OMG I'm slacking

Yeah yeah yeah, I promised myself to keep up on this, and like every year as soon as it gets a little warmer outside I slack on the blog.    Honestly I haven't had a whole lot to update over the past few weeks (surprisingly), so I've just held off.  But its definately time if I intend to use this journal to look back on in seasons to come.

I've come to the conclusion that my "butterfly garden fix" is just not going to work, unless I intend to rip out every plant, kill everything this summer and start over next year.  I'm not wanting to do that, so at some point soon I plan on just spreading out cardboard & newspaper over the soil, then top with weed cloth and then top with mulch. 

The hoop house over the spring greens has worked well over the last month, everything seems to be growing well.  I think we are onto days beyond plastic, so I took that off and just have the frost fabric over that for the cooler nights.  Unless it gets back down into the 20s, that should be fine for the greens.  Here's the latest photo.  I transplated Swiss Chard starts in the back, but they may not survive, I really didn't take the time to harden them off properly.  I also put in a few seeds, so worst case scenario I'll have some plants.

Some of that lettuce can start to be harvested in it's "baby" stage.

Peas are popped up and with each warm day they seem to be really starting to take off.

And last but not least... the tomato experiment is in full force.  I planted (2) of my tomato starts into their beds, that have been covered in plastic, with a layer of frost proctecting fabric AND black water bottles to provide radiant warmth at night.  I have (1) Rutgers Ramapo & (1) Rutgers Moreton in.  I had 3 starts of each, it was like Sophie's Choice picking which ones went in and which went into the compost pile.  I also have smaller starts in the basement which will be the second plant of those types to go in at the normal time.  That will be a good way to compare if it's worth all the effort to start earlier. 

Rutgers Ramapo

Rutgers Moreton

I found a photo from last year taken on May 1st of my Ramapo starts.  It's AMAZING how much I learned this year.  I'll have to do a post with the side by side comparisons.  The starts I put in May first were just a fraction of the size of these, I can't believe I had any fruit from it.  The setup I have this year with the heater, and fertilizing the seedlings have made a HUGE difference. 

Now that I've got these in and the Swiss Chard, I finally have enough room on the "grow station" to get some flower starts going.  I should have done it about 3 weeks ago, but I figure 3 weeks early is still better than not early at all.....this is the first time I'm starting flower seedlings early, so we will see how that goes.  I plan on doing morning glories and tall sunflowers to act as a screen for the compost pile.  I also sowed some sweet pea seeds around my garden fence.  Hopefully this year I'll actually have some flowers there.