Planting Time! (4/4/26)

Finally! 

I've been waiting impatiently for it to be time to start sowing outside. Because I'm a newish gardener, I follow the seed packet instructions as closely as possible. I looked up our average last frost date, and counted back to make sure I wasn't planting too early. Now, this winter has been ... let's say, mild ... so I probably would have been fine planting even earlier than the seed packets suggested, but I didn't want to risk it.

My original plan had been to use our old slow-feed net as a trellis for my peas to climb, but I decided not to cannibalize it so that Jay and I still had two feeders and nets for when we travel. We can put two round bales out, and then we shouldn't need anyone to replenish the hay supply while we're gone. With the slow-feed net out of the running, I had to come up with something else.

Luckily, L.E. had an old day bed in storage that she was looking to get rid of, so I scrounged up a piece of that and planted it in the pea patch. Because our winds are so brutal at times, I secured it with four pieces of rebar: two taller pieces on the north side of the trellis, where the wind typically comes from; and two smaller pieces on the south side of the trellis, in an effort to provide some structure when the wind inevitably kicks up. I like the end result - it looks like it's free-standing.

I'll admit, I rattle canned the rebar white so that it wouldn't
stick out like a sore thumb.

Because I don't have a ton of confidence in my newly greenish thumb, I do everything in my power to increase the odds of germination, including soaking my peas prior to planting. I planted three different varieties of snap peas: traditional green, one with purple flowers and green pods, and a third with purple flowers and purple pods (they're my favorite). I tried alternating them as I planted, but I think I didn't do a very good job in the middle, not that it'll matter once they start growing. 

Jelly jars did double duty as pea-soaking jars.

Last year, I planted my seeds on the south side of my trellis, and the wind really beat them up, so this year, I planted on the north (far) side so that when the wind kicks up (are you sensing a theme?) it'll blow the vines into the trellis, not away from it. I then woke up in the middle of the night in a panic that I planted the peas in the shade of the trellis and convinced myself that they weren't going to grow, because I put them in the shade. I couldn't very well go out in the middle of the night to make sure they weren't in the shade; I had to wait until the sun actually came up. (Good news: the peas get sun throughout the day.)

Some of my struggles last year were because of watering. In an effort not to run up a big water bill, I tried watering "just enough" and stunted my garden because of it. This year, I decided to copy L.E. and install soaker hoses in all of my beds. I only accomplished installing three of the six that I need, but I'll get the rest put in when we return from Scotland.

I'm attempting to grow broccolini this year. It's one of my favorite veggies, and it never occurred to me to try to grow it until I saw an ad for seeds. They were stupid expensive as far as seeds go (over $5 for 20 seeds), so they'd better grow! L.E. warned me that members of the broccoli family are prone to pests, so I decided to cover our old chicken tractor with insect mesh to protect the broccolini. I didn't have quite enough netting to completely cover it, so I ordered more. The broccolini will be protected before they begin to sprout. Additionally, I read that onions are a good pest deterrent and companion plant, so I put some onion in with the broccolini.

This chicken tractor frame has been so useful!

My gothic garden has to go in in stages, but I did get to plant the poppies. And, under Maggie's new sweet pea trellis, I planted some creeping thyme seeds. Those seeds are so microscopic that I was afraid they'd blow away, so I covered them with greenhouse plastic and weighed them down with heavy old window anchors.

Inside the cinder blocks, I planted sweet peas.

I've done what I can as far as planting before we leave, and I'm hopeful I'll come back to some babies peeking up through the soil.

Playing Catch-up (3/8/26, 3/17/26, 3/23/26)

I swear, all I have to do is blink and I get behind on posting. The truth is, though, that I hate opening my laptop at home. It's so old and slow that I get frustrated waiting for it to wake up and get moving, so I just wait until I've got extra time at work to post (shhhh, don't tell anyone).

Anyway, the Bionic Cowgirl comes down for Sunday dinner each week, then stays at Nebalee's so she can spend some time with her, too. And, as I've mentioned, I always have a project for us to do. One of Mom's friends said that Mom's love language is "acts of service", and they're so right. We all benefit from it, but I've been extra lucky for the past few years, with her help building Whimsy and helping out with Maggie. So far this year, the focus has been on getting the garden started. Later in the spring, we'll go back to working on Whimsy, who needs a new coat of paint and I've got to frame in a few of her windows that I'd left hinged to be able to open them. In two years, the only time they've been opened is when the wind does it, so it's time to just frame them in.

