Waiting Is the Hardest Part

Waiting for things to sprout, waiting for word back on the land offer, waiting for a lot of things around here!

Successes {and Hoped for Successes}

Can you see them?  Little red cabbage sprouts--the first ones up!

When I did my morning greenhouse check I saw a few tiny, tiny beginnings of sprouts among my red cabbage and tomato seeds.  Yesterday I was able to plant my Southport onions that came in the mail Friday and also planted some herbs.  Today the okra will get planted.  I've never, ever planted okra early, but if I want it here, I'm going to have to get it going in the heat of the greenhouse.  Last summer I had one plant germinate, but it never got going enough at the community garden to produce anything.  This year I'm still trying to decide how to do the okra--I'm leaning towards container okra that can be moved from warm sunny spot to warm sunny spot as needed.  Is this just futile, this trying to have okra in zone 3?...I'm willing to struggle for it.

The wind blew and gusted and howled ALL night long.  If Little Green could stay standing after last night, she will have no problem continuing to stand.  Intermittently there were rain showers throughout the night and morning too.  My parents' home has a metal roof.  I fell in love with the sound of rain on a metal roof in South Dakota when the small school I taught in had one.  Someday my home will have a shiny silver metal roof that allows me to listen to the precipitation through it.  Snow on the roof sounds pretty awesome--more like a whisper compared to the tap, tap, tap of light rain {or the steady roar of a heavy downpour}, but I'm ready to listen to just rain.

the community garden is currently a deer playground...wishing I could get some peas and kale going

I'm declaring that Spring is really, truly here in the Northwoods {I've enjoyed seeing posts on KAXE's Season Watch page especially as of late}.  Songbirds are showing up, I've spotted grass sprouts in the sunniest spots, and I know that the community garden's soil is totally thawed and workable {although sadly they don't let gardeners in for planting until the end of May}.  This could be a good thing though, because this is the Northwoods after all.  It could dip down to the "hard freeze" realm very easily if Canada feels like sharing its weather on a whim.  When I have my own place, with my own garden it will be very, very hard to have restraint though.

Speaking of my own place...last week I submitted an offer on some acreage.  I'm told the owners of the property are getting ready to head back from the Florida Keys and just received the offer and are considering it.  I'm eager to hear back.  Regardless, I'm hoping that by the end of May things will close and I'll be putting up my garden on this property.  I don't want to jinks things, so I'm not going to take any pictures of the place until it's officially mine, but here's to hoping!

Sprout Watching

Eagerly awaiting the first sprouts of the 2015 garden season...can't wait!

A Greenhouse

 the greenhouse preplanting

Jewel helping me get things set up

The turtles are back at it and eager for me to put them out in the garden
 

little ground cherry seeds from FEDCO getting ready to go in the soil

 Little Greenhouse is up!  Last weekend it was so windy that it became impossible to do anything involving yardages of plastic let alone walking upright outside.  This week I spent evenings putting the frame together, fitting the covering on, and moving some simple shelving inside out in the much calmer and pleasantly mild and sunny afternoons after work.  It made for such a great week actually and by the end of it I have a greenhouse!  Last year about this time I was still staying late most of the week helping run the after school program and would get home each evening around 7:30.  I am so glad that is not the case this year.  It has actually been years since I could just come home and enjoy life and having that extra time before I have to go back at it makes such a huge difference.  Putting together Little Greenhouse in the brand new Spring in Northern Minnesota was pretty awesome.  That I got to see countless sandhill cranes flying over, the trumpeter swan family, one of the bald eagles--the other is on the nest, and this awesome little hawk like bird that is a beautiful shade of gray-blue I noticed last fall and is back in town that I think is a Cooper's hawk made things even better.

Inside the greenhouse I've put in some simple shelving and then some containers that used to be on the deck with flowers the last two summers.  It's in a very sunny southern spot and days are getting warmer, but I'm curious about how warm it will actually get in there so I'm keeping track.  I may have to pump some heat in there if it gets chilly so I'm prepared with a whole array of space heaters, but this crazy warm spring may just allow things to stay warm enough in there.  This is the first time I've started seeds this way, so we'll see how it goes.  I'm curious about my lighting.  I talked with the greenhouse down the road and for many things they don't use extra lighting.  Days are not exactly long yet, but we are getting almost 12 hours of light right now.  Will this be enough?  I'm sure the plants will let me know soon.

Here's what is trying to grow in there.{pictures coming soon!}

Eggplant:  

Kamo

Korean Red

Ping Tung

Cambodian Green Giant

I'm planting four varieties this year.  Kamo is suppose to do well in colder climates so I'm signing it up for a Northern Minnesota trial.  Korean Red is a free gift from Baker Creek that I'm kind of excited about--almost all of my free gifts from them have turned out as favorites.  Could Korean Red be the eggplant I've been looking for?!  I can't wait to find out.

Onions & Leeks: 
Jaune Paille Des Vertus
Wethersfield Red
*most likely I will order some Southport White Globe seeds this weekend
Bleu de Solaize Leek
*I will be going down to Local Greenhouse to pick up a shorter season leek tomorrow...
American Flag {85 day leek from Farmer Seeds--a Minnesota seed company I purchased from the greenhouse down the road}

I'm planting a brown and red onion this year and totally forgot that I needed to order white seeds...so after all my orders have been placed I will be putting together another order for white onion seed.  Oops.  Could I have subconsciously not wanted to be done...or perhaps really wanted an excuse to order more for this year--because after all, how could I just order onion seeds?  A one item order would look kind of crazy to those order preparers.  The varieties I pick have been decided due to their storing quality.  I love having onions to last all through the winter.  My grandpa on my Mom's side came from an onion farming family.  I think of that when I plant these each year and have to believe that this is why I love the smell of onions in the garden while they're growing even more than when they're in the kitchen being prepared.  My brown {I suppose its actually yellow} onion is a very old French heirloom.  I'm hoping to get enough of all of them to be able to have onion ropes hanging around and waiting for me to use them until I get a new stash next season.  I'm growing leeks for the first time in a few years too.  I planted some trays last year to start, but of course didn't get to see the results.  I've picked out the French variety that takes 100 or so days, but am going to try a variety that has a shorter growing season as well.  I'll be going down to pick seeds out for it tomorrow morning when I go see the fresh stash of seeds at the greenhouse that is literally down the road from me and will let you know what I pick out.

