Garden Journal Entry #2: Progress through April

Had nasty cold weather and a bunch of rain toward the beginning of the month, putting off weekend plans to finish planting. Many of my extra plants died while siting on the porch out of both the sun and rain. Had a mid-month overnight frost which threatened produce in most of the country. North Carolina seemed especially worried about strawberry farmers. I guess this means strawberries will be sparse and expensive this year.

I spent the afternoon of Sunday, April 6th, planting what I had, utilizing as many of my containers as possible. The mess on my front porch is beginning to annoy me. In most of my pots I did a mixture of Miracle Grow vegetable potting soil, peat moss, and sand. The ratios were completely un-exact but not even half of each container is made up of peat moss and sand. The bigger containers have small rocks lining the bottom for better drainage.

The weather steadily rose toward the end of the month and Easter weekend was warm and sunny. John took his new chainsaw to the jungle in the back yard and cleared out all the overgrown shrubs (trees?) that had been encroaching on our swing set - which I sold on Craigslist for $150, by the way.

After a small conniption about the mess of my yard at 5pm on Easter Sunday, I was pleasantly surprised with cleanup (a week later) that my yard now looks twice as big. And just in time for us to move out, too!

Closing date set for the new house on May 8th. In the meantime, I've rediscovered Pinterest and am spending far too much time down that rabbit hole in blissful reverie.

1. More herbs - research/plan, purchase, plant. (Current ideas: peppermint, lavender, sage, more basil, more oregano.)
2. Move garden to the new house - figure out the backyard situation there.
3. Fertilize - beginning of the month.
4. Move strawberries off the ground.
5. Create a better compost area in the new yard.
6. Generate ideas for raised beds and landscaping in the new yard.
7. Consider squash (zucchini, acorn, butternut), watermelon, cucumbers - vertical garden?
8. Make better plant labels.