Sorry, I'll get back on track. I built Maggie as a potting shed, to house the amazing potting bench that L.E. gifted me. At the beginning of March, the Bionic Cowgirl and I put that potting bench to work starting seeds. Last year, and the year before, our seed starting didn't go very well, so I was determined to be successful this year. I bought trays with domes, fancy organic starting soil, and grow lights. I plugged in an oil heater and put it on a timer, so the temps wouldn't drop overnight. Our seeds are more spoiled than any other being on our place, they'd better grow!

Leeks and bell peppers

Once the seeds were nestled in their boxes under their grow lights, we put up a utility shelf. I have lots of cool things in the Magical Potting Shed, but most of the actual business of potting is hidden away in the potting bench. Having a utility shelf within easy reach to hold everything we use every day was a no-brainer, so Mom helped me get it put up.

With the seeds planted, and the shelf up, I put Mom to work spray painting the cinder blocks I chose to use for flower boxes. She painted them a metallic silver, then we filled them with potting soil. Now, we just have to wait a couple more weeks to plant the sweet peas in them.

The book nook was meant for living in Maggie, but she gets so dusty that I knew I needed to protect the nook in some way. Jay suggested an acrylic display box, which was brilliant! Unfortunately, I could not find one that was only the size of the book nook, but book nooks are designed to live on bookshelves between books, so I went to 2nd and Charles and found a set of Harry Potter books to live in the display case along with the little nook.

At first, I was a little surprised with myself that I'd go buy books just for display - books are for reading! - then, I justified it by reminding myself I could read the books. It's possible to just open the door of the display case and just pull a book out to read. Eventually, the Gremlin will be old enough that I can start reading these to him.

Mom and I had a good day's work that afternoon. The following Sunday, we headed to Moab for the sentencing, so Sunday dinner looked a little different. It was late when I got home on Monday, so I waited until Tuesday morning to go check on our seeds. The leeks were supposed to emerge at about ten days, and they did!

Look at my babies!

I've watched them pretty carefully over the last week or so, and only about half have come up. It's a good thing I use "black thumb math" when planting, and plant double what I think I need, just in case this happens. Yesterday, I moved the leeks out from under the dome, because they were almost getting tall enough to touch it. Now, they're in a different window, still under grow lights, and they'd better keep growing!

I need to thin them, but I don't wanna.

L.E. and I started our tomato seeds a few days ago, so now it's their turn to get to growing. 

Gardening Season is Wrapping Up

Now that fall's officially here, I thought I'd take some pictures of the garden and reflect on how this season went for me.

I took these pictures at dusk, so they're not as clear as they could be.

In the greenhouse, I have Diana the pomegranate who is doing well. She looks sad, but she's actually doing really, really well. I'm going to make a "cage" for her out of PVC pipe and heavy duty greenhouse plastic to help keep her happy during the winter. I'll also trim back her branches quite a bit to fit in the cage. She should have a strong, deep taproot by now, below the frost line, so other than the two weeks we're below zero, she should be just fine. For those two weeks, I'll hook up the heat lamp in an effort to keep her cage above 10 degrees.

I've allowed her to keep *one* fruit.

Outside of the greenhouse, I have Brandywine tomatoes in the left tomato box, and San Marzanos in the right. Moving away from the greenhouse, I have concord grapes, honeysuckle, and kiwi berry. The grapes fruited for the first time, and I can't tell you how excited I was about that! The kiwi berry grew like crazy this year, but no fruit, so I'm hoping we'll get some for next year. We planted the honeysuckle as a filler between the the grapes and kiwi berry.

In front of the arch, I have rosemary on the left,
and lavender on the right. Both are hanging in there, but not
thriving. Maybe next year they'll do better.

I was so thrilled with the grapes I got from Grandma and Grandpa Grape - it's been my goal for years to grow my own grapes. I thought the grapes were done for the year, but it looks like I'll get at least one more bunch! I don't know how common it is to get late grapes, but I'm not going to complain in the least.

The wind and summer storms have played havoc with my tomato plants. They're doing well, but it's been a challenge. I'll have to re-think how I support the tomatoes next year. The cages I had this year just weren't enough to keep the winds from blowing them all around. The other night, when I was looking for ripe San Marzanos to pick, I found this beautiful cat-faced orb weaver gracing my plant.

