Gardening in the spring

I'm going to be teaching gardening to the Relief Society ladies at church on the 10th.  Any of your best gardening tips would be great - especially cutting costs when gardening. Link me to your posts in a comment or leave a comment here.

I've tried to kill off my basil a number of times already.  There was the time it was on the deck and it reached 80 degrees and well, imagine what the dark brown deck must have been.  They started to will and dry out.  I ran them inside to the air conditioning and gave them a cool drink of water.  

Then I left them out overnight when it got down to 34 degrees.  So I brought them in to warm up and gave them a warm drink of water.  My mom taught me that if I left them out and it got too cold you must bring them in before the sun hits them.  You might be able to save a few by letting them warm slowly.  

If the sun hits them they are goners.

Isn't it interesting the difference a few items in your garden can make?

For example, the row cover.  I purchased it and cut it and sewed it and added string through the ends so I could tighten it and tie it off on the ends.  I put it on my square foot garden nearest my master bedroom.  I have great spinach this year.  The large one I started indoors.  The smaller by seed.  Much easier to start off outside!

And all of my romaine is alive and most look really good after transplanting.  Some are smaller but they are all outside looking beautiful and I'm happy about that. 

And the dutch cabbages are all doing really well. 

And this Michihili chinese cabbage is doing great.  I had to pull 2 that went to seed.  I'm going to plant the seeds directly in the square foot garden with the cover and see how they do. 

My carrots are looking good. I thinned them after this photo. It's easier for me to thin them when they are tiny and don't quite look like a carrot.

And my big daddy onions are doing well.  I made a Tri-Tip roast this week and added in a bunch I had sliced and frozen from last year.  I will be making french onion soup with the beef stock and onions along with my Udi's gluten free bread as the crouton.

This is my Summertime lettuce.  It's starting to form a head.  My son informed me he thought it was a weed and was going to pull it out.  I'm so glad he didn't.

And my baby bok choy is looking nice as well. 

And out and away from the square foot garden I have my peas in my row garden.  

The nice thing about having the ball valves on each line of the drip line is that I can just water my onions and peas and garlic right now without watering the rest which means fewer weeds and less compacting of the soil before planting the rest of my garden.  It's a cold wet day today or I would be outside killing Bind Weed for sure. (It looks like morning glory) You can see a few sprouts next to the peas. It's also about time to thin the peas.

Our last frost date in May 16th but we usually get a good hail storm the first or second week in June.  I plant my pumpkin seeds on May 16th and have always had great success.  Corn can go in the same time. But things like pepper plants don't go out until the 3rd week in June.  Tomatoes go out but are covered.  Most are doing well.  Only one looks a little stressed out.  Squash, Zucchini and green beans get planted June 1st.