On Saturday it was a glorious 60 degrees outside and I spent the day working in my soggy yard and garden. Specifically, I cleaned the area around my black raspberry canes – getting rid of the old canes and the volunteer tree saplings left from last year. There was also all kinds of other plants there that I wasn’t able to clean out during the blooming season. Last year was the first year these canes produced more than a few berries, so I let other plants grow in and around them.
Black raspberry canes are loaded with tiny thorns, and all I can say is WOW – what a job. I spent close to five hours working around these thorned canes – and I have the scratches (through my clothes) to prove it. I can honestly say that it is in great condition for optimum berry production and harvesting access come spring. I know it is a little hard to see – but this is a small section of my cleaned out berry patch with the long berry canes – the total area has roughly thirty canes that will produce fruit.
Also on Sunday I saw the first popping of my tomato and pepper plants I started almost a month ago.
I have 18 each of mixed bell peppers (far left), cherry tomatoes (where the first plant has popped out of the soil), big boy tomatoes, and roma tomatoes. The little spots in the soil will be plants by the first sun today. I get sooooo excited when I see the first seeds of the season pop – it helps me believe that spring is right around the corner.
Other seeds just waiting to go into the ground are: Pepperoncini, Beet – gourmet blend, Arugula, Radish, Basil, Cucumber, Zucchini, Bush Green Beans, Onion – scallion, Fennel, Rosemary, Eggplant, Cilantro and Butternut Squash. I still need to pick up a few cool weather seeds.
There is a small group of folks who will be working with me on the garden – three friends from the city – one without a yard, and two with just a tiny space in back. Also, I talked a friend who doesn’t live too far away into letting me use part of her yard for some of the tomato production – and she was agreeable. She will water and take care of it – and we will share part of the overall harvest with her – which will be cool – she has a dehydrator, and will let us share in some of the dehydrated items she makes. Thankfully, the three friends from the city are excited about canning and freezing come the fall, and one has promised to come over weekly to help weed and water.
We are supposed to have a few more days of nice weather – and I hope to be able to get outside at some point and continue to work in the yard – perhaps around noon or after 3pm.
Sounds like you have a really nice cooperative gardening situation coming together!
We are all pretty excited about it!
It would be a lie for me to say that I wasn’t jealous of those battle wounds… because that means you can actually start getting growing things ready. I still have quite a ways to go yet before I can even think about it. You lucky lucky grower!
We here in Missouri are far from Spring – this week is a real fluke. I expect we will have lots more snow and cold before the actual Spring arrives. But, I’m enjoying the warmer temps and chance to get some real work done while it is here. 🙂