Early season crop protection

A variety of cloches and wire mesh/crop cloth can be used to protect early season veggies from cold, rain, and pests. Pop bottle cloches work well. Peas wrapped with wire mesh then covered with crop cloth seem to like the protected environment. A simple cold frame made with an old window keeps greens sheltered. The goal is to help the fragile seedlings get established. Early in the year starting seedlings indoors seems to work best.

Bag planting spinach starts

Cut holes in the bottom of the bag for drainage

In the top make the cuts for the plants

Spinach starts have been planted (they're hard to see!)

Water with half strength liquid fertilizer

Protect with a mini poly tunnel

Peeking inside

I've heard bag planting is an good way to grow vegetables.  I'm trying it with some spinach starts I grew from seed in the house.  I've protected the plants using a small poly tunnel since we have a lot of squirrels and birds who might be interested in these tender plants (not to mention slugs).

Planting peas in the Earthbox

Snap peas around the tomato trellis

Two small tomato trellises fit well in the Earthbox

Light weight floating row cover provides shelter

The view from above!

Today I replanted the Earthbox on our deck. I had previously amended the soil with compost.  Believe it or not, the garlic chives have come back.  Talk about tough!  I had the snap peas growing inside for 2 weeks and more recently moved them outside into our small greenhouse.  I inserted 2 small tomato cages for the peas to climb up.  The cages also support light weight floating row cover that will provide a sheltered micro-climate for the peas while they get established.

Transplanting peas

Wildlife such as squirrels, birds, and slugs present a challenge in our garden area.  Today I completely enclosed these peas with an A frame of wire mesh. I also wrapped some crop cloth around the wire to create a microclimate for the peas.  Hopefully with this help the plants will be sheltered and have a chance to get established.

Sunflowers

These 6 sunflowers should be plenty for the entire garden. 'Autumn Beauty' is multi flowered and each plant takes up lots of space.

Basil 'Genovese'

Basil is a heat lover so it's important not to put it out too early. It's probably better to purchase small starter plants - basil takes a long time to grow from seed. There's a lot of different varieties of basil, but Alice prefers 'Genovese'.

Cutting

This is a clematis cutting from the beautiful plant near our corner store. It looks like it may have rooted. I dipped the node in rooting hormone, planted it in starting mix, and have misted the leaves several times a day. I'm hoping that this will become like the parent plant over time.