Fresh-from-the-garden salad

There is NOTHING like a salad of fresh greens.  I've been enjoying them for a week now.

So today was a gorgeous day to work and we have a weekend of impending thunderstorms, so I worked outside for more than 5 hours today.  The garden looks great.  I finally decided the mystery plant is a weed -- if one's definition of weed is "anything which is growing in the wrong place." -- so I pulled it.

Pole Beans

The Giant Caesar lettuce I planted didn't sprout -- perhaps old seed -- so I replanted one square and planted an additional square of it -- I love the taste and texture of it.  The pole beans have sprouted, but I lost two of the cherry tomato plants.  I may just plant 2 more beans on that tower instead.

The surviving cherry tomatoes look great!

Speaking of tomatoes, I have my tomato tower and bed set up.  I need to add a layer of composted cow manure on top of the grass clippings, and I make a well of soil for each plant.  Since I took this picture, I have planted 3 "Hungarian Heart" heirloom tomato plants from Cook's Garden.  I will plant three "Pink Brandywine" plants, and I'm not sure what I'll put on the two remaining poles.




I also planted one blackberry and one raspberry plant.  And the strawberries are looking really good:





I planted a watermelon "Sugar Baby" plant.  It's a small, seedless watermelon.  I'm experimenting with something different with it.  I put up a something for the plant to grow on to and to support the melon.  I used the wire grids from an old compost bin, and lashed it onto a bamboo pole support.  In the background are a number of different types of iris, including Louisiana Bog Iris and flags, in my rain detention bed.

I also got the rest of the lawn mowed today, and  used the grass clippings to mulch around a lot of stuff.  I planted an azalea to replace a butterfly bush that didn't survive.  In fact none of my butterfly bushes made it through the winter -- I have two dwarf bushes I need to replace.

And....just because.....more pictures of the garden:

More pictures of the garden

First of all, here's my mystery plant.  I have no idea what this is.  I don't know if this is weed, or a volunteer of something worth keeping.  If anyone out there in the blogosphere knows what this is, please let me know!

AAANNNNNDDDD..... Here's the garden.  On the left are cauliflower plants and baby beet plants.  Next is kale and red romaine, interspersed with onions.  The second picture has broccoli in front and tennisball lettuce and baby carrot plants. The third picture has my Winter Marvel butter crunch and the mystery plant/weed.  The open space to the right of the Winter Marvel will be Giant Caesar lettuce -- one of my favorites.  The fouth and final picture shows my bean/tomato tower which will have pole beans on two sides and cherry tomatoes on the other two.  Behind the tower are 2 squash plants (two stils protect by cut out milk jugs), and there are baby radishes around the milk jug furthest away from you in the pictures.

Those are grass clippings around the broccoli and in the base of the tower.  Great mulch/weed barrier.

A close-up of the rasdish seedlings around the squash plant.  They'll be harvested well before the squash takes over the space.

I've been a bit frustrated with the bell peppers I've started from seed.  All germinated, but keeping the seedlings alive long enough to grow a few more pairs of leaves has not been easy for some reason.  I don't remember having this trouble in the past, but.....   Here's one of the Purple Belle pepper plants that is doing well.

Here's my new project -- a new bed for tomatoes!  18 cinder blocks loaded on to a cart, then into the car, then out of the car and around the back of the house.  I broke down one of the compost piles and partially filled the bed.  I need to get some composted cow manure, and then I'm building my tomato frame out of bamboo poles a la Kevin Lee Jacob's technique.

I'm not a big tomato fan -- there's a mild allergy which runs in the family, and I suspect that's part of it.  But my husband and my youngest like tomatoes.  I'm going to plant Pink Brandywine heirlooms, and Hungarian Heart.  I already have the cherry tomatoes on the tower, so I haven't decided what other varieties I'm going to plant  I'll have room for 8 plants.

I'm also going to put in a smaller bed for one raspberry and one blackberry plant.  I'll let you know how that goes!

Kale, Glorious Kale!

I am in the throws of Finals Week, annd have spent the last couple weeks grading, grading, grading.  I have also worked in the garden, but haven't really had the time or energy to write my post here.  But there is so much happening that I'll probably have several posts over the next week to make up.  :-)

April 26th -- look at all those cute little plants!










May 4th:  Look at that kale, and the cute little Tennis Ball lettuce next to it!  It's grown so much in the last week!

Here's a closer look at the Tennis Ball buttercrunch lettuce.

The Winter Marvel buttercrunch seedlings are also doing great, and I actually harvested  some of it today for my colleague Megan who has been missing fresh veggies.