I learned a lot, but mostly, I learned the importance of deep watering. I was trying to water "just enough" in order to not be wasteful. However, I stunted my garden's growth doing that. My corn really took off once I borrowed a soaker hose from L.E. and started watering with that. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late. The corn stalks grew to 9 feet tall, but the ears never developed any corn. There are skinny little ears all over, but no corn on the ears. Now I know.

The peas did really well in the pea/cucumber/corn patch, and the cucumbers also did really well. I think the peas would have done better if I'd started deep watering earlier. I borrowed the trellis that the peas and cucumbers climbed from L.E. Next year, I'll use our 'old' slow feed hay net as the trellis. I'll also plant the peas on the north side of the trellis so that when our stupid winds blow, it'll blow the peas into the trellis, not away from it.

The corn looks so impressive. Sadly, it's not. I'll be using it
as fall decoration instead of harvesting any corn.

I should have taken into consideration my hose length when I set up the pepper and no watermelon patch. My pocket hose doesn't reach, and so I had to spray from about five feet away, which disrupted the soil and the roots. My pepper plants didn't grow for anything, and I had to replace them once. Next year, I'll buy a longer hose and set up a soaker hose for this area. When I realized my peppers weren't going to do anything, my goal became "keep them alive the rest of the season", which worked out, and now they're coming on with some peppers. Better late than never, I guess.

That's my sunset bench under the no-watermelon arch.
I love sitting there in the evening.

The strawberries didn't do much this summer - I got one berry all season long - but I'm happy with the plants. I allowed them to send out runners all summer in hopes of filling the bed with plants. The mint has rebounded from the grasshoppers last year, and is now trying to escape the license plate border. I'll cut it back when I bed everything down with straw in a couple of weeks.

Tally, my grandturtle, has been
getting outdoor recess in the
strawberry/mint patch. She's
a master at hide and seek!

My "garden in a box" garden, made up of native flowers is doing really well. L.E. and I split a "box" since there were far too many plants for the little area I wanted to use. I planted them last fall, and did have to replace two of the plants, but the replacement plants are also doing well. Next year, they'll get minimal water, then the following year, I shouldn't have to water at all. I sort of followed the layout that Resource Central gave, but should have paid more attention so the taller plants went in the back. I didn't realize the penstemon would get so tall.

Starting at twelve o'clock and moving clockwise: yellow yarrow,
yellow columbine, purple coneflower, firecracker penstemon,
Rocky Mountain penstemon, purple columbine.

As a bonus, I had to include a picture from the sunset bench, under the no-watermelon arch. I often sit out there and do my Duolingo lessons in the evening. Once it gets cooler, I'll go back to sitting in Whimsy to do them.

First Pomegranate, Now Pineapple

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine thought she'd try to propagate a pineapple by using the top of a store-bought one. Now, had I tried it, there's no way in hell it would have worked, but her green thumb is a thing of beauty. Not only was she able to grow from a cut pineapple top, her original plant had "pups" (sucker) and one plant turned into a few.

I had been oohing and aahing over her pineapples, and last year she offered me a pup. However, by the time we got around to meeting up, it wasn't so much a pup as an adolescent plant. She was kind enough to send it to me in one of her pots, but I needed to repot the plant into one of my own.

I know even less about pineapples than I do about pomegranates, and I was certain I'd killed Pina during the repotting process. Lucky for her, she went into the greenhouse at work within a day or two of me repotting her, so she had a fighting chance. 

Greenhouse move-in day

A pineapple's growth is glacially slow. Despite taking pictures of her almost weekly, I couldn't see it. Compared to Diana the Pomegranate's growth, it looked like all Pina was doing was what I expected - staying alive over winter.

In almost three months, she looked the same to me as the day she moved in. I hadn't killed her while repotting her - whew - and she was surviving the cold Colorado winter. I had initially intended to bring her home when I brought Diana home, but decided to wait until we got back from vacation. Pineapples don't do temperatures below 50* F well, and the night time temperatures were hovering right around that, plus it was cold and rainy for about three weeks straight.

Finally, our weather leveled out enough that I figured she wouldn't die in Whimsy, and I brought her home. All that growth that I was blind to? It literally slapped me in the face when I tried to move her from the greenhouse at work. She easily went through the doors on move-in day. On move-out day, I needed help from a friend to get her through. 

