I was interested in extending the growing season a little further into the winter, so I built a few mini-hoop houses in the garden this weekend to cover my remaining crops.

To build the hoop houses, I bought 24” rebar stakes, a 100 foot roll of 3/4” polyethylene water pipe, and a 100 foot roll of 1 mil plastic sheeting—all for under $100.00.

I drove three rebar stakes into the ground, evenly spaced on each side of my 8’ beds, leaving about 1 foot sticking out of the ground. I then cut three 96” lengths of pipe, fitting each end over the rebar. To finish the hoop house, I pulled the sheeting over the hoops, loosely securing it with a few errant clay pots I have sitting about the garden.

I’m hoping to extend my growing season by a month or two into the winter as well as give me a head start on my greens and potatoes in the early spring. We’ll see how it goes but the thought of garden fresh cabbage, spinach, radish, carrots, and two varieties of lettuce in February sounds pretty tasty to me.

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April showers bring busy days in the garden.

Yesterday morning found me in the garden, in the rain, sowing a small plot of 70+ pinto beans. I also took time to harvest a few radishes which were sweet and crisp!

This coming weekend is my biggest weekend of spring though. For 2 days, I’ll be digging, weeding, and planting. Most of my summer vegetables will go in, including corn, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, and several varieties of bush beans.

I also have 2 more 4x8 beds to prepare and plant, thanks to the generosity of my neighbor. She recently offered use of her backyard (which is bigger and sunnier than mine) for expanded garden space in exchange for a few peppers later in the year and some brush clearing. Not a bad deal!

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Nothing like a little early morning gardening to start the day off right.

I started my day at 4:30AM planting radishes. With the soil temperature in my raised beds at 57° and rising, I decided it was time to plant.

36 plants went in this morning and my plan is to do the same for the next 3-4 weeks. Assuming we don’t get any hard freezes in the next few weeks, I should be able to start harvesting on or around 4-Mar.

Tonight, I hope to seed the rest of the bed with several carrot and lettuce varieties that should be ready in the second weeks of April.

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Green beans, baby carrots, new potatoes. All fresh from the garden.

I’m celebrating Father’s Day with my girls a little early. They bought me 55 lbs. of lump hardwood charcoal from Wicked Good and couldn’t hide it—so I’m tossing some of Tom Leonard’s steaks on the grill tonight. I’ll serve it up with a bottle of 2000 Chateau La Louviere and the veggies that we planted in the spring.

Nothing beats a dinner served fresh from the garden.

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Despite calls to the contrary by some, I couldn’t get enough of the rain this weekend.

The cool, wet weather is doing wonders for the buttercrunch and the two other leaf lettuce varieties I planted this year. The potatoes are finally up along with first signs of the beans, sunflowers, beets, and carrots—although it looks like Mr. Rabbit may have had a midnight snack on some of the beet sprouts.

And of course, the asparagus beds are in full force now - with more and more purple spears coming up each morning. Those crowns were the best gardening investments I’ve ever made.

In another week or so, I’ll get some tomatoes and squash going. It’s going to be a bountiful summer in our back yard and we’re not the only ones.

John’s peas are looking great and Foodie has as an eclectic a mix as I do.

What are you growing this year?

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