May 26, 2013
Oops, a little behind on the posting...Excuses are as follows: preparing for a trip to OK to see Krista, gone on trip to OK to see Krista, and recovering from trip to OK to see Krista.  Yes, one of my worst vacation fears, getting sick away from home, occurred.  Oh well, we survived.  So to catch you up, we have MAJOR sprouting going on.  I suppose the vinegar treatment would work, but honestly, there's so much, and now that there are plants in there that could be killed, I'm going to have to learn to co-exist with the grass.  We put in the drip hose irrigation system.  The tomato plants, peppers, eggplant, strawberries, basil, thyme, stevia, peas and impatiens transplants are now in.  It was pretty cool--just dig in with the hand spade and twist it around to make an opening, then shove the transplant in.  I felt like I was pushing a little hard on some of them, but they all lived through the process.

So, just as the book warned us, with all this rain came the explosion of mushrooms.  They just appeared overnight!  They're not edible, but not harmful either.  I figured I'd pull them out when I got home from work, but by then they were already gone (!) so no photos to show.  I'll have to try to catch them next time.

The leaf lettuce really sprouted while we were gone.  The little white things on the photo are blossoms from our apple tree.  They were almost ready to open when we left for OK (on 5-15, a month later than last year), and then when we got home they were finished already, with the remnants littering the patio and the bales.  If you look closely you can see a few mushrooms too.

I'll try to get outside tomorrow (if it's not raining again...) and get some current pics of the items we started from seed. 
Summary so far:

• NOT weed free as promised, but probably our fault for not asking for "harvested" bales.  Suggestion for next year, buy from Christen Farm Nursery.  A few extra bucks/bale, but much shorter hauling distance, and hopefully the right kind.
• I bought WAY too many seeds.  There's just not enough room for everything that looked good at the time.
• I probably should have made a deeper layer of Miracle-Gro for starting the seeds.  I think I lost some carrot/radish seeds because of this.
• I'll need a much bigger trellis for my peas.  They're already starting to climb my meager little poles rather aggressively (how would I know, I'm a rookie at this!)
• I love being able to walk out the patio door and "putz" in my garden.  The height is exactly right for me to sit in a chair and dig/weed to my heart's content.  That part is exactly as promised.
• So far no critters have taken up residence, and no evidence of the bunnies taking more than their share.  We'll see as the summer progresses...

May 5
(aka "Cinco de Mayo").  Well, we got a little behind last week when the temperatures plunged and the freezing rain/sleet hit. Could have been worse though, some counties to the north had a foot of snow (and if I'd woken up to it I think I would have cried).  Anyway, finally put the 10-10-10 fertilizer on Friday and attended a straw bale seminar that evening.  Like Scott said, "we probably could have given the seminar".  Yes we've done our homework.

So today is the day I've been waiting for: planting day!  I'm a little hesitant to put too much in yet though.  So we took 2 bales and put a thin layer of Miracle-Gro potting mix on the tops, then put in some lettuce, radish and carrot seeds.  It's looking like we'll have 70 degree highs the next few days, so I hope they're getting a good start.  The funny thing is, I'm not a big radish lover, but I find I can't wait to taste what comes out of our little garden.  The chard will go in next weekend, and that one fascinates me too.  But for now, we'll water and wait...