Progress is being made in the garden. A little bit at a time.
This update is long and not all that interesting 🙂 I wrote it to help me keep track of how the garden is progressing and to look back on how this years garden was grown when planning the next garden. If you want to learn with us as we experiment with this spring’s garden read on!! If not, feel free to go outside and walk around a while enjoying God’s beautiful world instead of reading on!
The three beautifully sprouting militon plants were planted in the garden on Thursday, March 7th. These lived on top of the refrigerator until they started sprouting and then they lived outside for the last couple of weeks except for the freeze nights. After just a few days in the ground they have already sent out their little feelers and curled along the wire! You see a little bit of the militon is sticking out above the ground. That’s how it is suppose to be for them to grow right. The end where the roots grow down and the vine grows up is below ground and the other end above ground. 
Two newer militons that haven’t sprouted joined the first three in the ground on Saturday, March 9th. All five militons are planted along the wire Roy put up to give the militons and cucumbers a place to grow up.
The cucumber seeds have not done well, unlike how well they did last year. With only 3 seeds sprouting I decided to plant 10 seeds directly in the garden on Saturday, March 9th along the same fence the militons are growing on. It looks like only sticks are growing there right now!
The potatoes that have been growing outside in a large container were planted in the garden on Thursday as well. They sprouted and have been growing well outside in a pot, being moved inside when it froze. Two more potatoes are now cut in pieces with two eyes each waiting to sprout more and the outside hardening before going in the ground.
Half of one row is now planted with garlic and the other end with yellow onions. The three garlic I started inside have sprouted well and were planted in the garden on Thursday, March 7th. Several more garlic cloves were planted directly in the garden on Thursday to see how that works compared to starting them inside and moving them outside when they sprout.
One yellow onion set (tiny onions) was planted inside and sprouted really well. 12 yellow onion sets were planted directly into the main garden. Ten sets were planted in a big pot a week ago and are still there. 18 sets were planted in an egg carton two weeks ago and were transplanted (with good roots growing) in the pond garden. There are probably 40 onion sets left unplanted. Those will be planted during the summer.
My efforts starting corn inside were pretty much a failure. Only one did well and was planted in the garden on Thursday. Around 20 corn seeds were planted directly in the garden on Thursday. More research showed that starting inside is not a good idea so now I know for future gardens.
Here’s the garden with potatoes, garlic, onion sets, corn seeds, militons and cucumber seeds planted.
Sprouted watermelon (Jubilee) plants and cantaloupe plants (from our own seeds) were planted into the garden down by the pond on Thursday, March 7th. Watermelon seeds of a different variety, Allsweet, were planted in the ground in a straight line in the pond garden.
The three sweet potatoes were cut with two eyes on each piece. They were planted in an aluminum pan and were growing well in the pantry and have started to make leaves. It will be a while before the splits are ready to be removed and planted in the ground but for now they have joined the rest of the other plants outside of the pantry!
The brussels sprout plants were dug up from last year and were planted last week in the pond garden are doing well in the ground. When I planted them I saw tiny little brussels forming along the stalk.
Between 12 and 20 peanuts were planted near the Brussels sprouts last week but nothing is sprouting yet. 10 peanuts were planted in the flower garden along the fence near the front of our property. Peanuts don’t require much care so I am planting them wherever there is an open space! This looks like pretty much just a bunch of popsicle sticks but there really are some small plants there!
The seed plantings that are not ready to plant outside are spending a couple of hours outside each day hardening them. They are in a protected environment inside the kitchen which is drastically different than outside conditions. Spending a bit more time each day outside in the elements help prepare them for when they live outside all the time. I didn’t do any of that last year. The seeds were planted in their little individual spaces and lived outside the whole time. Today is day 3 of their hardening process.
The seed plantings going through hardening right now are the bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, big tomatoes, okra, green onions, eggplants, cauliflower, broccoli. All of them have 3 or more leaves on them and just need the hardening. 
The beautiful leaves sprouting on our two fig trees froze earlier this week but there are new ones sprouting out already! The eight blueberry bushes are all sprouting new leaves and blueberries. Some bushes more than others, but they all seem to have survived the big transplant last year!
While gardening is a very fulfilling experience it has frustrated my brain this week. I thought I had some safety net things in place to help me remember what’s planted where. However, I planted some seeds in two containers and before I could make markers to identify what they were I forgot what I planted. Didn’t even stay in my brain 10 minutes. I had to dig them up to figure it out. I have several small pots with cucumber markers in then that I don’t really know if there are seeds in there. Nothing is sprouting yet so there probably is just dirt but I’ll give it a bit longer hoping I did actually plant seeds in them.
My sweet honey Roy saw I needed more popsicle sticks for identifying plants as I’ve used all I had (sorry Madisyn, they use to be yours in your craft box!) He went to the store and bought me over 100 large wooden (popsicle like) sticks so I could write on both sides what the plant is to put one next to each one as I plant them. There are now popsicle sticks all over the gardens. Last year I painted rocks with the names of each vegetable. Because I don’t remember what a plant is without seeing it’s name I painted a second one for each vegetable this year to put one at each end of the row.
I am finding that while I’ve done a lot of research about all of the vegetables I don’t remember most of it. I made a spreadsheet with lots of the information to help me with that. But I have to remember to update the spreadsheet for it to be helpful, I haven’t updated it in a month.
I need some help figuring out where to plant things in the garden down by the pond and Roy helps me with that. Seems like that should be something I’d never need any help with but I do every step I take with it. He sits with me (I’m sitting in the dirt, he’s sitting in a chair) down by the pond and it gives me a great comfort. I also have a fear of snakes living under the storage building so Roy is also there to protect me from what he calls “sneaky snake!”
In this picture I am moving sprouting onion sets from the egg carton I started them in. They are now in the pond garden where I am hopeful they grow into full size yellow onions. Had to shake my head when I saw what an old biddy I look like in the picture but that’s me when I’m crawling around in the dirt! I require a shower and clean clothes every time I do that!
Well that’s it for gardening by the Chauvin’s this week. More will be transferred to the garden next couple of weeks, I hope. Today the high temperature was 80. We had a delightful visit at our house with my sister Harriett and brother in law George and I got to show her all my gardening efforts!
Ya’ll have a blessed week!
BECAUSE HE LIVES 