Garden Update March 14

Well, we finally got the garden off and running.  A few weeks ago I mentioned that we planted potatoes and prepped the soil.  This past weekend we got seeds in the ground!  Snap bean, corn, watermellon and squash seeds are all nice and snug in the soil soaking up the heat from the recent 80 degree days.  We had a nice rain on Thursday so it made the soil really nice for planting.  We rotated everything this year and almost doubled the amount of corn we planted.  A quick check of the potatoes showed that they are doing well.  The eyes have developed healthy roots a couple of inches long at this point.  They should peek through in the next couple of weeks.  The sugarcane is coming up like gangbusters!  Our stubble from last year came along first and then the new row started breaking the ground a few days later.  I'm interested to compare the new patch, which is in a much lower spot, to the stubble from last year.  Still have no clue as to what I'm going to do with the sugarcane....

It looks like the danger for frost is all but gone.  Anything could happen but the long range forecast looks pretty solid right now.  Still a bit chilly for a couple of things though.  In a couple of weeks we will set tomato plants and plant cucumber seed.  It will also be time to plant in the barrels at that point too.  I decided on heirloom tomatoes and peppers for the barrels this year.  I may experiment with a cucumber plant in the barrel too just to see what happens.  Only other thing to do is to start shopping for a pressure cooker.  I'm going "all in" for canning this year.

The installation of the electric fence was my most satisfying accomplishment over the weekend.  She's all set up and ready to zap deer, dogs or small children that get too close to the garden.  Thanks again to those who donated their unwanted junk to make my fence a reality.  I have not seen any tracks yet.  My guess is that I will come out one morning in a few weeks to see the entire fence torn down after Bambi freaks out and gets tangled up in it.  If that's the case it will have done its job ;)

Y'all take it easy,

Alex