April 2012 Garden Update

In the photo above I planted tomato seeds outside.  Last year my dad planted seeds this way and the seedlings were much stronger than the seedlings I had started inside.  We also had a larger survival rate of the plants.  This year we started 200 tomato seeds of about 6 varieties.  San Marzano, Granadero, Roma, Cherry, Delicious, and Supersteak.  The sprouts will not emerge for quite awhile since the temperatures are still cold.  When the plants are large enough we will plant them into rows.

The next photo down are the sugar snap pea sprouts!  Soon we will need to fence in around them to keep rabbits, groundhogs, and deer from eating them.  This was the first planting of peas.  I have since planted a second and longer row of them.  They haven't sprouted just yet.

The third photo down is lettuce that has sprouted all on its own from last year's seed.  Once the lettuce became bitter tasting last year we let it continue to grow, until it seeded.  When the seeds appeared we used a push mower to mow over all of it.  This spread the seeds.  This year there must be a hundred lettuce plants scattered throughout the bottom garden.  FREE lettuce!

This last photo is of a rototiller we just got for the tractor.  We haven't used it just yet, because its been too wet.  I will write more on how it worked when we do.

CHICKEN COOP UPDATE:   I am saving all of the photos I'm taking of the chicken coop as we make progress on it for an upcoming blog.  As of now, its on a trailer with tires so its mobile.