start of the growing season

This is our fourth season growing here.  There isn't much going on in the garden at the moment.  Not much edible anyways.  But, we have plenty of weeds.  We always neglect the garden during winter.  Rain plus weed seeds equal...



GASP... unsightly!  I know.  We tried mulching with wood chips, but we couldn't finish covering the whole garden all at once.  So, one side gets covered, weeds on the other side go to seed.  Weed seeds fall on wood chips... it's a vicious cycle.  Hopefully we can find better ways to deal with our weed problem.

Right now, we are weeding as we plant.  We are kind of procrastinators, and we didn't usually plant things out this early.   But, we are trying to change that this year.  Yesterday, I transplanted our Japanese Pumpkins that we start from seed.  It feels early to set out anything in the squash family, and the weather is cooler than usual, but we are going to give it a try anyways.  Today, I sowed 3 different kinds of bean seeds (Yard Long, Frosty Lima, and Kentucky Wonder).

  

In the past, we mostly purchased our plants or directly sowed seeds into the ground.  This year, we finally set up growing lights and started tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, melons, squashes, and some other seeds indoors.  Most of the seedlings look like they are on schedule.  The peppers, however, are taking their sweet time.  We'll probably have to buy a few pepper plants in the store first.