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.

Growing bell peppers

A bell pepper almost ready. 2 other peppers were felled by critters during our vacation.

Spring planting

Seedlings from Russells in 4 inch pots: $3.99
Planted 6 tomato seedlings. From east to west: Yellow Pear, Better Boy, Purple Krim, Celebrity, Golden Girl, Smarty (grape).
Planted 3 egglants: 2 Black Beauties and an Ichiban
Planted 3 peppers: jalapeno, cubanelle, red bell
Planted 3 basil from home depot.
Planted red onions from Gus.
Also added Tarragon, Thyme, Parsley and Rosemary to the herb bed. I'll see if I can cage or bottle the rosemary to keep it alive through the winter...
Altogether spent another $57 on seedlings.
I also planted sweet corn in the southeast corner and started kentucky blue beans and french beans on a bean teepee. I've planted them in mounds and covered each mound with a milk jug. We'll see if that keeps the critters out. It was a little too windy today to transplant the bean seedlings from the sun porch, but they are 6 or 8 inches tall and ready to in the garden.