Towering snap peas

The snap peas have been a winner again this year. They came up quickly and easily and are now 5 feet tall and starting to produce the first sweet snap peas.

Soil fungus

Some of sort of fungus has attacked. It's growing on the surface like eggs, with tindrilly, moldy roots growing 1 inch down. I suspect it's from mixing in the mulch when I turned the soil.

I dug up patches of it all over the garden. But it might take something more.

Onions, carrots, radish early June

Everything is coming up well since the fence went up. The second round of lettuce is coming in thick. The carrots are growing tall. And the onions are starting to flower. I thinned the radishes and carrots tonight.

Suck it rabbits!

The (hopefully) rabbit-proof fence. Ok, so they can likely jump more than 3 feet high. Hmm, the interwebs tells me that rabbits can jump "36 inches or higher...". I'm willing to gamble that there is enough easy to reach food that rabbits will be detered by the fence. Besides, even if it isn't entirely effective against rabbits, it can surely keep out the litterbox cats and baby D.

Growing Persian cucumbers

Cucumber seedlings emerged after just 1 week. I have started long Persians from seed as well as a pickling cucumber. I just can't help shunning the durable marketmore in favor of more interesting flavors. If last year is any prediction, I will go crawling back to the garden center for some marketmore starts to supplement my failing fancy cucumbers

Growing strawberries

Growing strawberries might be my favorite part of the food garden. The perennial strawberries come back year after year and the biggest issues I face with them are that they spread like crazy and the birds love them. So, I have to pull out a few stray runners and cover the patch with bird netting as June approaches. Those two things aside, they are pure joy. They grow easily and don't seem to have any insect pests. Even when I don't remember to water regularly, they turn out fine. The flavor of garden strawberries is unlike anything I have ever found in a store and the kids gobble them right out of the garden. I love to see the strawberry juice running down their chins as their cheeks bulge with berries.

Growing red onions part 2

The red onions are getting bigger by the week. Here they are on May 16th.

Growing red onions

These onions are about 3 weeks old. Started from commercial starts about the size of a gumball. Onions are supposed to help keep insect pets away from the garden.

Growing spinach

At 6 weeks, the spinach is looking good. They are coming in pretty well and show good growth. There is some leaf damage from an insect, but otherwise, the plants look healthy.

Growing carrots in a small garden

The nantes carrots are just about 3 inches high at 6 weeks. They are growing thickly in a few patches, but there are lots of gaps. As they get bigger, I will have to thin them so that there are a few inches between each carrot.

Growing Snap peas

The snap peas are growing well at 4 weeks. These were some the easiest plants in the garden last year, and the crop was abundant.

Black seed simpson lettuce

Just 2 small, sad looking heads have survived the rabbits at 4 1/2 weeks.

Spring Vegetables

Despite the complete lack of blog posts, things are growing in the garden. I got the first group of seeds - carrots, spinach, black seed simpson lettuce and leeks - in the ground the first weekend in April. The first lot has been a disappointment with good growth out of the carrots and spinach, but the seeds have come up very sparsely, despite the chicken wire dome I built to protect the seeds from cats, birds and 2 year old D. The lettuce has been mostly eaten by the rabbits, and the leeks have been mostly trampled by D.
I followed up with a second sowing of spinach, carrots and lettuce 2 weeks later, around April 17th. A few carrots and spinach emerged. I haven't seen anything from the lettuce.
In mid-April I also planted cilanto, parsley and snap peas. A few dozen cilantro came up and no parsley. The snap peas, carefully protected from turkeys by a chicken wire dome, have come up robustly and are about 14" tall at 4 weeks. I also started red onions from starts. I'm determined to have all the makings of salsa in the garden this year.
On May 7th, I added greens beans and cucumbers (persian and pickling). The cucumbers are up in good numbers and the beans are just starting to poke through.
On May 15th, I transplanted tomatoes, 8 varieties (big boy, celebrity, golden girl, 2 sun golds, 2 plum and a purple krim). I also transplanted some very tiny basil that looks like it might not survive and peppers (4 japapeno, a cubanelle and 4 yellow bells). All from Russells. I also planted out my broccoli seedlings which are very spindley (no artificial light source) and small. After 2 nights in the garden, they are holding up pretty well. I dropped in some zucchini seeds along the outer, eastern bed that doesn't get as much sunlight. I resowed:

• lettuce - there are currently just 2 heads from the 50+ seeds I've planted
• spinach
• carrots
• leeks

And added some radishes, between the thinly growing cilantro and the red onions and some additional basil and parsley seeds. The parsley resowed naturally from last year, so I have a decent amount already growing, but it is already going to seed. I expect the rabbits will get the parsley seedlings as they start to emerge.

But, most significantly, my honey built me a rabbit fence to keep the critters out of the central garden. This will protect the most vulnerable and sought after plants - carrots, spinach and lettuce. I'm hopeful that the now-protect lettuce will actually make a go of it. Though, May is all about being hopeful about the garden.

Spring 2010

The flooding rains of the last few weeks have caused spring to erupt from the landscape. I guess it's March showers bring April flowers. Ahh, global warming.
It was warm enough a few weekends ago to start some spring seeds - carrots, bibb lettuce, spinach and leeks. These were all from last year's seeds, so I don't know how well they will do. I covered the planting with newspaper to keep the cats and birds out. Then it rained and rained. A few seedlings have emerged.
I also started broccoli seeds in paper pots inside. These have just popped out.
The strawberries and raspberries are coming in nicely.
Even some parsley managed to survive the winter. I wonder if that bodes well for the rosemary making it too!