Just yesterday we were "enjoying" the day long rain shower that decided to grace up with its presence. I turned in sometime in the wee hours of the morning, it was still raining. A little under an hour later I went to get a drink, Voila!, we had a nice covering of snow on the ground. Ohio weather is an oddity. Anywhere in the world if you say you are from Ohio, folks who've passed through (and some who haven't) just nod their heads in sympathy.
My poor yard looks like a big muddy slushy. It's completely soggy. I know that come warmer weather, even with rain showers, that it will be dry enough to plant the garden. But right now it just looks pathetic. I'm excited to get this whole slush season over with and am ready to hop on into spring.
On the garden front, I got my Arugula and parsnip seeds at Lowe's the other day. Still don't have edamame, onions,potatoes,and turnips. There may be other things I'm missing, but it's looking like I'll have to order some things online. Others I plan to get when one of the local greenhouses opens for the season on the 17th.
I did get the peat plugs for my tomatoes today, and some smaller ones for my other plants. I may have to buy more, but I'll know once I take a gander at my garden plan on Vermont Beans Garden Planner (www.gardenplanner.vermontbean.com). The planner is awesome! Once you have a layout of where you want to garden, and an idea of how you want to garden, you just click and add what you want to plant. It tells you how much you can plant in that space, as well as the requirements of each plant. Mine is set for square foot gardening- which tells you how many plants you can put in 1 sq. foot. THAT is how you can grow a lot of food in a small space. I know that some may view the planner as cheating when it comes to homesteading, but being that I'm fairly inexperienced with gardening- it's a life saver. And if I pay the subscription rate after my 30 day trial is over (25 a year/40 for 2 years), then my garden planner is there to access all year long. It will tell me when to do certain things at certain times, when to expect my harvest. It will also help with crop rotation for the following season by keeping those things notated for me. At least for this year it will be a valuable asset, and once I have a season under my belt- then I'll no longer need it!
Along with my peat plugs, I also bought my first raspberry bush! It's a black raspberry variety called Jewel. Walmart had them on sale for $5, and the one I bought is sporting some awesome looking green leaves. Next time I'm up there I'll pick out a few more and keep them in my greenhouse until time to plant. And here I was thinking I wouldn't be able to get them until next year!!!
We had roasted chicken for dinner tonight. I promptly made stock out of the carcass, and plan on using the pressure canner ( my new baby) to process pint jars Tuesday. I may make up some beef broth sometime soon as well, but we'll see how the chicken stock goes. If all goes well then I'll post my recipe and instructions on Wednesday.
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