All backyard snow gone as of ~ a week ago

(And snow mostly gone from open fields etc.)

Dug-in compost today (first time this year)

Into the north-of-air-conditioner bed, where lettuce will soon be sown.  Many worms were in there, hope they'll make it.

Moved some missed garlic

 Missed two garlics last year, behind the air conditioner, so the bulbs have sprouted.  Dug them up, separated the cloves and replanted them to fill in holes in the north garlic bed and in the kitchen door garlic bed.

Song sparrow has been singing every day, often from the $%^&* tree outside the yard

 I guess that %^&*(# tree that was planted a few years ago and which I fear will start eating away at my yard's already-limited sun, is coming in handy for something.  Mr. song sparrow (I assume it's a he?) has been singing almost every day, and sometimes comes into the yard hopping along the ground for snacks.

Song sparrow!

First one I've seen in the yard this year!  Hopping along the ground.  I've been seeing the occasional "shadow" of what I think are the occasional bird coming/leaving the yard.  Hoping more and more birds will be coming by.

Kale - Siberian started in PT

 Picked up another kind of kale to try, as the last time I tried the Premier Forage it didn't grow very well at all.  

Kale (Premier Forage) all sprouted! Wow!

 Well that didn't take long!  Potted up.

Hardened everything off today again, 1 hour.

 ^^^

Kale started as WS and as indoor PT

Watched a CBC Marketplace episode about e-coli on greens.  Eye-opening.  Made me wonder if I would stop getting Pure Kitchen's AMAZING Transformed kale salad.  Fortunately it looks like they get their kale locally (not sure about winter though?), but also while looking through their website I saw that wowwowowow, they sell a Transformed salad kit!  So I decided to try growing kale again this year, using the old seeds from the foil pack ("Premier Forage"), in the hopes of using it with the kit.  Didn't have much luck growing kale when I tried a few years ago, the plants remained smallish only producing a few leaves each.  But definitely worth another try.

WS'd broccoli appearing! And update on the "cheated WS" broccoli

Two of the "old" broccoli seeds, that were 100% winter sowed on March 7th (not pre-started on paper towels; were left outside 24/7) have appeared!

(The cheated WS broccoli which I started inside with paper towel / baggies, then once germinated moved outside WS style, came up a week or so ago and are about 1" high, no true leaves yet.  Been bringing them inside overnight due to the freezing temps.)

No sign of the WS chards or lupins yet.

Poppies winter sowed

Winter sowed both kinds of poppies that I bought a few weeks ago:  Flander's Fields, and Oriental.

So tiny!  Sprinkled them on top, didn't cover.

Temps go below freezing tonight and tomorrow night, but then it's a warm spell with overnight temps above zero...  not sure if these seeds wanted to go through more freezing, but, will give this a try anyway, and see.

Odour from compost bin today -- covered with newspaper and browns -- and tarp -- ==> REMOVED FRESH STUFF

 Oh no, I was sitting at the kitchen table and smelled, yes, the compost bin from here...  If I can smell it, surely passersby and my poor neighbour can too.  I had already decided to not use the bin for kitchen scraps during the spring/summer/fall (instead will dig-in as I started doing last year), but I did add some kitchen "greens" a week or two ago and didn't cover them with anything, and well, yes a little smelly today.

So, today I tried covering the food with a layer of 3 or 4 newspaper pages, then added a bunch of dried up zinnias left from the fall.  It seems to make a difference right away, but that could be wishful thinking...........  Fingers crossed!

Oh how I long to someday have a place where I can just enjoy the aroma and not worry about bothering anyone.

UPDATE LATER THE SAME DAY:  Augh, still totally smell it when in the west bed which leads right to neighbour's door.  So, placed a tarp over top (held down by the lid) which covers the bin's south and east walls.  Bin still gets air through the west and north walls.  Fingers -- and toes too this time -- crossed!

UPDATE EVEN LATER THE SAME DAY:  Ditto, still smells.  So, I uncovered it and removed as much of the fresh top stuff as I could; it will go into the yard/green pickup Monday morning.  So sad!!  Re-placed the newspaper sheets and dried zinnias on top, plus the tarp again, just to really try to contain any lingering smell.

Ladybug alive and well

 Wow, saw an adult ladybug today, wandering around in the yarrow-ish plant that grew in the patio stones next to my chair last year.  Just when I was thinking I might clean it up -- no, will leave it there for now.