I'm going to harvest more tomorrow because we're supposed to have serious thunderstorms this weekend, and I don't want to lose anything.












Plans for tomorrow and Friday include:

• put up the rabbit fence  -- although I suspect I have to worry more about our two dogs, who like to partake of the veggie buffet.
• finish the new bed for the tomatoes.  Assemble the poles/trellis/thingy for them.
• build the new smaller bed for the raspberry and blackberry plants.
• get the new beds topped off with compost/soil/etc.
• plant the pole beans.
• plant more lettuce.

Next week, I need to work on the daylily beds -- I have over 300 square feet of daylilies.  :-)  I'm going to use Kevin Lee Jacob's newspaper technique, substituting cardboard as I have a plentiful supply of that.  That means I'll be buying mulch, too.

Green, Green, Everywhere is Green!

It's always amazing this time of year.  Days of warmth and sunshine, and timely doses of rain, and everything seems to be growing almost in front of one's eyes.  Unfortunately that also includes the   grass, but....that's a small price to pay for all the flowers and veggies which are popping up, growing by leaps and bounds.

Garden Update:

The lemon cucumber seeds I planted to replace the plants I killed are starting to pop up.  I have Brown Russians started indoors, and I'll transfer them outside this week.

Purple Belle and Grand bell peppers

I planted the bell peppers with a little protection.  I'll get the habeneros and jalapenos planted later this week.  I'm also going to plant some radishes in and around the pepper plants. They have a fast timeline to harvest, so they'll be ready to pick before the pepper plants get too big.

Tomato Plants

I planted a couple cherry tomato plants, and started some Pink Brandywine heirloom tomatoes.  I think I'm going to build a separate support for the Brandywines, probably something like this.  The question is, where do I set it up?  I think for this year I'll use the smaller 4'X4' bed.    But in the long run, and based on what I learn this year, I think I'll be resetting my entire garden set up.  To that end, I was reading Kevin's amazing blog this morning, especially his post about his garden set-up.  I don't know if I need something that extensive, but....I'm already starting to feel I want more space, especially for more lettuce!

Kale, lettuce, onions

Cauliflower and beet sprouts

The kale and lettuce are coming along nicely, and the onions, beets, and carrots have sprouted.    I need to think out the beets in another week or so -- the baby beet leaves will make a nice addition to salads.















My winter buttercrunch is coming along nicely, too!  Not too long before I can start harvesting some of the leaves.



I think I have some volunteer marigolds coming up.  I need to let them grow some more so I can be sure that's what they are, and then I'll move them to where I want them. I also need to get the nasturtiums and zinnias going.
















Here are my summer squash.  New leaves are coming, and they seem to be happy in their plastic tubes.

How much longer till I can pick lettuce?

Winter Buttercrunch Lettuce

Lettuce is coming along just fine.  I'm hoping in just a couple more weeks I can start picking some!


Everything else is coming along reasonably well.  This kale, and if you look closely, you can see that the onions have sprouted.

This is Red Romain and onions. 

More kale.

I planted the squash today.  I put some open-topped plastic jugs around them for some wind protection until they complete harden off.

I also brought out the tomato seedlings to harden off.  I want to get them planted next week.

And here are the winter sowing jugs.  Some sprouted, and some didn't.  I'm keeping track of which ones didn't sprout, and I'll adjust accordingly next year.

The poor cucumbers did indeed not survive, so I replanted seeds.  I had lemon cucumber seeds on hand.  I ordered some more Brown Russian cucumber seeds from Cook's Garden, and I'll get those planted this week.

I also ordered TunLCovers.   I'm very disappointed with the hoops and fabric arrangement I was trying to use.  Everything just pulls out of the soil, in part because the soil in my raised beds is so friable. I even tried Earth Staples, but.....nothing held them in.  We'll see if the TunLCovers work any better.

The Veggies Are Coming! The Veggies Are Coming!

Although the temperatures have dropped again, it was a bright, sunshiny weekend, and I was able to get outside a bit.  Still battling the last dregs of the respiratory garbage, but doing MUCH better.  So while I can't work as LONG as I want before I wear out, at least I CAN  do something.

The garden has been under cover to protect the seedlings from the cold.  Most of the past week has been cold and grey and generally unpleasant, so in celebration of the sunshine, I took the cover off for most of yesterday and let the garden soak up the warmth and sun.

I already have my bean/tomato tower in place.  I'm thinking about wrapping the bottom of it in bubble wrap so I can at least get some tomato plants in the ground.  I'm thinking I'll do cherry tomatoes on two sides, and beans on the other two.

