The Weather ...........................

was really nice Tues. and I couldn't hold myself back from the garden any longer. I was going to move my asparagus back in the Fall and never got around to it. So I decided to move it and hope there wouldn't be any problem with moving it at this time of the year. We have mild winters , so hopefully it will be o.k. The stalks were filled with asparagus seeds , so I stripped those little red berries to plant.

I dug up the asparagus roots and planted some of them in the two raised beds near Dh's garage. I also planted a couple near the chicken coop , plan to see were it grows best.



I've been peeling , chopping , drying garlic ..........

and grinding the garlic into .........

garlic powder this week too. I haven't tried it yet , but it smells really good. Have you ever made homemade garlic powder ?

Garden Blessings

JoyceAnn

Busy Week In the Garden ...............................................

I've been busy this week getting some of the cold weather crops planted. It felt great to get outside and dig in the dirt ...............

I planted broccoli , cabbage and cauliflower plants and sowed carrot , lettuce , radish and spinach seeds.


I sowed a mixed leaf lettuce in this small bed ......

and a kale , mustard and turnip green mix in the large bed. I'm looking forward to all the fresh greens we'll be harvesting soon.

What have you been up to this week ?

~ Green Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

~ * ~ Wild Onions & Eggs ~ * ~

Yesterday , I cooked up some wild onions with eggs just like my ancestors have always did this time of the year. It was a ritual of the Cherokee people to cook wild onions and scrabbled eggs to celebrate Spring's arrival. Making them with fresh eggs really gave them a better flavor , so umm umm good.

Dh mowed/mulched our leaves the weekend , so today I plan to rake and mulch the garlic with them. I mulched the garlic back in the Fall but the winds have blew most the leaves through the woods. I'll probably work on the hugelkultur bed too.

What's on your agenda today ?

~ Spring Blessings ~

JoyceAnn

~ Hugelkultur ~

I've found a new blog I've enjoyed reading over the last few weeks , it's called ~ Chickens On The Porch ~ , her blog is listed on my sidebar if you would like to visit. . Callie writes about her chickens and many other things , awhile back she mentioned a garden method called " kugelkultur " . I read the link she had on her blog , it really captured my interest as I'm creating a new garden bed this year. After reading more info on this method , I've decided to try this method on the latest garden bed I'm starting. You can read more about this garden method here ~ http://hubpages.com/hub/Hugelkultur-Using-Woody-Waste-in-Composting ~.

Earlier this week , Dh and I boxed in the garden beds near his garage. The bed to the side of the garage receives the most sun , but the bed on the backside doesn't. I plan to plant some herbs and veggies that like partial shade there , this is the bed I'll be trying the kugelkultur method with too. I found this wonderful link about what types of plants do well in partial shade , you can read about them here ~ http://www.rickharrison.com/texts/info/shade_tolerant.html ~. Next week I plan to clean the area and put down sticks and rotted logs , I'll add some chicken poop straw and a layer of leaves over that. The last layer will be mushroom compost and some dirt. I think the chicken poop has broken down enough that it won't burn the plants. Looking forward to seeing how this method works.

~ Green Blessings ~

JoyceAnn