Today in Wisconsin, I planted some seeds...

Today in Wisconsin, I planted some seeds...
Not out in the garden, mind you. They are in seed-starting flats in the house. I plan to get them growing before they are planted outdoors. These are all medicinal plants: thyme, lemonbalm, lemongrass, feverfew, St. John's Wart, Helichrysum and a few others.
I did plant my onions outside today. It's been a good spring, and I have faith. The other plants have to wait though.  I see my lemonbalm plant out in the garden from last year has started to produce leaves.  My yarrow plants look awesome already.
Around the yard, my apple trees are beginning to get their leaves, as well as my currant and blueberry bushes. I have a cherry tree also getting leaves. That was a bummer, as I had planned to trim it a bit, but time got away.
Our chicken bedding gets thrown right into the chicken run when we clean their house. In the run it turns to compost, and we put that on the raised beds this time of year.
We tried to buy some Cinnamon Queen chickens today, but the store was out of that breed today. So no new chickies today. Cinnamon Queens are highly superior in my opinion, for the cold temps in Wisconsin.  They are nice to each other and they lay eggs all winter.

It sounds like everything is going smooth in your springtime process!  Hopefully you can get some more chickies soon.

Ditto! The fruit trees (apple, pear, plum) are all taking off. My rhubarb is huge already. I got a load of compost and have started piling it around where my projects are this year. It is only the 2nd year here so I don't have enough of my own to utilize. I have tons of seeds started inside ready to plant once the morning frost quits.

The plans are:
-double or triple the garden size
-start a guild under the apple and pear trees, I am sick of mowing under them
-perennial pollinator strip along the roadway to also help with mowing/grass control
-train the raspberry thicket in to some semblance of control and order
-add edibles/perennials around the house/edges

Pretty much trying to take over as much lawn that I have to mow/weedwhack with useful plants as I can this year.

Where are you located? I haven't been buying chicks from the stores, near me everyone is hatching. I would go on facebook. There are a couple groups I could suggest based on your location. I am getting mine from a friend in a few weeks.

I planted 450 onions yesterday but it's spitting snow and windy so I might not get the rest in the ground today.  First batch of peas and greens are planted, not sure if it's too early for the greens.  

Mike Haasl wrote:I planted 450 onions yesterday but it's spitting snow and windy so I might not get the rest in the ground today.  First batch of peas and greens are planted, not sure if it's too early for the greens.  

Ooh yeah, I would be super interested in that update! My beans are getting huge so I would love to get them in the ground but I have been really nervous with this morning frost.

Peas are pretty frost hardy but beans are not.  I don't plant my beans up here till June 1 or so.  I usually grow a healthy row of beans and just plant seed in the ground.  So if you have extra seeds, feel free to risk it with your bean transplants and if they die, just plant the seeds and you'll still get a fine crop.

Haha, I was speed reading and read "greens" as "green beans"! I am used to seeing them paired with peas when I read. That was my mistake

Hi Mike,
I'm originally from Medford WI, though I am further south now. We always had the "wait until Memorial weekend" to plant the garden. Your comments bring back nice memories. I hope to retire up north someday. Maybe we'll see you then.

Hi L Amborn,
I am in southern WI, but I am not on Facebook. Thank you for the offer though. I will perhaps see the Amish about finding some Cinnamon Queens.

Blustery here today, and supposed to freeze tonight...

Oh my gosh! I just checked on my seeds I planted a week ago, I have  so many plants coming up and my calendula are huge already! I see a dozen lemon balm plants! I see lemon grass. Lots of thyme. This is so exciting! I am going to start some more seeds this weekend!