Spring Garden 2015 Has Commenced!

Today was gorgeous -- GORGEOUS!!! Beautiful sunshine, nice weather, just perfect.  We started the day out by a drive to the Hill Country nursery to pick our three new peach trees -- these need to go in soon.  We were hoping to match the same variety that we put in two years ago, the Rio Grande, which we were very happy with.  But, none of the regular places that we get our plants from had them this year, so we settled for three new varieties that are supposed to do well here in our area of Texas.
We got:

REDSKIN - A large, well colored freestone with yellow flesh. Ripens just before Elberta. 750 Hours. Ripens July 20-25th.

LORING - A large firm freestone with an eye-appealing yellowish-red color. Requires a short rest period and blooms early. Disease resistant. 750 Hours. Ripens July 10th.

SAM HOUSTON - Medium size, yellow, freestone fruit. Good quality. Yellow flesh and small pit. Recommended especially for Southern areas. Ripens 15 days before Elberta. 500 -650 Chill Hours.

These will go in the ground this week.  So now we will have four peach trees -- that should last us!

While John was tilling the new garden area, I planted the Snow Peas.  This year I planted Mammoth Melting Sugar from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and some Corne De Belier, which is a French variety (around since the 1860s) that I got from Baker Creek Seeds.

Once the peas were in, I planted out some of the cole plants that I started in the greenhouse, they are getting so big!  I tilled in some compost that has been cooking in my composter all winter (most from the chicken house) along with some sand.  These are in the one remaining raised bed.  They look so happy there! I have to confess that I got these plants a little mixed up in the potting-up process (hey, it gets a bit confusing in the greenhouse) so there may be some Dutch Flat cabbage, a green cauliflower plant or two, and the De Cicco Broccoli plants.  Not sure which is which at this point, but we should be able to tell once they start showing their heads.

The artichoke plants were put out this weekend also.  They were looking exhausted from being in the warm greenhouse -- I think they needed some cooler weather.  Hope they will catch on and grow, but we'll see.  I'm not feeling real confident about these.

 The artichokes went in this bed alongside the greenhouse

New growth showing up on some of them, so maybe.....

We had to walk out to the garden last night to turn on the heater (just in case) Saturday night.  Those grow lights really light up the place!

More garden fun tomorrow!!!