BiPolar.....

I swear that it's not just Spring that's gone Bipolar.  Nowadays every day seems to have the swing from one extreme to another.  Fortunately for my sanity, the good is equal to or better than the bad.  It's nice.

The garden is still going strong.  The potato plants have exploded upwards.  Even two bags of potting soil wasn't enough to lift the soil level to the next board.  So next week I'll be getting four more bags.  And fingers crossed that we will get a lot of potatoes this year because we are definitely eating a lot of them.

The peas are seriously happy.  And even with pods on the vines they are growing even taller.  Next year I will have to double the trellis height.  Right now I'm looking forward to the yummy harvest.

The greens are doing fabulous.  And I've been teaching more than one person the basics of doing a "cut and come again" greens garden.  And we brainstormed on doing them in a variety of ways, including gutters and upright PVC pipes. 

None of the cucumbers came up, even though I used new seed with the old.  So I gave in and bought starter packs.  I will be putting up that trellis next week, and the one for the tomatoes.  Some of the tomatoes and peppers are already flowering.

I got the sweet potato slips, and got them in the ground.  Then I discovered I could start them myself at home.  It was one of those palm/head moments.  I remember reading something once that had convinced me that you shouldn't start them at home but I can't remember what it was for the life of me.  So starting next year I will be starting my own.  One less expense.

One of the ideas shared was doing strawberries in upright 8" pvc pipes.  I like the idea but I'm debating altering it slightly.  The original had them set up as a fence line with bracers between the pipes.  I'm thinking about making them the corners of the trellises for the garden beds.  My only conflict with this is that I move the trellises with the plants.  So if I do it, I may set them in place as permanent uprights at the corners and sides.  Then I can add the remainder of the trellis elements as needed for whatever is planted in the garden bed.  Of course there is an area that I could do them as fencing along, but it's rather deep in the shade during late spring and summer.  So it's probably not the best spot for strawberries.

It finally got warm enough that I could put the Ghost peppers out in the garden.  I was surprised at how small the root system was considering the size of the plants.  These are definitely going to have to be pampered through the dry months here unless that root system does some amazing things once it's in the ground.  But I'm looking forward to harvesting them and making stuff for my brother.  I'm also debating testing them in my Hab Gold recipe.  It should be interesting.

And now that I'm coming out of my shell more I'm finding more similar minded folks.  I've found a couple who are just as much into gardening and canning as I am.  And a couple more who want to be.  It's been absolutely wonderful to be able to freely talk about stuff and brainstorm things.

So the positives are outweighing the negatives right now which is definitely wonderful for us.  I hope the same can be said for you all.