Another Super-Duper Spring Day

written by Yvonne

Although we both would have rather been sitting on the front porch reading and/or napping, there was much Spring gardening and yard work to do. Luckily the weather was beyond beautiful which made it much easier to haul our butts outside to get some work done; high was 54 with not a cloud in the sky.

Tom has been out of town for a while so this was his first opportunity to get back to the strawberries. There were 12 plants left over from the first planting so he bought some dirt, filled up several pots, and planted the remaining strawberries.

The first round of plants have already started to flower.

According to Master Gardener Jerry Baker, we are to pinch off all the berries that form between now and mid-summer. This will ensure a Fall crop this year and two harvests each year thereafter.  It's hard to see but in the dead center of this photo you can see a berry starting. Off with it's head!

Spring = greens, greens, and more greens which makes TY happy, happy and more happy!  I harvested four bags of kale and four bags of collards. These were from plants that were overwintered, proving that it does pay to plant things in late Fall/early Winter for an early Spring harvest. We had already planted more kale and collards several weeks ago so hopefully we'll get one more round of greens before the heat of the summer hits.

What does one do with so many greens?

• Friday night was kale pesto pasta.
• Saturday morning we added kale to our breakfast green smoothie.
• Saturday night it was sauteed collards with grit cakes, tomatoes and eggs.
• Tonight there's a BIG kale salad waiting for us with some fish on the side.
• Tomorrow night we'll have sauteed collards with more fish.
• Tuesday night Tom will make grits and greens.
• And any greens left over after all this will make its way into our breakfast smoothies the rest of the week. (I know you wish you were here, Rebecca.)

What?! Another batch of greens? Yes, but this is lettuce and spinach. This was also overwintered. Lunch for the week!

There was a freeze warning last night (temps dropped into the 20s) which is exactly why we left the hoops up on the bed with growing greens.  Tom covered them up for the night and everything survived just fine.

While Tom was busy breaking our lawn mower, I got busy planting the rest of the Spring seeds which included:

• snow peas
• snap peas
• cress
• spinach
• onions (2 varieties)
• beets
• carrots (2 varieties)
• cabbage (round 2)

All four beds are now fully planted for the Spring. Next up, we'll start summer veg in pots and keep them in the greenhouse until the weather gets nice and hot.

Growing, Growing, Growing!

written by Yvonne

These beets made it all the way through a very cold winter, now it's time to eat 'em up. These few small beets produced two bags worth of greens. In addition, I harvested another three bags of spinach.

These are the beets still left in the ground. They've started to bolt so they'll be pulled up this week.

I planted bed #4 full of seeds right before winter hit and crossed my fingers that some would "take" but most didn't. Everything you see here is grass/weeds. Tom did a superb job of tilling the soil and getting the bed ready for summer plantings.

Hey look!  A few carrots did grow after all. They got thrown in with the beets and a few red potatoes, some garlic, purple onion, and asparagus for an oven-roasted root veg dinner Sunday night. Yum!

Once he tilled up the bed, he stuck in a couple of cages in and plated the three cucumber plants that were started in pots. At the very end of the bed (where you can see green) there is some Swiss chard coming up. We haven't been able to put hay down around the chard yet because it's hard to tell what is chard and what is weeds. The chard, however, is just now getting big enough that we'll be able to snuff out those weeds soon.

The rest of the photos are general updates on our Spring plantings:

Pole beans and bush beans.

One of these is broccoli and one is cabbage.

Crowder peas.

Lettuce, lettuce, lettuce

Spinach and kale.

Snap peas and snow peas.

BERRIES that are now starting to flower.

This is that one spot where we've attempted several things but had no luck. Tom planted some volunteer tomatoes here last year and they did good for a while, but ultimately the cold got to them so we don't know for a fact that tomatoes would grow here.  This year we're trying out two very hardy vegetables that grow very well in the beds, but take up a lot of space. On the left we planted okra and on the right is one straight-neck squash seedling and some black beauty squash seeds.  It will be great if these do well here because it would save us room in the beds.

And as usual, the dogs enjoyed their day in the garden with us.  :)

If you want to keep up with this year's bee news, be sure to go to www.tsbeeshoney.com. Doesn't look like there will be any honey for sale this year. As "urban farmers" we are at the whims of nature and that means sometimes we'll have success and sometimes not.

Spring Garden Well Under Way

written by Yvonne

One day these berry canes were just bare sticks. Next day, poof! They sprouted leaves. Tom chopped them all the way to the ground last fall. We'll see if they produce berries this year or not. Hopefully they will.

Another surprise? The oregano came back in the herb box and it's growing fast too. I cut some for drying because we are all out.

The three types of peas (snow, snap, cow) I planted two weeks ago have ALL sprouted. There are about 15 plants in all that have come up. One set of peas I forgot to plant were crowder peas Dan (Tom's brother) brought us last year. I'll get those planted this weekend or the next.

It's hard to see, but the small rows of green are lettuce. We've gotten some good rain over the last several days which has really made everything spring up.

These carrots were actually planted at the end of last fall. They survived the winter under the hoop houses and are now coming up.

Seeds were started in pots for the following items: cilantro, basil, thyme, chives, dill, two kinds of summer squash, two varieties of cucumbers, six kinds of tomatoes. Seeds were sown directly in the beds for beets and Swiss chard.

The rain really brought on a lot of spinach. Before the current plants bolt, I wanted to harvest as much as possible.

All of the collard plants began to bolt (even though it hasn't been that hot, so I'm not sure what's up with that) so I harvested all I could get from them before pulling them out. The two Russian kale plants still looked good so I left them in the ground but there wasn't enough to harvest this week.

This is the oregano to be dried after getting a quick bath.

This week's harvest produced four bags of spinach and three bags of collards. Guess what we're eating this week? Green, greens and more greens!

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.

Another Bed Planted

written by Yvonne

Time to tackle bed #4.  It's been overgrown for some time now, and while nothing new may grow, it won't hurt anything to clean it out and throw some seeds down. So that's what I did.

After cleaning it out, I planted cabbage, 2 kinds of carrots, and Swiss chard. Tom only had enough materials for a half bed's worth of hoop house which he installed on this bed once I was done.

Wow! Look at that lettuce!

The kale gets harvested down about every two weeks now.

We'll be eating beat greens VERY soon. They need to get just a little bit larger.

Collards are getting harvested about once every three weeks now.

Wait, what's this? How did these get in here?

 

Looks like someone was helping to split firewood. Just get the wedge in place, pound it down with the sledgehammer a bunch of times and...

Paula Bunyan proudly shows off her fine log-splitting work.  :)