SproutBot

I found an interesting website that tells you when to start your seeds but they only do American zipcodes.

To get around that issue I looked up an american map for hardiness zones and found a city nearby with the same zone. Ann Arbor Michigan has the same zone and is in a similar latitude as us so I put in Zip 48104 and got this.

Turns out for one thing, our broccoli was going out way too soon. This will be an interesting site to look over when I have some time.... and it's not almost midnight. Good night folks.  

2013 Plans

So everything's updated and you can find the 2013 plans by clicking here or on the "Plans for 2013" tab along the top of the blog.

Fluffy Blanket

It snowed a lot last night. 

There's at least a couple inches covering the garden and more drifted up against the compost.

Back Garden

So here's the idea on this one:

The beds with a diagonal line though them indicate a change of crop in the August-to-October-ish time of year. There's two kinds on cauliflower. One planted early in the spring that ripens in the summer/fall and another we're planting in the fall to overwinter and produce very early next spring. 

As you know from This Post , the garlic is already in bed 4 and should be ready in summer/fall. Bed 9 was WAY too wet for the carrots, onions and tomatoes planted there last year because of the rain barrel run off flooding it off and on. This year we're using it as a pollinator attractor and moving the hosta from the front garden where it got sun burned to this less exposed spot. The zuchini we're planting isn't the standard vine. It's called Ambassador and actually grows up on a central stalk.

Close ups of the beds:

Beds 1 and 3

Beds 5 and 7

Beds 2 and 4

Beds 6 and 8

Bed 9

What do you think?

Front Garden

Remember how I said the last one was a rough draft... well I meant it.

Here's the latest version and I think this is the one that will stick.

 Re-do of front yard plan with list of herbs for spiral and raspberries along fence.

Here's what that means:

Rough Plan for Front Yard

Now do keep in mind this is a ROUGH plan that isn't exact in placement or sizes. The border of the yard is measured and the rest is sketched in in approximate sizes and spacing. Megan says it looks like a face.

North is up. The front yard is bordered on the west by the walkway to the front door and beside that our driveway, on the north by the house, on the east by the neighbour's driveway, and on the south by the sidewalk that runs along our street. It's about 8-9 feet wide depending on where you measure and about 16 feet long from sidewalk to house.

The paths in the garden are marked by XXXX and are about two feet wide. The cross-hatch against the house indicates a lattice to trellis the wisteria and roses. The wisteria has a ? because I need to gather more info on it before committing. The very south edge of the yard will have common self-seeding annuals and some perennial bulbs. I'm hoping for this section to need the least care and to announce to the neighbourhood that this is a garden, not a random mess of "weeds".

If you don't know what a herb-spiral is or why you'd want one check out this lovely post by Antony at The Kale Yard. The cross hatch pattern at the north side of the herb spiral indicates a small frog pond/wetland area that can be used to grow watercress.

I haven't decided what's going where for most of the plants. Where it says "low ground cover plants" could be anything from forget-me-nots to creeping thyme. The keyholes might turn into something else entirely like Tripod supports for climbers... but here it is. :)

Have you got your 2013 plans started?

Winter Indoor Plant Update

Since winter is officially here as the calender and first snow of the season insist I figured an update on the indoor plants was appropriate. The aloe has recovered well away from the direct light and is enjoying it's time on the stereo. Last weekend I gave it's baby/shoot to a friend. She's named it Medusa and says it's doing well.

The window plants have various levels of success. The lavender seems to be doing fine in it's peanut butter jar. I wrapped a tea towel around the jar holding the paperwhites because the water was going green and I was worried the extra light and heat was slowing root growth. Seems my instincts there were solid because shortly after wrapping it the roots went all over in the jar and the tops started growing. Just two days ago the flowers started blooming. They smell very strongly and similarly to wisteria.

Winter arrived on schedule.

Pretty little white flowers.

The chives in the tower seemed to be getting too much light beside the mirror and some shriveled up. Ironically, to get them away from the strong light I turned them to the window. The rest of the plants seem to be hovering in sprout stage and neither growing nor wilting. I'm not really sure what to do with that.

How are your plants doing?