What's growing in the garden in Late-March

Pear blooms

Parrot tulip

Parrot tulip

Broccoli, Spinach, Onions growing

Row of Peas and row of mix of greens and onions

Peas

5 year old Peach tree

5+ year old Peach tree

25+ year old peach tree

Hyacinth

Salmon tulip

March (Spring) Flowering plants & Fruit trees

From December to March, Kentucky had a couple snow days, but for the most part we went into a Fall weather, some snow, and days of summer weather. It was 70 degrees last week and 80 degrees one day this week. This weekend will be colder with rain, but because of the persistent warm weather, I am noticing one of the Nectarine trees is flowering several pink blooms, which you can see in the picture below. One of the Cherry trees has one white bloom. The pear and peach trees are also preparing to bloom.

Nectarine

Keiffer Pear tree budding

Tulips growing below the pear tree

Cherry blooming

Several months back I posted pictures (and a video) of the new Tulip bed gardens. Almost all of them are pushing through the mulch. I wasn't sure they would come up because it looked like animals had been digging in the spots we planted them in. Other plants that are blooming are the Hyacinths, crocuses, and Daffodils, of course they are usually the first plants to bloom.
 

Crocus

Hyacinth

Star flower

Daffodil

Crocus

Hyacinth

100+ Tulip flowers 

Recently, I planted peas in the row on the right (in the picture), and the row on the left (of the picture), I planted red onion bulbs and various seeds of Arugula, Red Romaine Lettuce, (I think Red Russian Kale), Broccoli, Spinach, Cilantro, and I'm not sure what else. I covered the rows with a garden canvas so that the birds wouldn't eat the seeds.

Also, I may have posted there was several additions to the food forest, for example two new Elberta Dwarf Peach trees, and a Cherry tree, including 16 blueberry and raspberry plants (Anne variety raspberry, Sunshine Blue, Pink Lemonade, and Blue crop blueberry plants.)

Anne variety Raspberry plant

I also took pictures of this beautiful magnolia tree on a university campus.

Additions to the food forest + new seeds (VIDEO of bean varieties/seed collection & when to grow)

In a previous post, I show you some of the new seeds we bought from Vegan seeds and SOS (Seeds of sustenance), and here I wanted to show you a the collection haul we purchased from Seed Savers Exchange. In the video below I show you the varieties of beans we purchased from the site, and Apple gourd, arugula, and peas. From Rare seeds website, we got 2 Aronia berry plants, 2 Goji berry plants, and 2 Dwarf mulberry tree plants with a variety of seeds as well. Those trees don't ship until April. I made the foolish mistake of transplanting blueberry and raspberry plants so early. Recently, we transplanted new additions to the food forest including 1 Lapins Sweet Cherry tree and 2 Elberta Semi-dwarf Peach trees, with 16 blueberry and raspberry plants (Sunshine, Blue Crop, Pink Lemonade blueberry varieties and Anne variety raspberry.) I did mulch the trees and berry plants with pine needles, but I noticed some plants had died at the tops of the berry plants. I should have mulched over top of the plants (probably.)

In the first two pictures below, are of the bean varieties from Rare seeds. Those include Turkey craw, Calypso, and Hidatsa Shield. And not seen in the picture is the Christmas lima beans.

Below are the blueberry and raspberry plant varieties, and peach trees and cherry tree.

List of Socially & environmentally conscious documentaries on Netflix

Among the hundreds of Nazi, Hitler, and JFK documentaries, there are documentaries I have favored and hope that others watch the material to gain insight, information, and a new found empathy and understanding for all people, animals, the planet, and ourselves. Of course there are so many more documentaries I enjoyed and see value, and I condensed a list below of the best documentaries to watch on Netflix that are currently uploaded, and a small list of the documentaries I thought were decent. Many movies and documentaries are deleted periodically from Netflix. Some good documentaries can be watched on youtube and other sites for free; and of course, the list of documentaries on the left side of the page, can be watched on youtube.

Dark Girls

Through a lens darkly

Black Power Mixtape

The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross (series with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.)