Hardening off started today! So beautiful and warm!

 Wow, it's the start of a really warm and sunny stretch, highs of ~10-15.  Figured why not get start hardening off the parsley, forget-me-nots, celery, indoor onions, and indoor broccoli.  Gave them an hour in the sun today, then back inside under the lights.

Broccoli update

 The indoor-sown February 13th batch:

    - The ones I put outdoor in containers aren't looking well.  Unlikely to make it.

    - The ones I kept indoors:  4 are chugging away but not looking too well.  The other indoor ones I plucked a few days ago because they looked awful and weren't doing anything; turns out their roots were extremely puny, so just as well to pull them.

The round 2/3 that I put outside in containers after they germinated:

    - They're ~1" high, looking ok, no true leaves yet.

Chards have started sprouting; potted them up (inside)

 ^^^

Chard started in paper towel

 ~15 seeds.

This is in addition to the winter sowing batch started last week.

Big melt, a lot of the snow has melted

 3-4 days of awesome warm temperatures did a fast job of melting a lot of the snow.  Still snow coverage but with the next warm spell it will hopefully be gone soon.

Round 2 broccoli moved outside (winter sowing-style)

At least some of the round 2 broccoli seeds survived the night on the laptop, as some have germinated.  So I moved all of the round 2 broccoli seeds into the PC spinach container outside.  Almost zero headroom in this container, but just to get them started to buy me time to find more suitable containers.

Ice, ice, baby. Defrosting the freezer!

It's been a few years coming.  Finally this winter I ate almost all the way through the freezer, and have been deliberately holding off on from my next frozen-packaged-meal spending spree.  So today I moved the last of the contents into the fridge freezer, opened the drain and placed a few rags there, and unplugged it.  Will keep the lid closed due to the basement spider situation.

Round 3 broccoli started today

 Oops, I left the round 2 broccoli baggie on top the computer overnight and it all dried out from the warmth, wonder if it killed the seeds.  So, started round 3, which is another round of the new, Sprouting Green variety.

Winter sowed (first time!): lupins (seeds), broccoli (seeds and seedlings), chard (seeds), onion (seedlings)

 Fun!  After googling for a while last night, today I used my handy new drill to put holes into a bunch of plastic containers.  (After struggling with scissors and knife.  The drill was wayyy better.)

I figure maybe my broccoli seedlings just find it too warm inside under the lights.  So, why not try winter sowing!

Winter sowed these:

• Lupin:  A container with the three seeds I started February 13th, which still haven't germinated, and three fresh seeds.  (All from the nice two-shade seeds I collected from BH last year.)
• Chard:  A container with a scattering of Fordhook seeds.
• Onion:  A small container with three onion seedlings, just as an experiment.
• Broccoli:  A container with a scattering of the old seeds (Waltham). --> with no ink label (oops, I labelled the wrong one)
• Broccoli:  A container with a scattering of the new seeds (Green Sprouting).
• Broccoli:  3 smaller  containers each with one of the struggling Waltham transplants that I started February 13th.  Even if they die, so be it, they're doing horribly inside anyway.

I set out the seeds today.  As for the seedlings, the broccolis went out today in the sun for an hour or so, then brought inside overnight because we have one more cold night tonight (-18) before a warmer spell.  Will put them out tomorrow.

Round 2 broccoli started today (round 1 is a bust)

What the heck do I keep doing wrong with my broccoli!  Just like last year, all of the broccolis are looking horrendous.  Total failure to thrive.

So, bought a new packet of seeds:  Green Sprouting Broccoli.  Started a bunch today, in paper towel.

Comfrey -- I'd like to try growing this to use for mulch -- see articles

 But where to put it... so little space and this thing takes over...

https://www.permaculturenews.org/2016/06/03/comfrey-believe-the-hype/?fbclid=IwAR08QKJlLJP-xduLrNoIJZ4J_MqhaBMGsvqa2Ef4HnfWfy5sbaRxUsfKUnk

https://www.growveg.com/guides/grow-your-own-fertilizer-using-comfrey/#:~:text=What%20is%20brilliant%20about%20comfrey,feeds%20for%20concentration%20of%20nutrients.

Oh no! Broccolis not looking too good!

 Oh no!  All of a sudden, most of the broccolis aren't looking to good -- leaves are shriveling up (though granted for now just the first false-leaves) and they just don't look like they're thriving.

Time will tell...