Today I cleared the asparagus patch of last year’s stalks and dead grass. The sun can now reach the ground to warm it up faster. I’m looking forward to those first tasty spears. Yum!
We will need to quickly build an arbor above the asparagus patch for the older grape vines growing there. The vines always get tangled up in the asparagus as they wind around the new plants each year. They’ve been wild for many years and we need to get them pruned and trained.
I hauled five wheelbarrow loads of compost to the garden before tiring. Ryan continued the job until our oldest compost bin was empty. He moved the least decomposed materials to the 3rd bin leaving us one more bin to bring to the garden. Almost ready for tilling already!
Per the advice of a family friend, I started our tomato and pepper seeds tonight. She says the first day of spring is a good guideline for starting those slow-growing vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, celery, parsley, and eggplant, and similarly slow flowers like marigolds. I planted the following seeds:
- Burpee Big Boy (2010)
- Jung Celebrity (old seed, we’ll see if they germinate)
- Burpee roma (2010)
- Jung “Rainbow” – various cherry tomatoes (old)
- Jung yellow pear tomatoes (old)
- Burpee jalapeno (2010)
- Burpee sweet pepper (2010)
- Burpee “Hot Mix” peppers (2009)
Continued observations:
- The strawberries are up! I marked the plants with sticks.
- The oregano and chives are sprouted and moving right along.