So far this week down here in southern Illinois, we've seen some brisk mornings. The over night temperatures are still in the low to mid 40's with this morning being a cozy 41! A dandy storm blew thru here around 6pm yesterday with some freaky lightning crashing all around the farm and 3/4" of cold rain.
Remember back in the winter months when I was all excited about container growing? Well, I've set 2 tubs up to show how easy it is for even the suburban folks to have some food growing even when they can't have an in ground garden. These tubs are cattle mineral buckets. I would estimate them as being around a 20 gallon tub. I have filled them with a combination of our lousy clay dirt and some 4 or 5 yr old composted manures from the pile. I also added a 3 gallon bucket of creek sand and about the same in bunny berries. Mixed it all up, a little at a time in the wheel barrow and filled the tubs. The empty tub is going to get beefsteak tomatoes planted in it when the overnight temperatures get warmer. The other has the strawberries i received from my neighbor. They still look a little root shocked in the picture but this morning, they are perked up nice and one plant is flowering.
As the weather becomes increasingly warmer, i will be whipping up a couple quick cattle panel arbors and planter boxes for the 2 types of cherry tomatoes to climb on. The arbors will make it easy for me to pick the tomatoes and allow the plants to maximize the sunlight. Plus, it looks cool, LOL.
My kitchen is about over run with seedlings with more sprouting every day. I'm so excited about this years gardens.........
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Hey! I wish I had room in this kitchen for seedlings!! But we have a mini-farm in the living room right now. My dh was bragging to the guys that his wife let him keep the stuff in the living room. It is fun checking each day to see new seedlings coming up. . . . . .First year for the peach tree to bloom, but after this wind you'd hardly know it.. . . Anxious to see how your potatoes do in the tires! ~Liz.
ReplyDeleteYou've got a blossom on your strawberry plants? Wow! You know they say one month from blossom to berry. When we lived in northern Illinois our berries were at their peak about the second week in June, so you must be about a month ahead of that as much farther south as you are.
ReplyDeleteOur strawberry patch is still covered with its blanket of winter mulch. We're not out of the frost/thaw/frost/thaw stage yet. Had a low of 31° overnight.