{"id":3871,"date":"2015-01-21T18:28:51","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T00:28:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/?p=3871"},"modified":"2016-08-06T10:54:53","modified_gmt":"2016-08-06T16:54:53","slug":"its-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year-time-to-think-about-getting-dirty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/homesteademporium.com\/blog\/2015\/01\/21\/its-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year-time-to-think-about-getting-dirty\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Time to think about getting dirty!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It’s that time of the year again!<\/div>\n
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So many are saying winter is lasting too long and they can’t wait until it’s over. I say it’s going by much too fast!\u00a0There’s so much to do before spring arrives!<\/div>\n
First and foremost on the agenda is planning and preparing for the garden!<\/div>\n
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\"The<\/a>

The garden today. Snowy but still providing corn stalks for the pigs and sunflower heads for the egg layers.<\/p><\/div>\n

This past weekend hubby got to work putting together our new tiller. This is the first time we won’t have to borrow or rent a tiller to break ground in our garden. He managed to get it all done, and ready to go! So nice to know that once the snow melts, we can start turning dirt! Ahhh… I just love the thought of it. We’ve been tossing our ash into the garden all winter, and come spring we’ll add in some compost that’s been brewing from our kitchen and all our animals for the past 2 years, we’ll till it all in, and away we go for another gardening season!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Garden plot planning has begun.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

On my agenda, is picking out a second tiller, a small one for keeping on top of the weeds between aisles this year. It’s my birthday wish, (last year I asked for, and received, a seeder! It’s wonderful, especially for planting all the little seeds like carrots, beets, corn, etc.) and hubby asked me to research which tiller\u00a0I think\u00a0I’ll like best. I’ve narrowed it down to two, and I’ve asked him to research them a little further and decide which he feels\u00a0is the best and will last the longest. These are the two we are researching so far.<\/div>\n
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http:\/\/www.tillersdirect.com\/Honda-FG110K1AT-Cultivator\/p6414.html<\/a><\/div>\n
http:\/\/www.tillersdirect.com\/Troy-Bilt-21AK146G766-Cultivator\/p13732.html<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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One of my favourite garden preps to do is order THE SEEDS!<\/em>
\nLast year I ordered my seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, also known as\u00a0rareseeds.com<\/a><\/div>\n
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Their catalogue is my favourite magazine. Seriously! The photos are fantastic, as you can see on their website, and I love reading all about the different varieties and dreaming up what I’ll plant this year! And dream about things I’ll plant in future years, once I get a little better at this gardening thing.<\/div>\n
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I thought I’d share with you what I’ve ordered, and add in some notes about why I’m re-ordering some of these, and how they grew for me last year.<\/div>\n
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First off, this year I decided NOT to order any of the following seeds that I would have to start indoors:<\/div>\n
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Tomatoes, peppers, and onions.<\/div>\n
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Last year I attempted to grow each of those from seed and since I do not have a proper set up with natural light, it just wasn’t worth the effort. My pepper plants we ‘ok’ but didn’t transfer well, but since they looked promising, I ended up not buying many new plants and thus had no peppers to speak of last year.<\/div>\n
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My tomato plants were all VERY leggy, so they really didn’t do well at all and I ended up replacing any and all plants with starts from the nursery. So that was a pretty good waste of my time. Something I don’t have an extra abundance of here between the homestead, homeschooling and the business!<\/div>\n
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Onions, again, they started our promising, but since I was using heat lamps and not proper grow lamps, none grew enough to amount to anything, and again, simply a waste of my time. We ended up buying 200 starter bulbs, and they grew fantastic, so we’ll go that route from the start and forget about the seeds.<\/div>\n
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Last years bounty.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Here’s what I DID order again this year:<\/strong><\/div>\n
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\"Golden<\/a><\/div>\n
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Golden Bantam 12-Row Corn<\/a><\/h2>\n