It's all about the voodoo...

This weekend, when I saw Bette, Jake's mom, another avid gardener (for real, her yard is amazing), she said, "I know why your seeds sprouted this time." And sure enough, I had planted them when the moon was in Pisces, one of the most productive signs. When I met Jake, he told me all about his mom and sister's gardens and how they both plant according to the phases of the moon. Jake said that his sister won some award like "Rookie of the year" at her P-patch (community garden plot) for having such an amazing harvest. Jake called it the "voodoo calendar" and I knew I had to get me one of those. Bette gave Jake a photocopy of her calendar to give to me when he told her I was interested in learning the ways of the moon and in my garden bonanza Christmas gift (an amazing gift basket full of garden goodies) was a brand new moon calendar for 2009.

My little seedlings are just about ready to up-pot (transplant from the flat to individual 4in pots). Once they have their first true leaves, they'll be ready. The first little leaves that emerge are the seed's embryo leaves (cotyledons). Can you see in the photo to the left the first true leaf that is emerging from the center of that broccoli plant? Isn't it great?

Finally, this weekend, Jake built my garden beds. So now, all I have to do is fill them with the soil mixture I'm concocting, build my trellis, lay the square foot garden grid on the beds, set up a cloche (the plastic tarp green house-like structure) and plant my new seedlings. With the cloche, I could actually plant some spinach and other greens directly into my beds soon without starting them inside.

We also installed my two compost cones. That was quite the ordeal - the two composting baskets have to sit in pretty large holes. But, as you can see, we got them in (again, thanks to Jake) and I was able to officially start composting. Don't I look happy tossing my decomposing food scraps into the cone?

Only 9 more days until the official start of spring, but who's counting? :)