March is here--what to do II?

 In the ever expanding garden spaces, I continue to move plants from the greenhouse to the land. The land that is filling up fast. The self-watering boxes are taking off and the peppers look fantastic. I converted all the pots of peppers that wintered over to double buckets and most of them are set up for self-watering. I re-potted most of the peppers but a few were putting on blooms so were left alone. 


Almost all the tomatoes are in the ground and are already double in size and growing well. 

One of the Celebrity tomatoes I bought has a blossom on it! The potato leaf heirlooms are looking good and may actually do something this year. Speaking of potatoes, although they were attacked by something that cut the tops off at the soil line, I put on large plastic collars and they are thriving. The ones in the tub are much larger than the ones along the fence. I only put in 10 seed potatoes this year but they are Yukon golds which we really like. I did plant a few shoots this weekend that were growing from store potatoes in the holes. We'll see if anything comes of them. I put down paper mulch between the rows of bush green beans--tried something new: shred office and newspaper, wet it good and fill the row with it, put on a lattice board to keep it in place.

 I found a folding screen in the trash last week and it will be the frame for the pole beans and cucumbers to grow on. They are in the new triangle raised bed. soil may not be deep enough but the beans have always seemed to have shallow roots and I'll add more compost and mulch as the plants get their heads up.  Put out the pickle cucumber seedlings and added a short row of okra next to them. Have the wando peas in 3 rows--supposed to tolerate the heat and NZ spinach on the other side of the bed--definitely does heat if it is watered. May want to find a way to mulch better before the plants get so thick this year. Some seem to be coming up from seed too  I hope to move a few around to the front beds to use as an edible border.
 I have 2 sections of the garden to rework a bit--one by the fence that is too heavy and gets a bit of shade and the other is against the shed that gets blistering sun but the soil is not so great there. Maybe this is the place for the eggplant that are really very small yet. Another  bag of the organic garden soil is in the future here and some peat and compost for the first spot, I think. 

The gardens out in front are a combination of flowering plants, shade loving plants (under the canopy of the tree right), and veggies. I put in red cabbage, rainbow chard, red cherry peppers, ornamental peppers, beets with red tops, purple basil, oregano, and an edible border of parsley and dill so far. The geraniums, begonias, and vincas are thriving and most of the perennials are coming up to be identified. The white irises are blooming here and there but the new multi-colored ones are probably not going to bloom this year. I moved some of the  liriope around and put in some of the hostas and nasturtiums. I also added 30 caladium bulbs that I sprouted in the greenhouse. They are a nice mix of multi-colored ones. I have lots of coleus that I propagated and am putting into the shady locations to add punch of color.