A rainy and warm Sunday, March 8, 2008
Welcome, glad you could be here.
Winter is finally breaking here, though I suspect we will have more cold and snow before it is all over. There are still chunks of ice floating on the Frog Bog in the middle of the veggie garden, the water is a cold looking brown color and I was unable to see any of the Rosy Red minnows today. But I did see a chipmunk scooting about and the geese have been flying overhead and honking all morning.
Some of my garlic was also showing it's green in one of the raised beds. It is a Russian hardneck which I never planted before until this fall. I'll have to check my notes but I think it was called Georgian.
The other two varieties I have planted are still sleeping; Homestead and the old Italian. I found the Homestead on an abandoned farm one spring and dug some of it, tamed it down and have planted it now for about five years. It is a hardneck with a bit of a hot tang and garlicky tasting. The cloves are fairly large. I didn't know what else to call it, or have any other information, so I just called it Homestead.
The old Italian garlic I received from an Italian family. They told me they have grown it for as long as anyone can remember. It too is a hardneck with purple stripes, large cloves with an excellent garlic flavor and maybe mildly hot.
It gets a tad confusing keeping three different varieties separate.
I know a lot of people have already started seeds. I just started a few flats of peppers today. Tomatoes are going to wait till the end of the month. This year's hot peppers will be: Jalapeno, an heirloom variety, Chicken Hearts or in German, Hinklehatz, an old heirloom grown by the Amish, and some red cherry bell heirloom peppers. The chicken hearts are about as fiery hot as a pepper can be. There are two varieties, a red and a yellow. I grow the yellow, never tried the red.
Hopefully, the peas will be in the ground towards the end of March. That is usually the time the spring peeps star singing in the Frog Bog. For now, I have a package of Swiss Chard looking at me, maybe after this rain I'll try to plant a row.
Previous Post
