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!

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.

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.