First Day of Spring

written by Yvonne

The seeds Tom planted several weeks ago have begun to sprout. So far what's sprouted is broccoli and/or cauliflower (yes, we're trying them both yet again).

The winter winds really made a mess of the hoop houses this year. When we put them up next fall we'll have some repairs to do for sure.

Olive always hates to see the hoop houses taken down because it means no more cats hiding underneath.

Honey did her part to help by eating as much grass as possible.

We have a great cookbook called "Greens, Glorious Greens" and it's all about how to cook all kinds of greens (imagine that).  There's one whole chapter on dandelion greens - yes, those dandelion green. The weeds that grow in your yard (pictured below.)

Bed #2 was chock full of dandelion greens. Tom has been dying to try them out in a dish but I was skeptical. I agreed to give them a try if he agreed to only harvest ones from the garden beds and not any from the yard where any number of dogs may have peed on them.  Ewww!

This is a before of bed #3 - chock full of weeds and possibly spinach.

Sure enough there was some good spinach in there!

On the other half of bed #3, I planted six varieties of lettuce. Hopefully they'll come up before it gets too hot.

Bed #2 wasn't as full of weeds because I'd already weeded half the bed not long ago.

After Tom pulled out all the dandelion greens, he uncovered some great collards, a little bit of kale, and some beets.

At the other end of bed #2 I planted cow peas, snap peas, and snow peas. That might be a bit too much for this small of an area, but we'll see.

 

Now THIS looks much better. The hoop houses are down for the season, three out of four beds have been weeded and planted, and the tall grass around the beds cut back.

The dogs were SO happy to enjoy the day outside, as were we.

Looks like it might be a successful Spring

written by Yvonne

Update on: Berries

It is so wonderful to watch the blackberries coming in. They are right next to the driveway so we get to monitor their progress daily.

As you can see, there are lots of them...

AND some of them are turning red!  (This photo makes them seem redder then they are in real life.)

It has been confirmed - we ended up with three blackberry plants and only one raspberry (instead of two of each).  This is the one that looked different from the others and is indeed raspberries.  And guess what...

some of THEM are turning red!!

The blueberries are more like greenberries at the moment.  They're small, but we'll take 'em!

Update on: Seedlings

The largest sprouts in the back are sunflowers. The smaller ones in the front are a variety of wildflowers.

Here we have some melons, and a few peppers.  In the back row are some spring veggies (lettuces and broccoli) that are too late to put out.  They look good here, but it will be far too hot for these guys to survive.

Some herbs are still coming along. Now that we've hit the high 80s/low 90s, these rest of these guys will hopefully start taking off.  If new sprouts don't come up by this weekend, I'll replant.

Some new onion seeds that were planted a few weeks ago have come up.

Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes.

Update on: Garden

Struggling basil. Plenty of time to start some more so I'm not worried.

Oregano, some of which I used the other day.

Scapes on the tops of our garlic. Last year we harvested them, but didn't know how to use them. I found some recipes and this year, we're using 'em. Basically use them as you would garlic but the flavor will be more mild. My plan? Pesto. If they aren't around long enough for the basil to mature, I'll make a parsley-based petso.

The broccoli and cauliflower are disappointing once again. No signs of the actual vegetable and now that it's hot, we'll have to pull them out soon.  Anyone have tips on growing this stuff?  I suspect we are trying to grow them in the wrong season. I know I said this was the last time I was going to try it, but I think I'll try again for fall/winter.

We'll be eating as much of this in the next week or so as possibly because it too will bolt soon.

Thyme, dill and cilantro are doing fine.

Each week the squash plants seem to double in size.

Even these two squash plants that had been damaged in the cold have sprouted new leaves so I think they're going to be OK as well.

The radishs are just about done. I'll pull the remaining four or five and we'll have those in our salads this week.

Spinach is just barely showing signs of bolting so the race is on to use it up by this weekend.

