Update

Here is a quick update on my progress...

My 72 peat disk tray seedlings, as well as a 2nd tray of 50 tomato plant seedlings have spouted. I've had some issue with keeping the trays turned so that my seedlings don't lean heavily towards the light source that is my office window. However, now that the weather has been in the mid-50's-60's I have been able to put them outside during the day so they are straightening up as they grow bigger.

This past weekend, I began to break my backyard sod by hand and found that my wintersown seedlings are up!! They look better than my indoor seedlings! Now if you have been following Ohio weather since January, it's been a combination of rain/freeze/thaw/rain/blizzard/thaw/snow, etc. The fact these little babies made it through all that to sprout is truly amazing. I am now sold on Winter time sowing!

Regarding my sod breaking...let's just say my tushy is sore and I only was able to break 15 x 9 feet after two days. Ugh! I had hoped to take part in the City of Columbus Tool Loan program and borrow a sod buster that would have been delivered to my door. After consulting online maps, I thought we qualified for partication - NOT! Apparently, the Tool Loan program is a HUD based program and my street/neighborhood is one that is not part of a HUD designated area. Oddly, I have several foreclosed HUD properties in my newer neighborhood but that doesn't make a difference. GRRRR. I then contemplated renting one from Home Depot, but the cost and transportation issue would have made my garden expenses higher than several years of garden yield. Well, I didn't like that math so I am doing as my pioneer ancestors did and do it by hand. Besides, I need the exercise and it's good for the environment. At least that's what I tell my sore muscles...

No wonder people were much smaller in weight/height prior to 1900 - they definitely worked all their intake off!

I also ordered 50 everybearing strawberry plants from Henry Fields this weekend (half price) as well as two container specific blueberry plants. I've planted strawberries before in my youth as part of a non-penal chain gang (i.e., wife and four kids) that my father had in the 1960's and 1970's when he raised strawberries as a supplemental cash crop on our farm. I'm going to try not to have a negative flashback to that experience, but rather focus on how delicious those little berries will be once they come in. If nothing else, I can do a few weeks of therapy while eating a bowl full in front of my therapist to help cope! *grin*

I've never raised blueberries in Ohio, but online advice is to keep them in pots since they are acidic soil loving and our local dirt is not acidic enough for them even with supplements. The container type I purchased are also ornamental, so the multi-purpose aspect makes me feel better about the on-sale purchase price of $6.00/bush.

Speaking of containers, I washed out all of my plastic planters today to get them ready for some leaf lettuce planting this week and flowers throughout the coming month. I prefer my lettuce in containers since I can pull them into shade as needed - plus I think they just look really nice in pots. I did buy two new huge, bowl shaped pots for lettuce this week on sale.

I also planted three flaming dwarf bushes out front of our porch today. They are supposed to turn bright red in the fall, so they should look really pretty against the house and porch when they turn color.

All in all, it looks like I did some headway in getting things done. Now if my butt muscles will stop barking while I finish turning sod this week....

By the way, pictures to follow shortly...

You reap what you sow...at least I hope!

Yesterday, as the mass snow fall we got this past weekend began to thaw, I started to feel the urge to get my indoor seedlings started. I started my first tray in a 72 peat disc Jiffy "mini" greenhouse tray now sitting on top of a Hydrofarm heat mat to aid germination in my office. I started mostly peppers, herbs, eggplants and a few exotic tomato seeds that will need 8 weeks before the last frost. Granted, this will put most of my seedlings at about mid-May which may not be past the last Ohio frosts. I am thinking that I will do several batches of seedlings spaced 1-2 weeks apart to be safe.

I still have a two trays of mixed and Cubanelle peppers in the backyard since January that I have winter sown per instructions at http://www.Wintersown.org. Per this website, you can basically start your seedlings in the dead of winter, put them outside and then let the seeds germinate as nature dictates it. However, I am fearful that the recent rain/freeze/thaw/snow "Stormageddon" cycle is really going to test my efforts this year in winter sowing.

Speaking of Wintersown.org, they generously send out shared/donated seeds to folks each year by SAS request. I got a few tomato seeds and a huge cache of flowers seeds to winter sow, including wildflowers native to the Northeastern United States. (Wintersown is located in upstate New York.) Since I just bought the house this past year, I haven't planted anything ornamental including any trees so the flower seeds/seedlings may come in handy in late spring.

Let's face it - I'm getting antsy to start digging up the backyard to plant. Come on, warm weather!

Welcome!

Welcome to my garden blog...

There are many garden blogs out there...but this one is mine and slightly more militant than the next. You see, I garden for a number of reasons - political, spiritual and practical. I'm not your sweet Aunt Ida planting cucumbers just because they taste good...I'm a suburban/urban garden warrior that wants to put a grinding halt to the growing US dependence on foreign food sources, local poverty/hunger and further damage to our environment - one small "farm" plot or patio garden at a time!

So, sit back and enjoy the on-going saga of how I am turning my suburban home's small acreage into a viable, multi-season garden...or die trying...