Thursday, May 31, 2018

Hot dry days

We have had a week now of unseasonably warm weather. The ground dried and cracked a few days ago where not tended with a garden hose. Most of the early greens like spinach, tatsoi, cilantro, parsley and mizuna have bolted at this point. The good side of this is that I will soon have a lot of open garden space for planting the celery, cucumbers, kale, peppers and beans that were started in the basement.

The experiment with planting a lot of lettuce closely together did not pan out. Most of the plants have remained very small while the lettuce with more space has matured nicely. I will probably replant the smaller lettuce to give it more room to grow once the beds are cleared.

Holes are appearing in my choi leaves. I wonder if they are related to the flies I have seen congregating on the plants, or if it is slugs and I need to refresh the beer traps?

Raspberries, peas, columbine, lupine, azalea, rhododendron, iris and coral bells are blooming. Peonies, lily, loosestrife and clematis are preparing to open. Apples, forget-me-nots, quince, lilac, bleeding hearts and tulips are mostly done. The maple trees just dropped more seeds than I can ever remember seeing before.

I need to get the irrigation system going soon, do some transplanting and build a couple more frames(?).


Azalea, rhododendron and coral bells

Columbine, lupine, azalea, clematis

Fly on choi, related to holes in leaves?

Super Sugar Snap peas blooming/Shade cloth





Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Harvest






Insect on Lily


Monday, May 28, 2018

Memorial Day Pics

Bee balm. zinnia, alyssum, delphinium

Morning harvest

Kale, choi, lettuce, chard, peas

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Transplanting

Last night I transplanted what was left of the most recent tray of 3/4" soil blocks. Included in the operation were California Wonder sweet peppers, Sun Gold cherry tomatoes, Tango celery, and Catnip. Blue Lake green beans and slicing cucumber that were soaked and planted a few days ago are beginning to emerge. Yellow and zucchini style summer squash seeds were planted after being soaked for a couple of days. The marigolds were planted directly outside after sprouting yesterday morning. I have decided that sprouting them in paper towels in a baggie makes them difficult to transfer because the roots grow through the paper towel. Next time I will just plant them directly in soil in trays.


Something took out a few of my carrots last night and left a neat hole. I may have to build a chicken wire protective fence around some frames even though I am in a residential neighborhood. 

Here is our asparagus harvest from yesterday. This will be one of the last asparagus harvests this year. The remaining shoots are getting thin and will need to mature to feed the roots for next spring.



Friday, May 18, 2018

Mizuna bolting

The mizuna that was planted directly in the center frame was observed bolting this morning, so I harvested all of it for salads. It will grow back for another cutting. The round radishes are about ready for full harvesting. I think that I will make sauerkraut with them again this year. The space that they occupied will be given over to the celery which are growing but still very tiny in the basement. The daikon radishes still have a ways to go.

There is a lot of parsley which will become tabouli and vitality beverage. The tatsoi is ready for harvest and the choi can be harvested for leaves at any time now.

Parsley, Radishes, Mizuna, Peas, Lettuce, Garlic

Choi, Tatsoi, Peas, Lettuce, Kale

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Seedlings

A view of the seedlings, some of which will be planted out tomorrow. Some will be transplanted into larger containers tonight. Some will be left to grow for another day of transplanting.





Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Tuesday harvest

The first radishes, parsley, asparagus and dandelion greens.



Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Uncovering the greenhouse

The greenhouse was uncovered this morning. I am a little concerned about the direct sun scalding the leaves which have been growing under diffuse light, so placed Agribon over all of the frames.

Center frame

Far frame

Near frame

Greenhouse sans cover

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Return of the breakfast of champions

We have been enjoying breakfasts and lunches supplemented from the garden, especially since the asparagus began shooting up.

Breakfast quinoa with asparagus from the garden

Middle frame progress

Lunch salad from the garden (beet sprouts, kale, choi and parsley)

Morning harvest

Monday, May 7, 2018

Saturday, May 5, 2018

Forsythia and vinca


First asparagus harvest


The first asparagus harvest is nearly a month later than last year due to the cold spring.

Asparagus bed


First harvest

Turtie to the rescue!

Our favorite turtle has once again come to the rescue carrying weed fighting tools to the asparagus bed. With her help I was able to eradicate the vicious and deep rooted Curly Dock.

Turtie facing off against the fearsome Curly Dock


Turtie smiles victorious!

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Warmer temperatures have finally arrived

This past weekend was productive. I was able to start another tray of 3/4" seed blocks (180 blocks) to make up for things that did not germinate well in the last batch (most likely due to lower soil temps). I planted sweet pepper, basil, chard, celery and more tomatoes (Sun Gold). I also started kale, romaine lettuce, morning glory and catnip . This time, I put a 6' string of lights under a single tray and set the thermostat to 80 F. Kale and lettuce seedlings began to appear within three days.

I also harvested about 6 gallons of kale before the plants got too far along in bolting. Much of that will be frozen for use in smoothies.

On Monday I transplanted from the basement into the garden about 50 plants composed mostly of choi and mizuna along with a couple of chard.

First transplants

Pre-transplant harvest

New 3/4" seed block tray with kale and lettuce sprouting