Seeds planted

Over the weekend I managed to eek some gardening into my busy schedule of sitting on the couch and watching tv. I pulled the grass and weeds that were trying to take back the bed in front of the fence where the beans were last year. We planted peas on about 1/3 of the space, with the intent to sow the next 1/3 in a week, and the last 1/3 a week after that. Not much for succession planting, but I love my peas and last year they kept producing forever, so I don't think it's a bad idea. We also strung up a new sisal trellis for them to grow up. Yay for peas!!

Spent a little time in the front bed pulling weeds. They were certainly taking over there. Most of the weeds were taller than the roses! I mostly did a preliminary pass through, but it made a huge difference. And I was able to identify all of the little strawberry starts that survived the winter so I won't pull them along with the weeds during the next session.

Seeing as how Seattle's last frost is typically March 22, that puts the middle of February at about 4 weeks prior to last frost. That means I'm a little late planting some things, but I have a really hard time planting tomatoes in the garden as early as they say you can. On Sunday I planted:

*2 Nero di Toscana kale
*2 Winterbor Hybrid kale
*2 Dwarf Siberian kale
*3 Ace Tomatoes
*3 Nova Tomatoes
*3 Indigo Rose Tomatoes
*3 Purple Calabash Tomatoes
*3 Saucy Tomatoes
*4 Sungold Tomatoes
*2 Aunt Molly's Tomatillo (ground cherry)
*2 Anaheim Peppers
*2 Jalapeno Peppers
*4 pots of Romaine Lettuce
*3 pots of marigolds

As of last night some of the kale pots had sprouted but nothing else.  This morning the marigolds were popping up. I broke down and bought a seed heater mat over the winter, so fingers crossed they all germinate quickly.

Easiest Peanut Butter Cookies Ever.

One cup of peanut butter.

One cup of sugar.

One egg.

One tsp baking powder.

One tsp vanilla.

Ten minutes at 350.

BOOM.

Delicious.

Slouchy Mushroom Hat

I love quick projects.

I love hats on needles size 10+.

I love slouchy hats.

That being said, this was not my favorite pattern. Stupid k3togs all throughout the dang hat. On yarn that is crazy slippery. And I'm pretty sure that the pattern had some errors in it because I kept ending up with extra stitches at the end of the row.

But alas, I powered though and made it work after some extensive edits and some added rows to make it a bit taller.

But what I think doesn't really matter. As long as the recipient likes it!

The Coming of Spring

It's actually still been light out when I've gotten home the last few days. It's wonderful! When I got home early after field work last week I did a little walkabout in the yard and was surprised at what I saw.

The daffodils are starting to peak up. I also need to clean up the violets. I think I might have to move this pot either to the doorstep or behind the gate once the flowers bloom as protection from the kid.

Tulips are starting to come up in the back. Luckily my rock border is still in place so this year's maintenance guys won't mow over them.

I pulled a few of the overwintered carrots while I was out. Even after a few extra months in the ground they were far superior to store bought.

This is one of the chard starts we planted late last fall,  Two of the kale starts are pretty well bug bitten, but the chard looks pretty much the same.  Absolutely no growth! I'm hoping that after a bit of fertilizer and some warmer weather they'll start growing and I'll be able to do some harvesting.

I happened to be in Cottage Grove, Oregon, last weekend, so I made a pilgrimage to Territorial Seed Company's brick and mortar store to do the year's seed purchasing for myself, the ORG, and the Neighbor Lady.  I was surprised that the store was so small. I knew that their test facility and gardens were located elsewhere, but the store I was at was small-to-average nursery size. Luckily, the seed display was very well organized and I was able to find everything on our list, minus two seed packets that were "coming soon".

I'm getting a little antsy to start playing in the garden. There is certainly some weeding that can be done, but I have to wait at least one more week before planting my first batch of tomatoes. I could start some kale and broccoli, but I think I'll wait and do it all together. I've been known to make a big mess while planting my seeds and my personal "maid" refuses to pick up plant mess!