Because I didn't see her growth, I thought I'd just slip her into the back seat of my car for the ride home. I managed to get her in there, but it required me to move the front passenger seat all the way forward and tip the seat forward. I'd intended to put her on the passenger side of the car, but she was too big for that. I had to use my foot to push her pot into the middle of the car seat, and even then, I had to bend some leaves to get the door to shut.

During the move from the greenhouse to the car, I noticed that she'd grown a pup. Where that came from, I have no idea. I didn't see one before my vacation, but I also wasn't looking.

The drive home was uneventful, but getting her unloaded and into Whimsy was a bit of a challenge. I learned from moving Diana to pay attention to the way I orient her in Whimsy. I had to back in through the door, but was able to rotate her pot so that her arms weren't blocking the doorway. The pup had to go, though. As cool as it would be to grow a second one, I'm not certain that I'll be able to keep Pina happy enough to fruit as is. She'll thrive in Whimsy at least through the summer, but I'm not sure how she'll do over winter. I'll have to really work to keep her warm enough, and she's too big for the house. The good news is, if I can keep Whimsy warm enough for her (above 50*F, which is unlikely), then Diana will thrive as well.

I just sat her pot down in what used to be Yelena's tires. There's going to be some rearranging in the near future. The tires are going away, and Pina will have a stool to sit on. I still need to put insulation and OSB up on this end of Whimsy, but since Pina's in a pot, it'll be easy to move her and work around her. I have some time off next week, and am hopeful I can finish up.

It's been a long haul, but my greenhouse/garden dreams are slowly coming to fruition.

Spring: Full of (Garden) Hopes

Now that spring is well underway, I've managed to complete the majority of my planting. I did sort-of follow the "no planting until after Mother's Day" rule for Colorado. Now it's a waiting (and watering) game.

Sadly, the seeds we attempted to start in Maggie the Magical Potting Shed didn't take. L.E. and I are still trying to figure out what we're doing wrong, since we haven't gotten a seed to germinate in two years.

Since they didn't take, I bought some tomato starts from our local greenhouse/nursery. For the past couple of years, I've attempted to grow my tomatoes in 5-gallon buckets, but they've really struggled. At the end of last year, I decided to build two tomato boxes - one for each side of Whimsy's doorway. I had a couple of extra pallets lying around, so I chopped them up, gathered whatever random wood I could find, and built them. They're rustic as all get-out, a mis-matched mess. Or as L.E. would call them, 'whimsical'. I planted in them a few days ago, and the tomatoes are looking pretty good. Certainly better than they ever did in the 5-gallon buckets.

The boxes will eventually be painted barn red to match Whimsy.

Jay's favorite tomato to use the the San Marzano, so for the third year in a row, I'm trying. Nebalee and L.E.'s San Marzanos grew incredibly well last year. Mine did not. I ended up with about two quart bags of tomatoes for the freezer, and that was a stretch to get.

~~~

Last year, Mom decided it was time to replace the cross-buck fence that surrounded her horse pen. Her new fence looks amazing, and initially, I was more than happy to see the cross-buck go. Honestly, it was so old that it needed repaired every summer, and was in danger of falling over at any moment. It was a right pain in the arse. I was happy to see it go until I got all sentimental and realized I couldn't let the whole fence go. I needed a piece of our horse history, so I asked her for a section. The fence had contained two generations of mustangs: Ranger and Shadow; Ranger and Jesse, then Washoe. Estes. Skeeter. Alloy. Pearl. I couldn't let it go, I needed to keep a section.

At the time, I had some vague idea of using it to plant something in. I didn't know what at the time, but I knew I needed to have a piece of that fence. By the end of last summer, I'd decided that it would make a great pea patch and erected it between Whimsy and Maggie. I layered some manure from the horse pen, then added topsoil and let it sit all winter.

The peas needed something to climb, so L.E. loaned me
one of her foldable trellis things.

I love the peas' little "grabby hands" finding
and latching onto the support.

~~~

I am a lover of pallet projects, which shouldn't come as a surprise considering Whimsy and Maggie are both made from pallets. I built my tomato boxes from broken old pallets. Jay and I have a little "pallet porch" on the east side of our house with two Adirondack chairs that my uncle made from pallets. Between them sits a side table made from pallets, which now holds my fuchsias.

So it shouldn't come to a surprise to anyone that when L.E. had her windows replaced, and her new windows arrived on a structure made of pallets that I was eye-balling it. When she offered it to me, I couldn't jump on it fast enough. It just screamed to be used for some vining plant, but what?