The Reel Injun: One the trail of the Hollywood Indian

The True Cost

Walmart: the high cost of low price

Inequality for All

Surviving progress

Collapse

Earthlings

Blackfish

Cowspiracy

Food Matters

Forks Over Knives

The Fruit Hunters


Plastic Paradise

Cosmos (series with Neil Degrasse Tyson)

How to Grow a Planet & The power of the Planet (series with Iain Stewart)

Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia

Howard Zinn: You can't be neutral on a moving train

Money for nothing: Inside the Federal Reserve

Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom

Ai Weiwei, Never sorry

Miss Representation

Pussy Riot

The House I Live In

Others Netflix documentaries that were worth a watch:
Slingshot
Hiroshima (BBC)
The propaganda game
Food Chains
Exit through the gift shop
Tesla: master of lightning
We're not broke
Citizen Koch
Ethos
Bottled Life
Documented
God Loves Uganda
For the Bible tells me so
Jesus Camp

Healthy soil for a healthy life

Seeds for the 2016 Gardens

Every year I purchase from the Veganseeds people. This year I purchased less seeds from vegan seeds company, and am experimenting with another seed company on amazon called SOS (seeds of sustenance). From the vegan seeds company, the pack contained 2,500 Total Non-Hybrid seeds of the follow varieties: 1. TOMATO beefsteak 125 seeds 2. Blue Lake bush Bean 50seeds 3. Kidney Bean 50 seeds 4. lettuce 500 seeds 5. Broccoli 100 6. cabbage green 100 7. Nantes  CARROT 300 8. Sweet Corn 50 9. Hales best jumbo Cantaloupe 50 10. Marketmore Cucumber (50 seeds) 11.Ashley Cucumber (50 seeds) 12. black beauty Eggplant 50 seeds 13. cherry belle Radish 50 seeds
14. Spinach 50 seeds 15 Green Pepper (50 seeds) 16. Jalapeno Pepper (50 seeds) 17. Watermelon (45-50 seeds) 18. Yellow Squash (50 seeds) 19. Zucchini 50 seeds 20. Cayenne Pepper (50 seeds) 21. ONION yellow spanish 50 seeds) 22. dark red Beet (50 seeds) 23. Lima Beans (50 seeds) 24.Sunflower Seeds (50 seeds) 25. rutgers TOMATO (125 seed 26. pinto beans 27. Utah celery 28. jack-o-lantern pumpkin 29. peas green 30. cowpeas 31.cilantro 32. brussel sprouts 33. Georgia collard greens 34. turnip greens
From the SOS company, the pack contained 15,000 seeds of the same varieties that was packaged from vegan seeds. Some different and unique varieties in the SOS pack were Green Globe Artichoke, Spineless Okra, Fordhook Lima Bean, Long Purple Eggplant, Large Mixed Gourds, American Purple Top Rutabaga, Big Max Pumpkin, Bilicious Corn, Scotch Curled Kale, Boston Pickling Cucumber, Calabrese Broccoli, Crimson Sweet Watermelon, Giant Nobel Spinach, Green Arrow Pea, Green Flesh Honeydew Melon, Iceberg Lettuce, Large White Rib Swiss Chard, Long Island Brussels Sprouts, Mary Washington Asparagus, Peredovik Sunflower, Red Acre Cabbage, Paris Island Romaine, Purple Top Turnips, Red Cherry Tomato, Red Romaine Lettuce, Red Russian Kale, Roma Tomato, Ruby Onion, Small Sugar Pumpkin, Spaghetti Squash, Sweet Banana Pepper, Victoria Rhubarb, White Snow Puff Corn, Slow Bolt Arugula, Snowball Y Cauliflower, and Sweet Yolo Wonder Pepper. 

 

In the picture below are leftover seeds from previous years, flower seeds recently given to me, and seeds saved from the garden vegetables. Much of the seeds saved from the garden were melon seeds, cushaw seeds, etc. 

Additions to our Food & Ornamental forest

I like to say that I am building a food forest, likewise an ornamental forest, on this small, 0.6 acreage of land. I have been inspired by the garden magazines I have been reading, to add deciduous shrubs and trees to the landscape--so, we planted two Gold Rider Leyland Cypress trees, in the pictures below.

Grow greens year round (december 30th harvest)

Below is a picture of arugula, bok choy, lettuce, endive, and parsley harvest. I am convinced you can grow greens year round, including indoors.