Things have been unseasonably cold here this winter/spring, so things have been slow to start in the garden.  It snowed gangbusters here over Christmas, stayed cold thru January, warmed up briefly in February, and then promptly got cold again!  As a result, things have been really slow to come on — probably about 3 weeks behind normal.  Despite the weather, I have been out if the garden getting things ready and building some new structures for when it does finally warm up.  My aim is to increase the amount of food I grow in the yard, so most new plantings will be edible is nature, using some permaculture principles.

I also had someone come in in February to take a few feet off the large laurel hedge in the backyard, so that it not only looks ok at the top, and doesnt cast too much shade on the backyard.  Having stronger backs than I, I also asked them to pull down our big debris pile, which had about 3 yards of composted soil underneath, and level out a large portion of the backyard.  Ive now put grass seed over most of this area, although between the cold, and Kimiko and Eric rampaging around in the back yard, it may be a while before the seed comes up!

Most of these pictures were taken yesterday, and you can see that the real growth has happened where I have had things protected from the nighttime chill — while there is a bit of green, things are still looking pretty brown.

Thus far, there are a few things coming up in the protected parts of the square foot beds — the back half of two beds are covered with hoops and greenhouse film.  Peas, broad beans and radishes are coming up, and oriental greens are hardening off under the hoops.

Of the things in the greenhouse, the greens appear to be doing the best although the carrots have really started to take off with the increasing day-length.  Brassicas and various herbs are started in pots.  Tomatoes and basil will be next, but I think I will give them a head start inside before moving to the greenhouse.  I have a heater set up in there, but it is maintaining a nighttime temperature of 10C a night — warm enough to keep things from damping off, but still not super toasty!

I have built three new square foot garden beds, which will replace growing space that either wasnt raised, or was standalone pots.  The SFG beds are much more efficient, I find.  I plan to build another 2 — one being a 2 x 4 sized one, against the deer fence, and another long one (8 x 2), to sit in front of the patio wall.  With all the new beds,  the pots in the greenhouse, and the pots in the patio, there will be lots of new growing space for vegetables.

In the non-raised part of the garden, the rhubarb and artichokes are coming up, kale has overwintered, and the perennial bunching onions are just starting to put on new growth.  Ive also dug over and planted Jerusalem artichokes, with a cover crop of small seeded fava beans, and planted a section of strawberries.  i have one more chunk to dig over and this will be planted with hull-less oats as a trial run.  I’m curious to see whether they are as easy to thresh as claimed!  Ive also put in three saskatoon berry plants (less hassle than blueberries), and hope to acquire an apricot tree and a super-dwarf peach to put in the patio.  Also toying with getting another apple tree for the back yard (need to get it soon if I do!)

Finally, the other main structure I put in, was an herb spiral.  Ive made it out of reclaimed bricks that were laying around the yard, and its set up so it could easily be increased in height if I decide along the way.  At the moment, it has a dwarf lavender, thyme, chives and an oregano plant in it — more herbs to come as the weather improves.  With the last spell of snow, you could really see the various microclimates that the structure creates, so i’m excited to see this in action thru the summer!

Now that things are starting to grow, I’m going to try and take similar pictures from the same angles on a monthly basis, something I didnt do last year.  Once they start warming up, things progress pretty quickly.  Fingers crossed, last frost date is supposed to be April 19!