Nature and Gardening

My kale sprouts are coming in very nicely! Trying from seed again this year and I'm feeling good about it. The heatwave just wrecked them last year and I wasn't on my game with watering enough, but not this time! I also have some other seeds starting to sprout as well: camomile, catnip, sunflowers and microgreens, as well as a few pumpkin sprouts that are starting to make themselves known.

My pepper plants are starting to bounce back from being over-wintered, and they always produce a big yield so I'm excited. I've added a few new species to the mix so we'll see how that goes. I'm looking forward to making hot sauce again, but this time I'll have ghost peppers to add to the mix >:)

My apartment balcony looks like a jungle, and it is my happy place, lol.

My wife grew a person this winter, so I haven't been able to even clean out last years leftovers from my greenhouse yet, but two of my spice plants (not sure if it's the right term) has sprouted again on their own (Oregano and Chives) 🥳 And I started housing a grape last year that I hope has survived winter, just have to remember watering it and repot it if I can find the time for it. My mother will probably bring me some tomato and chili sprouts if I ask her, she always ends up with way too many of both 😅

I'm excited that my saffron bulbs overwintered. I'm growing in containers in NYC (7b). We'll see if they survive the summer!

I planted a raised bed full of different varieties of kale, my two pots of blueberries are going crazy already, and I'm trying to get micro clover to take over the "lawn" area. The last part is tricky because I desperately want it to consume all the empty spaces that turn to dust in the summer, but it's currently a gunky clay that sticks to everything. Fingers crossed!

We're excited for our second year of planting. Our sprouts are sprouting! I'd share a photo, but my client isn't working 😞. Says the image is invalid.

Anyway, we have a bunch of little baby sprouts coming in on our little sprout tray from the hardware store. We're also looking forward to planting some grass after this week's snowstorm... In April. We're in mud season and we're approaching 3rd winter I guess.

Thanks for the suggestion OP. Cropping works!

Finished one 8x4 raised bed with my salvaged lumber, and the second should go much faster now that I have a powered saw. I'll be getting 2.5 yd³ of topsoil/compost blend from a local municipal composting company next week.

It's windy and snowy even here in more southern New England, so I'm glad that the spinach, lettuce, and arugula I sowed last weekend in some railing planters hasn't germinated yet. My grow light shelves are almost completely full trays of seeds I planted a couple days ago, all the tomatos, cucumbers, and squash. Despite the weather today it's an exciting beginning!

It's very spring here in the south, so I'm outside tending to the yard-wide flower bed we set up last year. I've been battling the grass growing back in it for a while and almost gave up after the brutal summer last year killed off half of my plants. I found that using saved up cardboard and mulch keeps a lot of the grass at bay. So that's been my project for a few weeks now, slowly filling the whole bed and revitalizing the whole thing.
As a small reward for the progress I've made, I picked up a few perennials at the store the other day: salvia, lantana, and some consumables - dill, basil, and peppers. They look really nice in the parts of the bed I've already tended to :)

Harvested some asparagus and solomon's seal shoots the other day, they were delicious. Dogwoods are leafing out and some early iris blooms are opening. Most daffodils have lost their petals. My fava beans don't look so great, I think I planted them in too much woodchip mulch. They have flowers, though. I was debating fertilizing them with urine - any thoughts? I generally avoid fertilizing legumes, but the thick woodchip mulch might be an exception?

Still a little too early here in Maine. We're bracing for a huge winter storm that will bring us 20 inches over the next couple of days.

However, by next week it will all be gone since the temps will rise into the mid 60s.

Looking forward to spring and growing vegetables in my garden (tomatoes, cucumbers, and other typical salad making items).

I've got daffodils popping up, and about 40 tulips I planted last fall