds open, etc. I also save the bulbs to plant in the fall.

Anyway, I'm going to start seeds for our garden soon and can't wait for her to help. This time last year she was only three, and on the early side of that age, so her 'helping' wasn't exactly always helpful. Not that I didn't let her get her hands dirty, but I'm sure some of you know what I mean. This year I'm excited for her to be really hands on and help out.

[ms.shell]

Spring is here! I wore a tank top and bare feet in the garden today.

I will weed. I will weed. I will weed. I can plant, I can dig, I can compost, but I have been resistant to weeding. No more! I must be better at weeding.

Amen me, too!

DP finished fencing our 16x8 garden yesterday (cuz we got a puppy overwinter) and while he was in the garden center he bought seedlings! So today I planted 9 cayenne peppers, 6 hot bananas, 2 each green and red bells, a cubanelle sweet pepper and 2 mammoth jalapenoes. Also planted 2 tomatoes already a foot tall; a lemon boy and a Bonnie Grape. Then I transplanted the cilantro and parsley and some lettuces and garlics from the other veggie garden. I am going to transplant all the garlics, i guess, and harvest the rest of the lettuce so we can really clean and then fence the other veggie garden next week. We are going to have to fence the perennial herb/ strawberry bed, too, but we will have to break ground and extend it first, and i am not feeling too urgent about that, like i am with the veggie garden. I am not expecting tons of strawberries this year, as they are quite crowded, and also regularly trampled by the dog right now! She also dug up and killed my lovely Valerian I ordered from across the country and had been carefully nurturing for 2 years and may have totally obliterated the St John's Wort, though i expect some of it will come back.
Anyway I also have a lot of seedlings just up. I didnt really have any kind of light set up and so didnt start anything indoors. But i did put several dozen pots on the front steps and started them just about 10 days ago.

I am so happy that garden time is here again! I hope we didnt jump the gun too much and that we have already had our last freeze!!! I am going back outside now.

[onthemove]

my 20 variety leaf lettuce and crisp mint lettuce are getting there second sets of leaves, chives are about to bloom, and garlics are about 6" out of the ground.

today I planted 2 types of current tomatoes (10 of each), 10 roma tomatoes, and 10 Elizabeth tomatoes, bell peppers, tomato peppers, jalepeno, eggplant, genovese basil, and leeks. also planted nasturtiums and marigold seeds.

completely forgot to get onions...


I love weeding.

[lucifugous]

Hi, I'm new to this! I live in Chicago. I just made my first self-watering container out of two five gallon buckets... hopefully will make a few more after I find more food-grade buckets from local businesses. I have some large rubbermaid totes I would like to use but they are full of stuff and I have gotten rid of everything I can already. I may also be permitted to plant in the ground a little; there is a strip of earth in the back. So far I have bought three packets: radishes, mesclun mix, and sugar snap peas. I would love to grow tomatoes & peppers (I'm thinking sweet & ancho). If i can find seeds for the peppers, it's time to get started inside! We're having our first warm days here and are seven weeks or so from the average last frost.

[lmonter]

Cathy, I'm still giggling that you took a photo of the peter pepper seedling. East coast in August? Dude, you guys haven't kept me in the loop lately on FB then...


I have a ton of things to do. Nothing has gotten done. I really don't want to have to shell out for plants this year, but at this point, may be what happens. Even if it means I end up with varieties I'm not exactly thrilled about. Things this year (aka, kids) aren't exactly conducive to me doing much prep work and getting seeds started.

[FarmerCathy]

Originally Posted by lmonter

Cathy, I'm still giggling that you took a photo of the peter pepper seedling. East coast in August? Dude, you guys haven't kept me in the loop lately on FB then...


I have a ton of things to do. Nothing has gotten done. I really don't want to have to shell out for plants this year, but at this point, may be what happens. Even if it means I end up with varieties I'm not exactly thrilled about. Things this year (aka, kids) aren't exactly conducive to me doing much prep work and getting seeds started.

Hehehe! They are going to live this year and make me some peters. Hahahahahaha! I'm so excited, can't you tell? Yeah, we want to move as soon as possible after the wedding. Working next door has become lovely with working around the spraying of Round-up and pesticides, makes me want to run away screaming. I'm going to try to demote myself again and just hang out in the the veggie garden that isn't tainted with chemicals and possibly make them some chicken tractors. And living with my dad is like living with a grumpy old man, oh yeah, he IS a grumpy old man.

I think buying plants this year is a good idea Lanna. You deserve a little bit of a break, especially with hubby gone so much. Don't feel bad about it, its just one year, so just relax and don't even think about it. Next year you'll be able to get back into the swing of things.