I initially thought about pumpkin, because Nebalee's pumpkins last year climbed her arch and looked great. But ... I'm not a huge pumpkin fan. I already had peas and cucumbers accounted for in the cross-buck pea patch, so I decided to try my hand at sugar baby watermelons. L.E. and I can train them to climb, and with any luck, we will get a melon or two.

I spent last night enclosing the bottom pallet and filling it with manure and soil. The top of the back end of the pallet is just a hair over five feet. If the plants climb up the angled front part, and down the back (with some help and training from L.E. and me), that's about ten feet of climbing they've got. If necessary, I can add a hog panel to it in an arch, like I have in front of Whimsy. (Actually, I might do that anyway, just to be on the safe side.)

I didn't want the front half of the pallet to go unused, so I looked up companion plants for watermelon. The first two listed were peas and cucumbers, but those are already planted in the pea patch. I scrolled further and found that peppers are also a good companion. Jay and I use a lot of peppers, so I bought some pepper starts from some kids at a garage sale last week.

Jalapeno, serrano, serrano, habanero.
Hopefully, they'll survive.

~~~

On FB the other day, a friend of mine was saying that she's always wanted a big, beautiful garden, but the soil in her area is mostly clay and rocks. She lives less than 20 miles away, so I understand what she's talking about with regard to soil quality. The thing is, yes, our soil isn't the easiest to grow in, but there are work-arounds. For me, it's repurposing pretty much anything that will hold soil.

Potatoes in a tire stack

Garden freckles in old enamelware.
Concord grapes in the tires behind the pot.

Rusted out charcoal BBQ grill? Flowers.

Onions in the pallet collars.

I will never have the big, beautiful garden that my great-grandparents had, but the little bit that I do have is plenty. I must be getting old and sentimental, because I feel closer to my Great Grandma Wheeler when I garden (and when I can, but that's an end of the season thing).

Putting Maggie to Work

Following last year's failure to get any seeds to germinate, and the subsequent building of the Magical Potting Shed, we finally got to put Maggie to work. I'm not finished insulating Maggie, she's about 60% complete, and I need to buy a couple more sheets of insulation to get her to the point that Chief can put up the OSB walls. However, between the insulation I do have, and the warmer nights, L.E. and I decided it was time to start our seeds.

Not only did Maggie get to work, but we got to use the re-purposed potting bench! I've been looking forward to this day for a long time. Maggie isn't a large shed, but she's big enough for the three of us to work in there side-by-side. The pull-out dough board was perfect! It allowed me to work between L.E. and the Bionic Cowgirl without us bumping elbows.

This pull-out dough board is the
reason I fell in love with this piece.

Mom donated vintage trays to use.

L.E. getting going on her seeds.

L.E.'s seeds happily hanging out in a
south window.

My seeds in the other south window.

L.E. always plants a much more diverse garden than I do, but I'm getting there. This year, I'm attempting sugar snap peas, potatoes, and onions, which are already in the ground. The peas are starting to come up, but the potatoes and onions aren't doing much. They went in a week after the peas, so I expect to start seeing something in the next week or two.

The seeds I planted are San Marzano, brandywine, and cherry tomatoes, along with some small watermelons. I've become such a hoarder re-purposer, that I couldn't let L.E. get rid of a pallet stand thingy that her house windows came on. Instead, I'm going to enclose the bottom pallet, add dirt, and plant the watermelon so it can climb the pallet-formed trellis. 

I realized that after I plant the watermelons, I will still have a lot of area in the pallet that was going to be full of dirt, and I can't let that be unused. I looked up companion plants for watermelon, and found that I'd planted most of those elsewhere, but did find that they do well with peppers, so I'll buy some jalapeno and serrano starts to keep the watermelon plants company. 

I've also been trying to figure out what to plant on the north side of the pea patch, because I can't let that good dirt go to waste. I think I've settled on glass gem popcorn. I have a couple of varieties of sweet corn that I planted last year, but we have a very generous neighbor who allows us to harvest his sweet corn, so it seems silly to grow my own, if I can get some guaranteed good stuff from him. My glass gem popcorn didn't do well last year, but maybe this year, with more space it'll do better. Also in the pea patch, I'll plant cucumbers.

This is a huge increase from my attempt last year, but I've made some tweaks to my gardening plans, which basically means container gardening is out and in-ground gardening is in. 

Send all of the green thumb juju my garden's way, please. It'll need it.