Monthly Archives: March 2009
Seeds in the Ground
I had been hoping to get outside this morning and plant a second round of lettuces, radishes, etc with the Demo Garden crew. We also have some onion sets that need to get planted and some beets, carrots, and Swiss Chard that could be planted any time in the next 2-3 weeks.
Unfortunately, when I went out to inspect the garden, I discovered that the top 1/4 inch of soil was still frozen. Not exactly ideal for planting seeds! Hopefully we’ll be able to get everything planted by 
the end of the week.
Now is also the time to plant eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes inside for planting outside in early to mid-May. So, in addition to cleaning up the storage shed (yeah, we have to do that too!), we planted a bunch of seeds inside today.
Storm Stories!
Yesterday I shared some pictures with you about how the storm affected things in the Demonstration Garden. Let’s hear from you! What did you see in your yard or neighborhood? Did you lose anything in the garden? Did the storm set back your garden plans? For those of you with fruit trees, how are they looking? Do you think you lost any flower buds?
Before and After
Here are some pictures from the Demo Garden on Saturday afternoon, and then a comparable picture from this afternoon.
One of the blackberry plants coated in ice.
This closeup of the blackberry foliage from this afternoon shows the damage. The plant will lose these leaves and then put on new ones.
The daffodils are weighed down by the snow and ice.
Obviously the snow didn’t set the daffodils back much! They look just as good as they did before the storm.
The Salad Garden is nicely insulated under the snow.
If you look closely you can see some tiny specks of green. The seedlings are still there and appear to be none the worse for the snowy weekend. In fact, everything is now nicely watered!
In Retrospect…
I don’t think I would have done much different to prepare the demonstration garden for the weather over the past weekend. (I do wish I’d known we were going to get so much ice. It was also frustrating to watch the overnight low temperatures get constantly downgraded. The lows didn’t affect anything in the demo garden that much, but I know that people with fruit trees had to be cringing! )
After a cursory check this morning, all the young seedlings appear to be in good health. The strawberries are also fine. I fully expected the brussels sprouts to be done for after this, but they appear to have come through the storms better than I expected. We’ll see how they do. I have some cauliflower and broccoli in reserve if needed.
The blackberries, currants, and gooseberries that had started leafing out will lose their leaves, but then be fine as they leaf out again.
Friday PhotoEssay
Things are slowly starting to grow in the Demo Garden this week, although I think the chilly weather this weekend will slow things down again! (I was hoping for some artsy snow pics that I could run out and capture this morning, but not yet…)
The grape hyacinths have started blooming this week.
The blackberries that we pruned and tied up have put out lots of leaves this week. The cold weather may nip them back a little bit.
Hey! The compost bin looks cleaned up and full of composting material. Quite a difference from last week! You can tell our composters have been hard at work.
Speaking of the compost, it looks like our friendly neighborhood snake has found a new home in the compost bin!
The Lemon Lace Vine is starting to show its gorgeous lemony yellow leaves.
Since the rain skipped us on Monday, everything needed a drink this week.
Everything’s coming up…radishes?!? The seeds planted last week are starting to show their heads above ground!
Everyone have a great weekend! Stay warm!
The Demo Garden Blog 
