A Fun Day of Planting

Lettuces & cilantro, planted last fall!

Today I thought I'd share some of my gardening fun! With all the rain lately in so many parts of the country, it has been quite a challenge to get anything done in the garden. We've had record rainfalls all month, flooding, and general sogginess. I intended to plant potatoes weeks ago, but the garden has been nothing but mud.... We've had a rare 2 days of sunshine now, so I took advantage of one dry day this weekend to get out and get the rest of the garden planted. It was still pretty chilly, but at least not raining! 

Luckily, my soil is getting pretty nice after 4 years of adding the results of my composting efforts, and it drains well - it was nice and moist, but not at all muddy. I had laid some sheets of black plastic over the area a few weeks ago, in an effort to warm up our cold Ohio soil a little faster. I think it might have worked, as the soil didn't feel all that cold while I was digging.... We shall see!

I dug trenches, put my little sprouty potatoes (left over from last fall's CSA share), and filled them most of the way in, leaving some extra piles of soil - I plan to hill them up once they start to come up, in hopes of getting a bigger yield? Perhaps?  This is my first time growing potatoes in quite a few years, and my goal is to grow enough to get me through all of next winter, with plenty of soups, stews, and yummy mashed potatoes!

Red, white, & yellow onions, and garlic chives.

So, as of today, potatoes are in, the flower bed is planted, as well as morning glories along the fence. Onions are lovely and growing well, as well as my gorgeous lettuces, which wintered over under the snow, all by themselves! Gladiolas are just starting to pop up, as well as little volunteer cilantro everywhere. I am posting a couple of pictures here of the onions and lovely lettuces - hopefully more great pictures to come, as it warms up!