In the Greenhouse

Greenhouse Bed before clean up

Yesterday I did some work in the greenhouse. First this patch of peas, well apparently were not all Little Marvel, but mixed seeds (mmm thank you grand daughters!) Also since the side of the greenhouse curves a lot of them were growing up against the plastic and were impossible to pick and were getting frost bitten. I decided just to pull them out and feed them to the chickens. Here you can also see the Mexican Honeysuckle bush that is blooming. It was a volunteer and needs to be moved. I'll keep the onion, It's a Florence Red Bottle, the last of a clump that bloomed and seeded last year.

Greenhouse bed mostly weeded

Here you can see I'm almost done. Those are a couple of stunted celery plants behind the onion, which I cut and fed to the rabbits. In front of the Mexican Honeysuckle is some Giant Red Mustard. It doesn't get to be giant sized here because I'm always picking it.

Greenhouse bed ready to plant

After weeding and loosening the soil I added some fresh compost and the bed is ready for a new planting.






I tried to get the Mexican Honeysuckle out with all of it's roots but that didn't happen, part of the main root was broken off. So I cut the top back severely and put it in a pot. If I didn't kill it and it shows signs of life I'll plant it  out on the hill garden.

Mexican Honeysuckle cut back and potted up

Mexican Honeysuckle blossom

Peas in tubs in the greenhouse

At the far end of the greenhouse the Dwarf Grey Sugar peas are going strong. The birds got all of the peas planted outside in Feb this year and most of the Sugar Snaps and Bleushokkers planted in the fall didn't make it through the crazy weather, so these are about all the peas I have this spring.

They are however billowing out into the pathway a bit much and I look like a contortionist getting around them to the pots of lettuce, red mustard and potatoes down there.

Speaking of potatoes, my order came from the Seed Savers Exchange last week. After sitting around the living room a few days they were beginning to eye up so I went ahead and got them planted. I have a bed out front that does not have the very best soil but it's 100 square feet. So I've been getting it ready for several months for the potatoes. It's been double dug a couple of times in the past so basically I loosened up the soil and added some potash and blood meal, then 6 inches of leaves. A couple of weeks later about 25 pounds of coffee grounds, after than I added some more potash, blood meal and some Dr. Iron, an organic iron product and mixed it all together. I'm hoping that all of these amendments will help out that poor soil, which started out as streaks of caliche interspersed with layers of sand and gravel. We shall see.