I'm a little behind on my post, because I went up to Idaho for a week to enjoy Richie, Rachel, Miles and Gwen. Before I left David and I planted the early garden: peas, onions, carrots, beets, cabbage, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, kale (the last 5 plants were starts from the green house). When getting carrots to germinate, you must water them twice a day, can even put wet newspapers over them. I also finished planting all my starts in the green house. They are slow germinating because we haven't had much sun. I'm praying for sun. We were grateful to find our lettuce plants survived the 26 degree morning we had. If things dry out enough, we will plant potatoes this weekend over conference. David is still pruning, (big job) and will soon need to spray. Dormant spray is applied right before the blossoms open. When you see the buds getting white, it is time to spray. It is a challenge in spring to catch the windows mother nature provides to get things tilled, fertilized, pruned, sprayed and planted. Make sure your soil is dried out fairly well before tilling, otherwise you will end up with clods for the rest of the year. Also, when we plant seedlings, we take out the potting soil and fill the hole with potting soil. We also purchased mycorrhizal fungi, mixed 1/8 th teaspoon with 1 quart of water and soaked the roots in it before planting. The fungi stimulates thousands of tiny roots to develop. Really helps establish healthy, strong plants. Christy

We did a few things on our garden this past week. I fertilized my perennials. This needs to be done once a year, preferably when snow will dissolve it. Mix 30-10-10 (Miracle Grow) 1/3 quart, with 1/3 quart of ammonia sulfate and 1/3 Ironite. Covers 180 square feet per 1 quart. We also started our cabbage, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and spinach inside. I used peat pellets, because these plants will be transplanted outside fairly soon. Starting these plants inside gives you a great jump start. As soon as the garden dries out we will form our rows and plant the rest of the early garden. Christy