Weekend Planting

Last weekend I managed to get quite a few things on my to-do list done. Not everything but a good first round. Here goes a bunch of photos of what was accomplished:

9 Green Goliath Broccoli were planted.

3 Happy Rich Sprouting Broccoli went in. This is my first
time trying these and the plants are still quite small.

I planted a bunch of lettuce starts including Winter Density,
Merlot, Black Seeded Simpson & Buttercrunch.

A good amount of seeding was done. Seeds include Radishes, Romaine,
Mixed Greens, Pac Choi ( red & a bolt resistant variety) & Tatsoi

The peas I planted on May 4th are off to the races. They need
a good thinning after my heavy seeding.

The Crimson Flowered Broad Beans that I planted as starts
are just coming into flower now. I am growing these as a seed
crop so if you want some let me know.

I also cut the lawn for the first time this season. All the clippings
were used to get my compost cooking again. All this material went
back in the bin in layers. Next time I cut the lawn I need to do the
same thing for my leaf composter.

I planted up a few ornamental's this weekend as well, two cast-iron urns
and two hanging baskets out front. This particular plant came from
the Variety Store just down the road, cheap and healthy.

There are still many things to plant. This week I have to plant all the potatoes and onions, they should have already been planted. I still need to get all the warm season crops in too, I will probably plant all them this weekend, it is suppose to be a hot one.

Inside the Season Extenders

First off a little follow up from the post below. My laptop is officially dead, the motherboard is fried. The hard drive was still okay though. I was able to hook it up to a hard drive enclosure and transfer the few things off that were not backed up via USB. We now have a spiffy 27" iMac which truly has been a pleasure to use so far.

Now for the task at hand, veggies! Below is a bunch of photos of crops I have growing in the polytunnel and coldframe:

Broccoli, Green Goliath

Onions, Bottle

Peppers, Anaheim

All the Tomatoes for my Sister & I

Beans, Dragon Tongue in rootrainers. These are on my
heat mat, I am sure that is not recommend for outdoor use :)

Melons, Montreal Market also on my heat mat

Okra, seed shared by EG They are not growing much
but the warmer weather coming will help.

Basil, even though I don't like basil very much.

Herbs & Greens

Here we have a bunch of ornamental plants waiting
to be planted in pots and garden beds. Some are doing
better then others.

The long weekend coming up is our traditional planting time in Southern Ontario. Usually I have all the hardy things planted about a month ago but not this year, It has been to cold. Friday evening and Saturday will be spent doing some major planting. Everything is going in except the warm season crops, those I will just keep in the polytunnel for a little longer. Rushing them never turns out well, they like it hot! Look for a garden update this weekend with lots of photos of planted beds.

Technical problems....

Last week blogger deleted post from May 10th on. Did anyone else have this problem? Then when they reinstated the post all the comments were gone. I apologize if your comment was deleted, there was about 8 lost.

Tech problem number two was when my laptop got a pretty bad virus. I ended up having to do a clean install of windows 7. Thankfully I was able to backup most of my photos, except what I was going to post earlier this week. Everything was going well until the laptop just shut off today and would not turn on... I am really regretting that I did not just replace the laptop when it did almost the same thing last spring. Since then I learned to use an external hard drive but not to ditch windows :)

Look for a post on what's happening inside the polytunnel in a day or two. Bare with me as I am working on a dinosaur PC I dug out of the basement!

I'll end with a photo I took of a pair of Blue-winged Teal Ducks:

Peas Are In!

Our weather has greatly improve now, seemed to take forever this year. Over the last few days I have planted out all the peas, last year they were planted April 21st. I am slightly concerned about them producing this year. They should have been planted long ago and if summer weather comes on fast they may just fry. Time will tell I guess. I'll start with my problematic peas:

I ordered snap peas last fall and they just would not germinate for me this spring. I replanted twice in the rootrainers and only a few plants grew. I ended up getting new seed and direct sowing them on May 4th:

They were soak over night first.

I then planted two rows, heavily in hopes the Squirrels leave me some.

After planting I used a bunch of sticks to support them.
I like sticks because they are free and look good in the patch!

Today, May 11th the snap peas are sprouting. There is hope!

Above is a shot of one of the other peas that I grew in rootrainers. When the seed is good these planting packs really grow nice starts. Below are all the peas grown as starts in rootrainers:

Salmon Flowered Peas, Seed shared by Matron.
I am looking forward to these beauties.

Purple Podded Peas. These are a soup pea so they will likely
be treated as an ornamental.

Snow Peas.

Spring Veggies

Last Saturday was a beautiful spring day so I cleared the whole veggie patch of leaves and dead plants. The beds are now ready to be turned, amended and planted as needed. It was nice to feel the sun again! Here goes the spring veggie photos that I have been neglecting to post. I'll start with outdoor veggies first:

Garlic, there are three rows this season.

Rhubarb

Claytonia in the coldframe, seed shared by Thomas last fall.

Now for all the seedlings that are growing inside and in the season extenders:

Basil, Purple & Green.

One of the pepper flats, I am only growing
Anaheim & Sport Peppers this season.

One of the Tomato flats, all the varieties are listed here.

Okra, seed shared by EG.

Broccoli, these are Green Goliath.

Various Herbs & Lettuce that were recently started.

Salmon Flowered Peas, seed shared by Matron.
There also are Snap, Purple & Snow Peas growing.

Crimson Flowered Broad Beans

This is a not so clear shot of Bottle Onions. I am also growing
Ailsa Craig Onions this season.

That is all for now. Later this week I am going to start planting out various things like onions, broad beans, peas & broccoli. It will be nice to have a green garden again!