Spring has Sprung

It is now officially spring. I thought I would share with you some of the things I have planted so far that are starting to grow. I am really excited about everything starting to grow and look forward to having everything in my garden.

First, here is a picture of my garlic. You may be thinking that it is really big to be so early in the spring. Well, there is a reason for that. I have found that the best time to plant garlic is in the late fall. It is cold and freeze tolerant and planting it in the fall gives it a jump start for when spring comes around. Therefore the garlic turns out a lot bigger at harvest by planting in the fall as opposed to planting in the spring. A random bit of information for you about garlic....Elephant garlic which is what a lot of people plant because it gets really big is not a garlic but it is a leek that tastes like garlic.


I also have planted onions and sugar snap peas down in the garden and they are starting to come up.

Here is a picture of my strawberries. I planted them last year in a garden bed I put right behind the house. They are doing pretty good. They would be a lot better but last year I left one of the gates open by accident and the goats got in and ate the strawberries to the ground. Luckily it did not kill them, but it they are just now back to where they were before the goats ate them so it set them back about a year as far as production goes.


I also put in my other berries this year. They are in the yard behind the house in a weird little raised area that was already there. It was a difficult place to mow so I decided to make it the place where I plant my berries. I am also building a rock wall between that area and the house (I will post pictures of that when I get it done). I planted 6 blueberry plants and 6 blackberry plants. I may also grow some melons in that area to help fill space.

Also in the bed with the strawberries, I decided to try to plant some lettuce. I figured having it close would make it easier to get when we wanted it. I planted a mixed lettuce leaf seed mix. It is growing pretty well, I may have planted it a little late but I think it will produce fine. It also rained 8 inches after I planted it so I think some of the seeds got washed away.


My big planting project of the past 2 weeks is grass. I have been clearing out the lower part of our land this winter and last fall in hopes of getting more grass growing and therefore be able to have more grass eating animals. When we moved in, the land was mostly wooded with some grassy spots and my goal for this year was to double the amount of grass on the property. The first planting of grass I did was in February. I had come across an article about frost seeding so I thought I would try it out. It involves spreading the seed in early February when we are having a frost about every night and then it warms up during the day. This repeated freezing and thawing cycle works the seed into the ground. All I have to do is spread it and if it comes into contact with the ground it will work itself into the ground, I don't have to break up the ground or cover it with dirt or anything. The forage this process works best with is clover which is really good for grass eating animals. Anyway, to my surprise, it worked really well and the clover came up and is growing. Also throughout the winter I would spread seed where I was feeding hay to the animals. Then, a couple weeks ago I started planting some pasture mix grass seed. The mix has alfalfa, orchard, fescue, annual rye, perennial rye, and clover seeds. We have planted about 150 pounds of seed so far. This involves Margo and I breaking up the ground where we are planting, spreading the grass seed and then raking over it. I hope a good portion of it comes up and survives because this will enable us to get more animals. Here is a close-up pic of some that is already coming up. If you click on the picture it makes it big and looks a lot cooler.