I am so EXCITED to share this update with you!  On Saturday, I spent over an hour up potting a bunch of tomatoes and peppers!  They have been moved out to the Greenhouse where we have a heater that comes on when the temperature is below 50 and a solar fan comes on after 95* Hopefully

these will thrive for the next 5 weeks till we can plant them out!

We still have more peppers, broccoli and loofa in our bedroom!

Outside we have garlic We plan to add squash and a couple of tomatoes.

We have radishes starting out strong.

The biggest and best surprise is the asparagus

Finally, we have some spinach starting

We are approximately 5 weeks out from our expected last frost date!

Matt and I spent all day yesterday working to get a watering system in place for the garden beds beside the house.  Our ultimate goal is to have all the beds on a watering system except for the vertical planters.  This will be a huge time saver and hopefully also encourage more production.  We are having some initial cost to get everything set up but because we use rainwater for watering it also saves and works itself out in about 2 years in cost.  It will likely take another full Saturday to finish the installation of the watering system and I will provide a cost breakdown when it actually works.

Zach helped me plant a new pear tree. This gives us a total of 2 pear trees, 4 apple trees, 1 peach tree and 2 pecan trees. We have finished the line I had originally envisioned and hope to have produce this summer.

We have tomato and pepper plants inside! I have also planted 8 total loofa plants that I hope will start growing and be ready to plant outside the first of May.  The tomato plants have the best germination rate which is above 95%. I do have some peppers growing but still no wax man peppers or Anaheim peppers. I do not see any sprouts outside which is disappointing, but we are expecting 70* this week which might speed up the process a bit.

I am so excited today February 16th, 2025, we started seeds for our garden!

The weather FINALLY cooperated with us! Yesterday, it was very cold (38 degrees) and rainy!  We did not get outside at all.  Today started out very rainy, the temperature was 54 degrees this morning so that was a start. After lunch, the rain moved out and we headed out to get a couple of things done. Zach planted two pots of mums from the fall.  Matt and I worked to figure out where exactly the new trees needed to go.  For some reason, I received two of the four trees I purchased.  One of the apple trees and a peach tree arrived.  We hope to receive a second apple tree and a replacement for a pear tree at the end of next week.

I also have been doing some research on dates. I am going to use this as a place to document so next year, I will not be doing the same thing again.
Our last frost date is April 17th.
8 weeks from now is April 17th
Pepper should be started 6-8 weeks prior to the last frost date and need to stay inside for an additional 2 weeks after last frost for the soil temperature to be warm enough to support growth.
Tomatoes need 6 weeks to grow before the last frost day. Around March 1st, I should be starting my tomatoes.
Broccoli takes 50 days to grow, I need to have planted outside before February 27th for a chance to get a small harvest.

Today was a great day to start peppers!  I planted two per cell and will thin and use all the ones that grow as I have not had good germination rates in the past. I planted 12 cells of California wonder bell, 12 cells of monster yellow peppers, 12 cells of mini rainbow peppers and 6 cells of waxman (sweet) peppers.  Total of 84 pepper seeds.

I also planted 6 cells of broccoli to see what happens.

Last but not least, I have a whole bed of radish seed planted about 2 weeks ago for the chickens. I also have a bed of onion seeds planted. Garlic is along the front of the squash beds.

Grow plants Grow!

The weather is so cold and miserable that I need to start dreaming of my garden in order to get warm.  But seriously, I am actually right on time to start these plans.

The first thing I did was look up last frost dates again. The last frost day is between April 17th and 24th.  But I will say that I remember years that we have had frost up till and even in May.  My best advice is to use a 10-day forecast on either of those dates before planting outside.  Eight weeks before April 17th is February 21.  This is when I plan to start my pepper plants inside. Six weeks before April 17th is March 6th. This will be my plan date to start my tomatoes.

I feel comfortable using the earliest possible date because of a couple of reasons, first April 17th falls on a Thursday this year. I seriously doubt I will be planting outside on that day. The following week including April 24th is my Spring Break. There is a strong possibility that I will have time to plant outside that week.  The second reason is that both my peppers and tomato plants usually take more time to grow than what is expected. I can’t explain why but that is usually the case.

Now on to my plans!

I want to try and plant a area of corn behind the chicken coop. (This will be my only in ground crop).
I will plant garlic as soon as it arrives in front of where I plan to plant squash and/or zucchini.  Ideally, I would like 2 squash plants and 10 zucchini plants in the 12-foot bed at the back of the building.
Tomatoes will be in the front 2 beds. The bed closest to the road will be slicing tomatoes and the second bed will be Amish paste tomatoes.  I am not planning to plant any Cherokee purple this year as they are slow to produce and not great!   I will be planting a cherry tomato in the short bed across from the deck. I am planning to add a cattle panel to the center of the second bed to make things neater and more organized. The other thing I would like to add is an arch over the top between the two beds to grow loofah sponges on.
Beside the new deck, I am planning to purchase new bags of dirt and cut the sides and tops off. I already have a layer of paper there. This will be the area for watermelon to spread and grow.  I somehow ended up with 3 types of cantaloupe seeds. My plan is to plant one in the round barrel that are on the ground. I may take a chance and plant a second kind in back of my cucumbers to see what they taste like.  I will be planting onions as soon as they arrive in the next week or so. I am hopefully we will have enough cold days to support them.
The other items I want to grow are cucumbers and green beans.  I am going to plan to plant a 10-foot bed with green beans.  I think I will plant cucumbers in the front of my office as we already have a panel for the front of that bed. I may plant some lettuce, and radishes in one of the beds followed up with either cantaloupe or more of what I think we need after the heat kills these plants off. I have a ton of radish seeds so I may attempt to grow this as supplemental food for the dog and chickens.

I am hoping to start some dill and basil in the greenstalk vertical   planter in the front of my house. I also have some lemon balm and Chamille seeds that need to get used. I am hopeful that strawberries will survive the winter and return in one of my planers but buying flowers to fill the planter is always an option as well!

Finally, I have some morning glory seeds that will be thrown in the side flower beds.  I am struggling to find shade plants to fill this area!

So far this year I have purchased 2 new starting trays from Greenstalk and a bunch of seeds from Hoss and some seeds from SheperdingPeppersFarm.com . I still need to purchase basil seeds but hope to not purchase any plants this year!  I will also need to purchase probably 10 bags of soil for the watermelon area.