And We are Off and Running - 2014 Garden Underway

This winter has been abnormal for Oklahoma.  We've had wave after wave of freezing precipitation and really cold temperatures since the middle of December.  I'm sure folks up north are used to this, but here in Oklahoma we normally have a fairly mild winter with "maybe" a couple of waves of snow and ice.

Now it is the middle of March and I think we are finally beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  There have recently been several days of warm weather and we have made good use of them to get ready for this year's garden season.  Tom has especially been busy.  He has set up t-posts and cattle panels that will be used to trellis our tomato plants this year.

We've tried several methods to keep our tomatoes up off the ground and finally settled on this method.  The t-posts and cattle panels are easy to set up and, once the panels are purchased, they can be used for many years.

Tom has also planted some of the onions we ordered.  This is just part of them.  He ran out of time before he got them all planted and has to wait until the weather warms up again.

We have been starting seeds in our basement.  The seeds start out in a row tray like this:

Then when they get big enough, we transplant them into pots, like this:

Eventually, we will run out of room in the basement and will have to move them to our small greenhouse.   

Picture of Green House

Finally, I'm in the process of creating a new raised bed.

I got started on this a couple of months ago when we happened to have a mild day between ice storms.  The bed currently has Fairy Roses in it.  These are somewhat of a domesticated wild rose, but still have plenty of thorns and a rather unruly growth habit.  I have cut the roses back and want to transplant them to another location.    It is a big job and I'm procrastinating getting back to it, but need to get it finished so we'll have more room for tomatoes, peppers, okra and such.

More to come .....