The largest chard plant on the left has bolted but I think I can get one or two more dishes out of them before pulling them up this weekend.

Marjoram.

Finally looked in our garden layout to see what the heck this is - chamomile!

One okra hanging on (among a ton of weeds).  It won't be long before this becomes a 10 foot tree.

Cow peas (and a lot of weeds) struggling, but still there. One week it looks like it's not going to make it, then new leaves show up.  We'll see what happens.

Last week the first snow pea blossoms showed up and this week...

PEAS!!!  There were enough for a handful to snack on.  The plants aren't nearly as tall as they were last year, but that may be because of the type of trellis we're using this year vs. last.

Carrot tops (and lots of weeds) looking good.

Kale.

Beet greens are looking good, but I noticed some of the bulbs have popped out out of the ground.  I stuck them back in hopes they'll hang on and get bigger.

The sad, yellow thing in the upper right and lower left corners were cucumbers.  Luckily, there are seeds that have spouted in the min-greenhouse so all is not lost.

Cooking, Putting Up, and Other Such Stuff

Dinner last night was sauted chard, garlic, lemon juice, and a can of chick peas tossed with cork-screw pasta and feta.

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Mapping new seedling locations

written by Yvonne

Lots of seedlings are coming up quick so I moved forward and began transplanting them into the beds.  Each seedling (in its marked newspaper pot) was placed where it will be planted. Then, before I planted them, and was no longer able to determine what's what, I pulled out the garden layout and noted where each item was to be planted. Olive helped, of course.

I'd read a tip on transplanting seedlings. If using a biodegradable pot (like newspaper or peat), you don't need to take the plant out of the pot, you just stick the whole thing in the ground.  This is one reason I LOVE using  newspaper: It uses up newspaper already on hand, no extra money spent on pots, and you get to plant the whole thing!  Simply pull off the bottom of the pot so the roots can grow, and set the whole thing in the ground.  The bottom peals back real easy since it's been sitting in water.

Seedlings that found a home in the beds this weekend included:

• Black beauty squash
• Straight neck squash
• Muncher cucumbers
• Beets
• Red sails lettuce
• Mesclun lettuce
• Buttercrunch lettuce
• Kale
• Radishes
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Marjoram
• Basil
• Oregano (given to me by Pam - we'll try it again and see what happens)
• Chamomile

Lots and lots of seeds in pots

written by Yvonne

Last weekend I opted to sew instead of garden. But, alas, there is much work to be done if we are to have a bountiful harvest. According to the 10-day forecast, the lowest evening temperature we're lookin' at is 48.  (Guess we're not going to get a real winter this year.)  Therefore it's time to take the row covers off and prep the soil for Spring/Summer.  A Jerry Baker Spring Soil Booster was made with beer, mouthwash, dish soap, corn syrup and instant tea. I applied that to all four beds.

Here's what poppin' up: Buttercrunch lettuce, radishes...

Beets, red sails lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, kale and mesclun (I can't seem to find a consistent spelling of this word... sort of like hummus/houmous/humus)...

and basil, chamomile, and marjoram.

Out in the boxes, both types of peas have sprouted - well more than sprouted actually. This cowpea was planted two weeks ago. The cowpeas that wee planted two weeks prior to that, have not come up.

These snow peas are taking off.  It isn't visible in this photo, but two of them have runners.  Gotta get the stakes out so they'll have something to grab on to.

The arugula has fed us well, but it has flowered and thus needed to be removed to make space for something else.

I think coleslaw is on the menu for this weekend!

Swiss chard, collards and spinach (which you can't see very well - it's between the collards and the cabbage) are producing quite a bit.  We ate Swiss chard this week and we'll have collards tonight and this weekend. Now that it's getting warmer, we'll be pulling the collards out in the not too distant future.  In the meantime, I'm going to use as many of these greens over the next few weeks as possible.

Garlic - 'nough said.