Uprooting

April in Colorado, never a dull day.

Taking Root

Almost all of the plants that are now outside have taken root and are thriving. The tulips are blooming, the eight month old lettuce is growing fast, and the chard is hardening and getting deeper in color.

Julia and I had a HUGE salad last night using nothing but our own lettuce. Five different kinds.

Notice the gigantic heart shaped mound on the left side of the front garden.

Renee's Garden, Chard, Red Cabbage, Carrots, & Beets

IN THE GROUND! Julia planted too rows of (Abbo) carrots and beet, direct sow. Today, I created the 'Pizza Pie,' planting a red cabbage (G.G. plant sale), Lucullus chard, two Bright Lights Swiss Chard, and three Renee's Garden Spitfire Nasturtiums (as well as four seeds, directly sowed).

March in Colorado / Fence / Photos of starters

Sappho has already figured out the fence. Kelsey's belly is just higher than the snow. She is investigating something hidden underneath the snow.

We had two snow storms that dumped about a foot each in late March. Check out how heavy the snow is. The fence around the garlic/shallot patch barely held up. That picture was taken on March 24th, the day after the second big snow. The picture of the plants (we bought them at the Growing Garden's Plant Sale) was taken four days later on the 28th. It was 63 degrees that day, 79 degrees the next day. How quickly the weather chances here in Colorado!

I bought the twine for $3 at McGuckins and the stacks at Resource for $2. We spent about $25 on starters, $10 on seeds at the Plant Sale.

Today was the first farmer's market of the year. We bought some beets, shallots, onions, eggs, starter's from Bunny ($3), and breakfast.

Renee's Garden Nasturtiums

It's the beginning of April and the Nasturtiums are doing great. They are resilient and steadfast in their hopes of grabbing more sun. I am always amazed how fast nasturtiums grow. While some of my other plants haven't made it, the nasturtiums are thriving. They basically take care of themselves, curling around each other to support long (leggy) stems. I plan on starting some more outside and expect those to look very different than the ones I started inside (i.e. more bushy). I am growing the nasturtiums for three reasons: to be a part of this experiment, to eat the flowers in salads, and because I like growing plants that grow fast and spread. Julia, with her incredible and delicious cooking abilities, mentioned that she wants to candy edible flowers, nasturtiums included.