One thing I did discover is that I did one job TOO well -- The cucumber plants I had plastic bottle cloches over were NOT happy.  From the look of them, I suspect they got a bit too warm, so I took the cloches off, and we'll see if they recover.  If not, well, cucumber seeds sprout quickly, so all is good.

My daughter Brigitte is currently a Rotary Youth Exchange student in Debrecen, Hungary, and apparently they don't have a lot of veggies available.  I'm not sure if that is "it isn't in season" thing (which would be typical of most of Eastern Europe), or if it is a general statement on their cuisine.  So the next pictures are for my veggie-starved girl.

This is a kale seedling.  It is starting to develop second leaves.

This is Red Romaine lettuce.  I'm not always a fan of the dark red lettuces, despite their wonderful nutritional value.  To me they taste bitter.  But.....when mixed with other things, it's OK, and it's good for us.

This is some of the lettuce I planted last time -- this is Tennis Ball Buttercrunch.  It makes small, loose-leaf head of yummy buttercrunch lettuce.  I also planted baby romaine, but forgot to take a picture of that.  

The lettuce is interspersed with carrots, but I'm not sure they have sprouted yet.

And the winter sowing jugs are doing great! These are all flowers.

I'm also starting to prep the side 4 X 4 bed, which will be all peppers, and such.  I'm going to use cloches, etc., so I can put them out soon, and I'll intersperse root crops that will be harvested before the peppers start producing.  Radishes and carrots, and maybe beets.

First Day of Spring --Planting Day!

The last few weeks have been hectic and frustrating.  I managed to get the respiratory garbage that has been going around, to the point that I've spent the last 10 days or so on antibiotics and steroids.  Not my favorite thing to do, as the steroids make me jittery, and also make me crave salty foods.  Fortunately this past week has been Spring Break, and I have taken full advantage of that to sleep, relax, and (I hope) get healthy.

Monday was gorgeous -- in the 70s, but I had absolutely no inclination to do ANYTHING except sit on the couch. Today, it's in the 50s and overcast, but otherwise was a great day to work outside.  So I took the dogs out and hooked them up to the leads so they could run around, and to work I went.

I was out there yesterday to check on things, and guess what!  I have sprouts!  It's the kale I planted back in early February.  No sign of the red romane or the onions yet -- I may have to replant those.

See those tiny dots of green?  Just two little seed leaves.  But they sprouted!

Buoyed by those little bits of green, I got to work with some planting.  I've been reading up on what I intended to plant in the vegetable gardening book I found while cleaning out bookshelves.  According to that book, when planting cruciforms like cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli, one should use a cabbage collar to deter cabbage fly, etc.   The book recommended using carpet padding or something of the like.  Well, I have some left over heavy polar fleece, so I'm going to try that.  I may put a double layer -- I'm going to see how what I put down holds up in the next week or so.  It certainly adds a bit of color.

Inside each square of polar fleece is a cauliflower plant that has been hardening off in the cold frame for the last 10 days.  Along the edge, with plastic bottle cloches, are cucumber plants -- Brown Russians in the picture above.  The lemon cucumbers are in the two squares to the right of the ones in the picture above.  Once it is warm enough to take the cloches off, I'll start training the cucumbers up on the trellis.

I also planted two of each variety of broccoli I started --Waltham and Romanesco.  I have 2-4 more starts of each of them still in the cold frame.  I need to adjust my garden plan now that I've actually planted a few more things, and see what I have to work with.  I may put the rest of the broccoli in the raised bed where the peppers will eventually go, as the peppers won't be ready to plant for a while.

I started some winter buttercrunch lettuce indoors -- I haven't transplanted lettuce seedlings before -- I usually just seed directly.  But I hoped to get a head start on some lettuce, and this is a cold weather variety, so.....we'll see how it goes!

As you can also see, I've been moving the hoops around.  Still not sure how that will evolve.

After I planted everything, I covered it with the garden fabric to give it a bit of protection as the nights are still a bit chilly.

Winter Sowing Jugs Update:

I am thrilled to report the first evidence of seeds sprouting in my winter sowing jugs!  A few seedlings have begun to pop in a couple of the jugs:

There are a myriad of other signs a spring all over the yard -- daylilies are beginning to send up fans, and the daffodils have poked up their leaves.  A few of the tulip leaves have a emerged, as well, and the Autumn Joy sedum has emerged from its winter hibernation.  That means I have a lot of winter dead to get trimming!