The babies are growing!

We have baby tomato plants!  Right now I just have them sitting in the bay window sill, which faces south.  I need to get a new timer for my grow lights so I can set them up to get more direct sunlight and prevent them from getting too spindly.

Yay for tomatoes!

Toe-May-Toe, Toe-Mah-Toe

Yesterday, I started tomato plants.  I have never started tomatoes from seed before, but it was one of my "gardening resolutions" for the new year, and a way for me to get a start on the season during the long Minnesota winter.  I planted Early Girl, Better Boy, and Roma plants.  I'm a little concerned that it may still be too early to start these, but I'm operating under the advice of a co-worker/gardener extraordinaire. We'll see what happens.

On the weather front, winter FINALLY arrived in Minnesota this last week.  It's been a very dry, warm winter.  It's nice to finally see a decent amount of snow, and more tolerable knowing that it won't be around for long as 40+ degree weather is supposed to return this week, just in time for spring break!

The March issue of Better Homes & Gardens arrived this week and again I am reminded of our shorter season here in the north.  The issue is featuring spring paint colors, spring ephemerals, spring annuals for container planting... and my zone envy is raging yet again!  Ah well, spring should arrive eventually in the great northwoods.  In the meantime, I should enjoy the last (hopefully!) hurrah of an uneventful winter and go play in the snow.

Last of the Red Potatoes

These are some pretty sorry looking potatoes!  It's the last of the 30 pounds we harvested at the end of the season from four pounds of seed potatoes (after several meals of baby reds throughout the summer).  They did get a little scabby this year, so I'll be moving the potatoes to a different area in the garden this spring.

In addition to these red potatoes, we planted Norkotah russet potatoes (looks like one of which snuck into this box) and Kennebec white potatoes.  We harvested about fifty pounds of each, also from roughly 4 pounds of seed.  From what I've been able to find online, that sounds like a good harvest.  It seems to be just about the right amount for my family of five to get us through the winter.

Spring Frost Free Dates

What do the following towns have in common?
New Meadows, ID
Colorado Springs, CO
New Meadows, ID
Grayling, MI
Great Falls, MT
Berlin, NH

They all have a later spring frost free date than my little slice of Minnesota heaven, according to pioneerliving.net.

Usually it's just plain silly to start thinking about frost free dates in January in Minnesota, but with yesterday's high over 50 and today over 40, it's just feels like spring!  I went to the Johnny's Select Seeds website to take a look at their planting guide to see when I can start my tomato growing project.  Turns out, I have a couple of months to wait (April 11, to be exact), so I may just plant some herbs just to get my fingers in the dirt and celebrate our "spring."

2011 Gardening in Review

Last January, I made several gardening resolutions.  Here they are:

1. I will plant fewer "salad greens" that only end up feeding the slugs. 
2. I will can, freeze, or otherwise preserve everything we can't eat fresh.  Even that last harvest of green beans which just kept on producing in 2010.
3. I will begin to vermicompost before the year's end.
4. I will buy and use a decent composting bin to replace what my husband believes is my "compost eyesore" 
5. I will always amend soil before planting in a new location (see #3 & 4).
6. I will not overcrowd my perennial gardens!
7. I will make pesto instead of allowing all of those lovely herb leaves to be destroyed with the first frost.
8. I will weed more often! (one can always hope)

Five out of eight ain't too bad!  I did not do 3, 4 or 7.  But that's ok, that's what next year is for!

Something's Cookin'

Tomorrow, my coworkers get to taste the delicious treats my garden shared this fall.  In the crockpot, I have Goat & Beer Vegetable Soup cooking with onions, carrots, and potatoes from the garden along with some goat stew meat, a can of beef broth, minced garlic, spices (thyme, salt, pepper and two bay leaves) and a bottle of beer.  It's "Crockpot Monday" at work and we take turns bringing in lunch to share.  It's a way to get everyone in the faculty lounge and it's something to look forward to on an otherwise uneventful Monday.  I'm also bringing a back-up soup, Red Pepper Tomato Soup, just in case the goat doesn't go over well.  Though one thing I appreciate about this group of people is that there are several hunter/gatherer/gardeners among us.  You usually have to ask what the meat is because it's not always identifiable in that lounge.  This year we've had elk, bear, venison, goose, and now goat to go along with the usual chicken, port and beef.  If the recipe is a hit, I'll share.  Though it may be hard to tell, there is a saying about food in a teachers' lounge.

Here's another measure of how much I enjoy these people I work with:  I used the last of my canned tomatoes for the soup!  This year's harvest wasn't as good as last.  But I also made salsa and pizza sauce this year, which I hadn't last year.  The pizza sauce was a winner - all fourteen pints of that have already been used!  The salsa, not so much.  I just can't find a salsa recipe that I'm excited for, I guess.  I have about ten quarts of spaghetti sauce in the freezer, and we use about a quart a week, so not too many weeks left of the good stuff! 

One of my gardening resolutions last year was to use all of the harvest and not let anything go to waste.  I'm proud to say we did just that!  Though it may be too soon to report on the potatoes, I still have a basement full!


How did I do on my other gardening resolutions?  I'll think about that tomorrow....

A Winter Walk

Winter Road on a Sunny Afternoon

Winter always puts me in a funk, but if I could see beyond it, there is a lot of beauty in the season.  I happened to pull out my phone and take a few pictures on my afternoon walk.  The temperature was a brisk 23 degrees.  We have had a very dry fall.  Usually we have a few inches of snow on the ground this time of year.  This dusting was just from the overnight.

A very sunny Shade Garden

We also stopped by Rita's to take a peek at our vegetable garden but I just couldn't bring myself to take a picture.  It's strange to think how land that is so fertile and verdant in the summer can be so barren and cold just a few short months later.

Rabbit and Deer Tracks - I wonder which came first

I wish I could learn to love winter.  Maybe I need to solicit the advice of other northern gardeners to see how they cope in the gardening off-season.