The weather has been beautiful during the day time but in the high 30s at night. All of the plants have been able to weather the cold nights without any negative effects.

I was ill last weekend so I wasn't able to do any gardening. However, I have been trying to make up for it during the evenings this week. I now have four hanging pots and 10 planters filled with violas. They really add a splash of color to the gardens in the backyard. Also, I have planted two containers of lettuce, one container of radishes, and three containers of carrots. Yesterday, Ken and I planted four cans of potatoes. Two of the cans contain Yukon Golds (early to midseason), one can contains Russet Burbanks (early to midseason), and one can contains Red Norlands (labelled best early season). We filled the containers two-thirds full with a mixture of top soil and composted manure.

We also planted two types of two year old asparagus roots (Jersey King and Mary Washington) several weeks ago. I have wanted to raise this crop for more than thirty years but I never seemed to get around to it. So I decided that this was the year that I would do something about it. Ken dug a long, deep ditch next to the house next to the sunroom. Then he spread out the roots of the plants and put three to four inches of soil over them. On Thursday (April 22), he mixed some of the soil from the trench with the worm compost that he had been making this winter and spread another few inches over the plants. When they begin to emerge from the ground, he'll mound more dirt around them and then we'll add mulch to keep the weeds at bay.

In addition, I started seeds indoors. On Friday, April 16, I sowed six different types of tomato seeds--Lemon Boy, Super Sweet 100, Sungold, 4th of July, Italian Romas, and Jubilee. I have grown all of these varieties in the past except for the Italian Romas. These specific seeds were from Botanical Interests and the label on the package says that they are "an excellent old heirloom tomato used for sauce or canning and that they have firm, meaty 3 inch oblong fruits with few seeds growing on compact determinate vines."

When I went to water these tomatoes on Thursday, I noticed that all of the seeds had already germinated. Last year, the peppers would not grow and I had a feeling that it might be the peat pots that I was using. So yesterday, I decided to try growing peppers again. I planted jalapenos, anchos, and poblanos.

PURCHASES

This year I want to be more vigilant about how much I am spending on the garden. So here it goes!

Thursday, March 11

• Six packets of vegetable seeds (English Gardens): $7.80. This price includes a 30% discount.

Wednesday, March 17

• Four packets of vegetable seeds (English Gardens): $5.89. this price includes a 30% discount.

Thursday, April 1

• A pair of Woman's Work gardening gloves (English Gardens): $24.99 plus tax. However, I had a coupon for $5 off so I saved this amound off of the regular price.
• Four packages of potato seeds (English Gardens): $19.04. They were on sale for buy one get one half off. Each package was $5.99 so the two half-off packages were $2.99.
• Two packages of asparagus (English Gardens): $10.49 plus tax; They were on sale for buy one get one half off. Each package was regularly $6.99 so the half-off package was $3.50.

Friday, April 2:

• Two bags of pottting soil (Lowe's): $15.00
• Flat of 18 Violas (Westborn Market): $14.99 + tax. If I had purchased the six packs separately, I would have spent $5.99 for each one.

Friday, April 9:

• Two flats of 36 Violas each (Lowe's): $10.68 plus tax. The violas were priced at 89 cents per six pack and there were 6 six-packs per flat.

Sunday, April 25

• One 32 quart bag of Moisture Control Potting Soil (Lowe's): $8.97 plus tax

Sunday, May 2

• Four bags of Cocoa Mulch (Panetta's): $23.29

Sunday, May 9

• Bronze Sierra Planter (Lowe's): $19.97 plus tax (-10.00 discount)
• All Purpose Potting Soil (Lowe's): 2 x $3.67 = $7.34 plus tax
• Four bags of Cocoa Mulch (Panetta's): $18.00 plus tax (On Sale!)

Friday, May 14

• Four-pack of broccoli (English Gardens): $2.11

Saturday, May 14

• Four hanging baskets (Targets): $25.40 ($5.99 each)
• Four bags cocoa mulch (Panetta's): $19.07

Sunday, May 23

• Two bags of topsoil for potatoes (Lowe's): $2.50

It's April!

The first few days of April have been gorgeous. We even broke a record the other day. The high was 8o degrees and the old record was 79 degrees.

We have been cleaning out the beds since I didn't do this last fall. I prefer to let the dead stems capture leaves so that there is a cover of mulch on the ground. This is especially important during the winters when there is little insulating snow fall.

Yesterday, I planted four pots of violas. I also took Ken's old grill (he bought a new one last week) and put it in the back garden. I planted one Marguerite daisy, three trailing Lysimachia "Aurea" and six violas in it. I dug the Marguerite daisy out of the butterfly house bed and took the Lysimachias out of the pots that they were growing in last summer. After the violas die off, I will put another type of annual in that space. Ken said that he when I told him that I was going to use the grill as a planter that he didn't think that he liked the idea but after he saw it he changed his mind.

Ken and I also clipped back the butterfly bushes and the clematises. Last week I checked out the two clematises and they had no new growth. A few days later they were loaded with buds. Ken hated to cut them back but I assured him that they would be much stronger if he did.

I want to keep track of the purchases that I make. However, I think that I will use a separate posting for this.