Garden 2019 Update

It’s been awhile since I did a garden update. Because …well it’s been winter.

After the holiday excitement passes by, it helps that I start getting seed catalogs.  This stirs the inner spirit animal in me that is always missing my garden during the bare cold months of winter.

I have tomato and pepper seeds going in the greenhouse and they are already pushing against their clear lids clamoring to get out!

We use a small ceramic electric heater inside so we can get an early start on the seedlings around the first of February.

Back in October we visited The Silos, Chip and Joanna Gaine’s place in Waco.

It was during Silobration and we had so much fun experiencing the organic wonderful vendor fair around the site, the food trucks, Silos Baking Co., Magnolia store and gardens. And the concert was so much fun with Drew Holcomb and JohnnySwim!!

We were especially inspired by the Seed & Supply and the lovely gardens around it.

Our raised beds had been only one board level in height (about a foot or a little more),  unlike the ones we saw there.

I loved the natural structures they incorporated into their edging, garden supports and trellises.

I also loved the color schemes of green, purple and cream they used with just a touch of yellow and pink mixed in.

When we got home,  Mr. Wonderful got inspired to add another level to our beds with an edging around the top just like theirs were.

We’ve also added two truckloads of river rock pebbles around the raised bed area and the chicken coop. The muddy times were driving us crazy.

Yesterday he also got two more truckloads of dirt from our favorite place – Minick Materials. They have fantastic garden ready soil, much needed here in Oklahoma, the land of red clay. He got quite the workout hauling it all back to fill in our newly elevated beds.

Oh yes! And that new cover you see in the front is our new cold frame Mr. Wonderful built recently

. I asked him to build me one back when all the lettuce got yanked from the shelves during the salmonella scare. Here’s a horribly bad video I took on my iPhone.

We have several kinds of lettuce sprouting in our cold frame, as well as spinach, kale, romaine, and bok choy. We’ve had some pretty cold days here of late, (as you can see by the attire on Mr. Wonderful) and it is insulated enough to keep these little babies growing so I’m very excited about that!

In case you’re wondering what those taller red support beams are, they serve two purposes.

One is as a support to hold the 50/50 garden shade fabric we put over our beds when the intense heat hits in July and August. It helps keep our plants from burning up but still allows 50% of the sun through.  We ordered ours on Amazon. They have those circle metal grommets at the corners and there are hooks on the support beams to hook them easily over.

The second is to help with a successful experiment we tried last year and will continue doing with our tomatoes.

Growing them vertically.

I’ll write some more about that this summer but we’ve never had so many tomatoes!

So there’s my beginning of the year garden update! I hope you enjoyed a little tour of our gardens.

What are you doing in your garden that is new this year?