I think I'm going to be scarce again this week -- we're supposed to have weather in the fifties, sixties, and even into the seventies! So I will be working on getting my garden ready.
Last year I was dig, dig, digging away and all for nothing -- the rain carried away soil, soil amendments, and seeds alike. This year I'm doing what I should have done last year: making raised beds.
I just got back from the Big Orange Store with 12 4-foot boards, screws, angle brackets, and a clamp. The plan is to coat the lumber with boiled linseed oil, assemble them into boxes, maybe add a bit of paint to address my husband's aesthetic concerns, line them with plastic, and them fill 'em up with soil enriched with peat moss and compost.
In our area (zone 6B- 7) I can start some planting some things as early as March 15, so I want to get a place ready for those early plantings: peas, garlic, rhubarb, and some early lettuce.
My attempts to force hyacinths and tulips this winter failed utterly -- next winter I'll just buy them at the store -- but I do see little bulbs peeking up already, including the ones in my bulb planters. I also see new growth in all of the lamb's ears (including the ones I thought were done for.) Looks like the sage and rosemary made it, too. And this morning, I went out to the the rhubarb bed to peek under the leaf mulch. There it was -- the first little green leaves, all curled up like a baby's fist, on tiny little red stalks.
This week I'm also going to be starting some seeds. I'm going to try eggplant again ("Rosa Bianca" and those white eggplants) and lettuce, along with tomatoes and marigolds. I want to plan out my flower bed and see what else I want to grow.
Last fall I mentioned trying some rooting hormone. I took cuttings of rosemary and basil. The basil didn't make it, but the rosemary did great -- every cutting "took." It's continued to thrive indoors through the winter. It's been so gratifying to be able to just walk over to the windows and snip off a few leaves for cooking. I used to kill every houseplant in my custody, so just having the things survive has been a thrill.
On raised beds, you should use newspaper to line the bottoms, it decays while still acheiving its goal.I've had really good luck with raised bed gardens the past 3 years, mostly tomatoes.
Steve, do the newspapers block out the grass and weeds underneath the bed?
Raise basil from seeds, rather than cuttings. They grow so fast that you should have plants in no time.
I read your post superfast and combined the eggplants thing with the herbs thing and it registered as you using eggplant leaves. I was about to holler, "NO! Don't do that! It's a nightshade. Toxic!" Then I read more carefully. Eggplant fruit with basil leaves, on the other hand, is very yummy.
If you really get weird about gardening you can graft eggplant or tomato onto a potato plant and grow two crops in one space. It's a pretty dorky thing to do, but is really fun. If you are a dork, which I am.
Tee hee hee. I am growing a tomato on a potato plant. Tee hee hee.
tee hee hee, that is too Dr Moreau for me.
I have had good results growing basil from seed. I should have grown my indoor plants from seed or just dug up an outdoor plant. This year I'll remember.
tee hee hee, that is too Dr Moreau for me.
It really is. I can imagine Ray Harryhausen getting really into such graftings. Maybe have a giant crab come and devour the lot.