Gardening 2014

The last of our snow just melted late last week. I have not planted a goddamn thing yet, but plan to get radishes, greens, and snap peas seeded this week. I also ordered some strawberry plants, which I'm putting in a different spot (sunnier) after last year's failure.

Garden related: reserved two hens from rent a coop dot com for May-July! I only had them for a month last year, and they were a blast. Gonna put them to work turning the compost pile for me.

it's autumn here, so just getting the last of the season's strawberries ripening (though my alpine strawberries seemed to have died a death) and early season apples have reached the edible point

and on the chicken tip: hopefully i'll have the run i've been putting in all set up and ready for some real live chickens by the time spring arrives

& xposts to the slug debate, there's always the beer and saucer option! (never tried it but was recommended by my permaculture-inclined hort tutor)

I have had some early potatoes in for a couple of weeks but with no real signs of life, but then ground temps have been unseasonably low with a couple of late frosts. Thought they were gone so planted out some onions over the weekend. Oops.

Quite a lot of things germinating in the greenhouse - caulis, rocket, radicchio - so I decided to move the chili plants I overwintered out yesterday and repotted them. Again, time will tell whether the frost makes that a mistake but at least 4 of them have a decent bit of growth so I have reasonable hopes that some of them will make it. Herb garden refreshed and some of the woodier plants replaced.

Weekend after Easter will see the beetroot/carrot/parsnip/radish seeds going in. Desperate for signs of life from the asparagus, but there's time yet.

Also we are experimenting with nematodes to kill the slugs, will update if/when there are any results.