Peppers:
Sweet Pepper King of the North
Etiuda
Chimayo {the hot one}

All of my pepper varieties are new to me this year.  I absolutely can't get enough of sweet peppers and would love to have a stash of hot for give away gifts and just a little use on my own part for canning and cooking.  I put a lot of thought into picking out my sweets this year and believe I've found two that will do well with the shorter and cooler season.  The hot sucker has come from a friend's stash.  It's the only hot pepper I've enjoyed using and could be though of as the red type that is often used in classic drying wreaths and ropes down in the Southwest. 

Cabbage:
Perfection Drumhead Savoy
Cour Di Blue
Red Express

This year I will be making a concentrated effort for a spring and then fall cabbage crop.  I love, love, love, love cabbage in just about any form.  The idea that I needed to mass produce it took hold after finally learning that I can shred it and freeze it and it will still keep its texture and taste.  The savoy will be more for fresh eating this summer season, but the blue {it's not really blue} and red will go into the freezer.  I wouldn't mind filling 1/4 of the freezer with cabbage then 1/2 with kale and 1/4 with spinach...hmmm.  That could probably mean I may need to get a full size chest freezer instead of a half.

Tomatoes:
Granny Cantrell {red}
Brandywine {pink}
Green Giant {green of course}
Amana {orange}
Hillbilly {yellow-red bicolor}
Royal Hillbilly {pink, but more red}
Pilcer Vesy {yellow}
Cherokee Purple {purple}
Blue Beauty {blue, black, purplish}
Sunrise Bumblebee {red-orange swirled cherry}
San Juanito Tomatillo {not really a tomato, but sort of in that class in my mind}
Aunt Molly's Ground Cherry {not really a tomato either, but since I'm putting the tomatillo in this category...}

There are going to be a lot of tomatoes in the garden this year...that and the squash and dry beans will be taking up a gigantic amount of space.  The first summer up here I had more tomato success than I had in a very long time.  Last year I had hopes to have more of them than ever, but we all know how that turned out!  This year is the year.  So call me crazy, but I'm putting in more than 50 plants easy.  Most will be my red Granny Cantrells that I love, but there will be a bunch of the others too.  I will be freezing, stewing, and saucing up a storm {and all about the time school starts, because that's how it goes up here--but I'm okay with that, because what a wonderful way to unwind from those first initial days of the school year...in the kitchen monitoring a pot of tomatoes fresh from the garden with something nice and cold to drink!}.  But I want them for fresh eating to my heart's content too--especially the non-reds I grow.  The only new tomato on the menu is the Blue Beauty from Wild Boar Farms via Baker Creek.  I'm intrigued by what Wild Boar and other produce "breeders" do.  I like to imagine myself selecting and developing in my own garden in years to come just for my own fun mostly.  I was very torn between growing the Cherokee Purple or Black Krim this year.  In the end I opted for the Cherokee because it gets bigger and doesn't crack like the Krim--although I love the flavor of the Krim.  I believe this is the only garden restraint I'm showing this season.  Otherwise I'm going full force and showing no discipline at all.

Cauliflower and Broccoli:
Calabrese Green Sprouting
Snowball Self-Blanching

I have never grown enough of this stuff to freeze, pickle {the cauliflower that is}, or save in any form so that it can last past the growing season.  This year I hope to change that.  I feel insecure about my cauliflower and broccoli growing skills for some reason.  Hopefully this time around I can stretch my expertise.

In the planters I've got some greens going, and I have a few pots of herbs as well.  I've always had such huge success direct sewing my herbs that I'll be doing most of them that way again this year, but having a few in pots is always nice.  I'm eager to see my mizuna sprout.  Of course I planted some of that again this year and it's always the first thing I get to eat from the garden each season.  I have my favorite rocky top blend from Baker Creek, but also am eager to try the spring mix out from Sandhill and do a comparison...that should be coming soon hopefully.  In about a month I'll be cutting my first stash of homegrown salad!  I can't wait.  I even threw in a few radish seeds in one little planter and should be eating those by the beginning of May too!

Next Week...

Having been born in the Deep South, dislocated to the Northern Plains, and choosing to bake myself in the Southwest for most of my adult life on two separate occasions, I'm finally taken to the woods in seek of a "simpler" life of sorts.  Fresh from this stint in the suburbs I'm choosing to burry myself deep in the woods just in time for a season of gardening and what I'm sure will be a winter to remember after having really not gone through one in its entirety in four years.  I'm hoping that 30-some-odd years of travelling will finally bring me someplace I'll be happy to stay.

Temperatures have been +100* lately, no moisture in the forecast.  The house is a mess, the garden disassembled, the classroom bare as could be and good-bye said.  It all seems a bit surreal honestly, and I almost feel sad seeing the backyard so empty.  HOWEVER, to say I'm looking forward to being in a more moist environment would be an understatement....in less than two weeks a new garden season will begin.  I have loved my desert garden more than words can say, but it's time for a new adventure.  I hope you check back often to see what I have up my sleeve in Zone 3!