Bentley has been hard at work for the past couple weeks getting things ready in the veg garden -- working on the compost pile, building new beds, weed whacking, moving berry plants, transfering dirt and compost.  Yesterday he was spraying the weeds in the beds and between the beds in the hopes of planting grass between the rows in a few days.  The vegetables I am most interested in planting aren't ready to go in yet.  I have helped about 5% of the time and otherwise it is all his effort!

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Impressive, I envy you guys. The wife and were just talking this morning about buying a Aero Garden Harvest Touch. 

We have quite the garden going on outside too but it is all weeds.  Wife is going to have fun taking care of all of that stuff when she gets back home.  I have no idea what to do or where to start, and she probably wouldn't want to let me loose with anything anyway.

I'm ready and the garden is ready (built up the beds and new soil since last year.)  But it's still a tad early and my nursery is closed and the farmers market where I get a lot of starter plants I don't get from seed is closed.

So I've resorted to Amazon.   My Walla Walla sweet onion sets I usually get in the ground by now, coming next week via USPS.  It's going to be a weird year.

On a happier note, zucchini is looking great in the greenhouse, the raspberries are growing like crazy already, and the sugar snap peas came up last week.

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These are not the type of heat I can handle, but it will be interesting to see if they are viable to germinate.  They were sent by my oldest sister Karen from California last Fall.  I think we will be done with freeze issues in the next 2 weeks, so hope at least a few will germinate.

Oh, my!  Make sure to wear gloves at a minimum when dealing with that pepper.  May need goggles and a mask if dehydrating or cooking them too.  They are REALLY HOT.  I eat them in sauces and rubs but would never eat any portion of them raw.  If you eat them, have some milk on hand or something to take the heat away.  It takes about 15-30 minutes before you can no longer feel the effects of eating them in something.  To me, they don't burn like cayenne or habanero but your whole body goes into a fight routine against them and you will feel a warmth for that whole time.  It just takes time to go away.

If only you were closer...  I ordered seeds from Thailand and have 30 or so plants.  Most were to share with coworkers but we shut the office down due to Covid19.
I like spicy but I won't touch the ones you have in the photo.

First planting.  May be a little early still, but we are counting on that early spring promised by the rodent in PA!  Planted the parsley and dill, not because we really use that much, but because buterflies love to lay their eggs on it and the caterpillars eat it before metamorphing into butterflies.

Probably will get some sage.  Don't know what else Bent wants. As it warms, we will get the weeds between the beds killed and re-establish some nice fecus/bluegrass mix in between.

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I think the soil is finally at an acceptable level for crops.  My Candy Onion Plants from Dixondale Farms should be here next week.

The chili seeds do not appear to be viable.  About 3 1/2 inches in the last 5 days.  Was in the process of roto-tilling the parkways for the seed.  Have to let it dry and then go over one more time, rake out the rocks, roto it once more, then seed.  Got half the onions in, waiting 2 weeks to plant the other half.

The raspberry's are a little weak, but I think we are gonna have lots of blackberry's!

Freeze warning here in Eastern PA in the next few mornings.

Yeah, we are rollin the dice with the herbs...The onions are about the right time.  Supposedly in the next 15 days, we have 2 nights at 36° and then nothing under 41°  for the rest.  So I hope we are done with the 30's!

I soaked my pepper seeds in potassium nitrate (plain old salt peter) like this article said and most of them germinated.  I got it at the hardware store.  Who knew stump remover is so versatile.

https://www.chileplants.com/growhow.aspx?section=10

They were 10 years old and most came up.  I only had one make it to transplant in a pot though.  They all grew so fast they couldn't support their height and fell over.  So did my Cherokee Purple tomato plants.  I don't know why.  Kristin, any suggestions??  I planted more without soaking just to see what happens.

Now you tell me...