To The Surbiton Manor Born

  First Plants Started for 2022 Planting needs to start sometime for summer. Even though temperatures today were only in the single digits, and the morning started with sweeping a dusting of snow off of the driveway and the solar panels, it was time. Peppers take eternity to germinate and start, so they're getting a good head start this year.  I planted Ancho/Poblano peppers, chili peppers,"You Only Live Once" green peppers, banana peppers from seeds saved from the 2021 crop, habanero peppers, & long, red, thin cayenne peppers. 8 each. The plan is to transplant them into the bed closest to our garage, which gets hot in summer, taking the full brunt of the southwest sun.  Listened to some rock & roll while getting them started. As Nick Perry & the Underground Thieves put it, I'm  Feelin' Good .  A topic for another day will be all the different kinds of gardeners, from preppers to the gangsta' gardener, the Jesus gardeners, the Old Farmer's Alma

  90% of our garden is in this package It struck me as I was poring over the directions on how to plant the vegetables and flowers this year just how amazing it is that just about every plant and vegetable we'll be harvesting next summer, every tomato, every squash, every cucumber, every pea, every giant sunflower, every pumpkin, every zucchini, every beet, every carrot is currently contained in a tiny packet inside this one envelope (pictured above).  It's worth noting here that planning the garden took a lot longer than I thought it would. I figured I'd snap off a draft in an afternoon. It ended up being a few afternoons spread over a few weeks.  Planning ahead is a good idea, because some of the seed providers start to run out in February. This has been our experience. I have engaged smug-mode  over buying a couple more T-5 fluorescent lights for the mini-greenhouses last summer when they were $20. They're now up to $40 a piece.  According to the plan, we're goin

  An interloper, outside my office window. It turns out that the best defense for the garden is, in fact, the chicken wire fencing that I've put around the beds. The fencing is rubbish vs. squirrels, but is enough to keep the bunnies off the young plants. I didn't get where I am today without planning. And it is never too early. Planning a garden is more arduous than you might think as the last couple of years have demonstrated. There are things you plant indoors. There are things you sow directly. There are companion plants and plants you should never plant together. Crop rotation is a must, etc. (As anybody who's planted a garden knows. Don't want to belabor the point.) What I will say is that there is nothing that can't be solved with a good spreadsheet and calendar reminders. So I've spent a lot of time over the last week or so looking closely at planting instructions, figuring out which plants to plant in which beds, which plants are getting in bed togethe