I had  a lot to do outside, but it was wet today. So my transplants inside got some desperately needed attention. (Except the few that were pulled up by little toddler.) Rainy, lazy days are nice.

The weather was pretty great this week. Tons of fun garden activities.  It was a lot more fun with a borrowed old pick-up that my toddler loved. He got to be in the front (air-bag off of course), and thought it was the best thing in the world. I seeded my tomatoes and some coleus early in the week, tried to go easy on the number I was planting. Still, with 5+ varieties of tomatoes for 3 of us, I’m thinking I’ll just have too many. Good think I have lots of friends to share them with.

The community garden is coming along nicely.

My garden plot--planted.

The garden plot got a big layer of compost. I hoed the compost in a little, but mostly left it to decay in by itself. I’m thinking less tilling will do fine, if not preserve some soil structure and it is a lot less work. It’s an experemient: we’ll see how it does sans tilling. Yesterday the temperatures was in the 70’s, and I planted my cool season crops: peas, lettuce, chard, kohlrabi and radishes. Then this morning I woke up to this:

April Fool's joke, just two days late.

What?….I guess it is spring, and here it means occasional snow. I didn’t expect the sky to open up and drop a foot down though. (It seemed a lot like the comics where it falls all down in seconds. Go to bed it’s rainy, but still warm, wake up and kazzaam: snow.) Lots of branch breakage from the heavy snow as well, which is more work for me.

Other tasks I was up to this week included buying a lawnmower and a lot of other yard equipment. Small stores are nicer than big department stores. I bought a mower at a big box store, and they helped me put the box in my truck. I was left to do everything else. I bought a weedwhacker at a small, independent store. They made sure it was the right model for me (I love it), gassed it up and made sure it was working properly and that I knew how to use it.

I also hired out for a pruning job. The trees were old and in need of much love–here is some before/after pictures of the apple trees.

They aren’t done yet, but it’s enough for one year. May I say, never let your trees get this bad. Prune them when your don’t need a chainsaw, just a basic pair of loppers. I also bought a new pair of loppers and I adore them. Very ergonimc: I could slice through branches that I probably should use a saw on. I love the telescopic handles on the larger trees I was doing as well. The only bad part was how wide they needed to open in order to cut bigger branches–but it was worth the effort it saved.

After a snowy, yucky day Friday, I was surprised to find the soil was actually workable yesterday. Maybe a little on the wet side, but not saturated or soggy. There is no longer sod covering my future garden plot. It still needs lots of work–tree roots (never put a garden plot next to a tree), asphalt chunks, and rocks still need removal. I also want to add a good layer of compost. But I should be able to plant peas extremly soon.

Community gardens are fun. Yesterday there was a group of us working together, which always makes work more enjoyable. I have to say my husband is a great worker, and he’s the reason we no longer have sod. We just did it by hand because it was only a 10 x 10 area. I think some people are giving up and renting a sod cutter though.

The forsythias are starting to come out. That seems to be the trigger for a slew of spring gardening activities, like putting down pre-emergent. I don’t have to do that, but I do need to start pruning the overgrown roses. Walking by them yesterday, I noticed the buds were swollen, with leaves starting to push out.

I also finally finished up a list of local garden center, available here if you are interested.

It is about time to get my peas and other early cool season crops in. But I’m not there yet. Today I sat down and started planning. Reading blogs has actually made me a more ambitious gardener. It also might be that I’m out of school, and have a desire to stay completely involved with horticulture. I also have plenty of opportunity this year. Whatever it is, I have plans for the largest vegetable garden I have ever grown, with the most varieties of plants.

I talked to a couple of grandparents in my neighborhood who are offering half their garden to me. I’m starting to enjoy this couple: they remind me of my own grandparents and are very active for being in their 80’s. The garden plot adds another 400 sq feet to my existing 200 sq feet on the condo grounds. I’m starting to realize I could plant even more. Maybe I’ll start a farm someday, but for now the “lack” of space is good. I’m going to be plenty busy with the vegetable gardens, condo landscape, and other landscapes projects that come my way. But busy in a very, very good way.

Lots of good plants this year: leeks are my complete trial crop that I have no experience with growing or cooking. I’ve got the standard tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucs and whatever else seeds I have left over from past year.  I do want to get a crop of cool season vegetables. It’s difficult here because it tends to get hot quickly, and the soil takes a while to be workable (or at least workable at my convince). I started to dig around and found out the condo plot is a small layer of topsoil over gravel. I think it will be workable, with a good layer of compost. There was also a spot of topsoil over asphalt. It amazes me that lawn can grow with such shallow soil. Up at USU, they have a huge exercise field they planted over an old parking lot, without removing the parking lot. It does save on money during installation, but my guess is there might be trouble down the road.

And by the way, I need to buy a lawn mower. Any suggestions? I have about an acre of lawn, plenty of obstacles, no hills.