Harvest Monday

This morning I brought in a few things, both winter & spring crops this time. There are a few things still in the garden that I will harvest soon to make way for new crops. Things that will be taking their place this week are peas, brassica's and lettuce transplants. I will also be direct seeding a few things this week as well.

The spinach is still going crazy. Also in the coldframe is
mache, parsley & thyme.

Here is the spinach I picked today. Some leaves are close
to 12" long which is the biggest spinach I had ever seen.

'Bonsai' Pac Choi. These are thinnings and are about half the
normal harvestable size. They will be tossed into tonight's
stir-fry.

Tatsoi thinnings. These are still tiny but will also be good
in the stir-fry.

Mache. They are all starting to flower now. Not sure
if they will be bitter now because of it. Anyone have
experience with bolting mache?

Be sure to check out Daphne's page for all the other blogs participating in Harvest Monday.

Garden Blogger Bloom Day

Here goes the first Garden Blogger Bloom Day of the season. I would say about half of the spring bloomers are out now. Things I am still waiting on are most primula, some daffodils and species tulips.

Forsythia

Pansy

Daffodils

Virginia Blue Bells budding

Pulmonaria

Primula

Double Daffodil

Muscari

Variegated Tulip

Iris Reticulata

Siberian Squil

Striped Squil

Catch Up Post

The end of last week was kind of crazy so I have lots to catch up on today. On Thursday my mom crushed the end of her thumb at work. The bone is fractured and the nail came off. They had to stitch under the nail and then stitch the nail back on, time will tell if the nail ever grows back. So the end of last week I was playing care taker and last weekend I was catching up on projects I had on the go. Needless to say the garden and blog has been neglected.

Today I am going to update on things that have happened lately in the patch. The last few weeks I have got a few things done but have yet to post about them so I will group them all together today.

First off Judy gave me this award above a little over a week ago, thanks Judy! She is the author of Judy's Square Foot Garden which is based on her families garden as well as chickens and cows. Lots going on over there so check it out.

The urns were planted up with Pansies and Tulips a couple weeks ago. I attempted to grow my own this year but I started way to late, my plants are smaller then these flowers at the moment.

The dandelions are in full bloom which is a sure sign of spring. This particular one is huge and growing amongst the leeks. I will root it out before it sets seed, right now I think is looks just fine.

Last week I potted up all the peppers. They were growing two to a cell and now are one per cell. They a progressing nicely and I am sure will soon out grow their space again. If the weather holds out I am hoping to just transplant them out into the soil early May, if that doesn't happen I will have to put them in 4" pots.

Here is the early tomato take two after the first one abruptly died a little over a month ago. I was thinking the second was going to fallow them same path but it is looking good now. So I guess I will have a kind of early tomato. Given some nice spring weather it may produce at the same time as the earlier one anyway.

Shortly after posting about my news beds I put the potato bed in. So far I have just turned the soil and edged it with 2x3. The potatoes will just be grown in our yards soil with some compost added, this particular area is rather sandy which the spuds should like. The other bed I mention is looking really shady so it is currently on hold. The sun still has a ways to rise so if it gets at least 6hrs of sun by May I will put it in.

The cedar polytunnel has been taken out of the garden and put on the patio. It was moved to make room for the soon to be planted peas. Won't be long and the tunnel will be full of peppers, tomatoes, herbs and flowering plants. The nice thing about the woven poly used here is hardening off is a cinch because it diffused the sun and will not burn plants.

Radishes are up. These are easter egg which is the best radish variety I have ever grown. They bulb up well, taste mild and the colour mix is nice.

I put in a new earth machine composter which my sister picked up for me. I'm still not the biggest fan of these but the cities sell them cheap ($20) and they work well enough. I have found since I got a fork that they are much easier to turn with the fork as appose to a shovel. That was the main draw back, the turning restraints. And you may notice to the right.......

a partly installed garden. It is looking a little filthy at the moment but soon will be clean, green and looking mean. The bricks will have crushed brick swept into the cracks and will then provide more space to exit vehicles. The stone edged area will be filled with shade plant division from other areas of the yard. At the other end you can just see the potato bin turned composter. That area will have a few stepping stones that lead behind the shed and will be planted out with ground cover.

Outdoor update

Here is the outdoor update I was blogging about on my last post. Our weather up to today has been constantly 24C(75F) and above for the last week or so. The veggies have really responded well to the warmth as have I. Looks like this week will be cooler and rainy but that is welcome too, it has been a really dry winter & spring here.

Overwintered spinach is growing gangbusters!

'Bonsai' Pac Choi

Tatsoi

Overwintered Leeks. The biggest ones are about an
inch thick so they are still pretty small. I will be harvesting
them late May when I plant peppers in this spot.

Hardneck Garlic, all doing well.

'Valentina' Rhubarb. I have recently moved my two crowns
because they were growing in the area of my new potato
bed. Looks like they are unscaved and I can't wait for the
first Rhubarb Crisps & Pies.

All the Peas are growing nicely in rootrainers under the
polytunnel. Another week or two and I will be planting
them out in the soil with pea brush.

Here are my seeded onions, bottle, torpedo & spanish. They
are doing alright but could be a lot better. As long as the
weather holds up I will be planted them out soon.

All the Brassica's, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage & Purple
Sprouting Broccoli. They are doing well but are a little leggy after
growing under my hot grow light. They did this last year as well
so I just plant them a little deeper.

A group of greens in the coldframe. There is Tatsoi, Pac Choi,
Kale, Mixed Lettuce & Romaine. All will be planted out soon.

Here is a closeup of the lettuce above. I am a big fan of
leaf lettuce mixes, this particular seed mix is from pinetree
for $1.25 a pack.

Last photos today are a couple clumps of overwintered
Mache. There is lots of Mache out there that I need to harvest.
Looks like I will have to make some salads with store bought
radishes etc, pout pout.

The only other thing to update outdoors is I seeded some fennel and radishes out in the soil. I was hoping some would be up for today's post but that didn't happen. Can't wait for fresh radishes and fennel!

My next post will be on spring blooms in the yard.

Indoor seedlings

It would appear that I have been neglecting blogging due to all the summer like weather we have been getting. I have been doing lots of gardening, yard work and photography though. After planting a bunch of things this evening I decided to update on the indoor seedlings due to outdoor darkness, if only the sun didn't go down... Early this week most indoor crops have been put out in the polytunnel so this will be a short post.

Here are peppers that Granny shared, Golden California Wonder & Quadrato Rosso D'Asti. There are eight growing in this cell pack and they will be split and potted up soon.

Here are the rest of the peppers, Big Chile II, Pustagold, Pasilla, Early Jalapeno, Ancho & Yellow Cayenne. These will all be potted up soon as well. I think I started them to early. I find peppers do benefit from an early start but I think I will hold off a couple weeks next season.

Now for the celery & celeriac. Start on the left is Red Celery, in the middle is Brilliant Celeriac from Kathy and on the end Giant Celeriac from Miss M. They have been recently thinned so they are looking a little ragged. I think I will start putting them in the polytunnel soon to bulk them up.

These are all the things I planted tonight, the great majority are herbs. Also started tonight are a bunch of perennials from Miss M and snapdragons from Granny.

Soon seeding will ramp up again and my indoor area will be full again. I still have all the tomatoes to start, I am holding off starting them too early this year because they grow so fast. Other things that are coming up are tomatillos, more herbs, beans, melons, cucumbers & squash. The garden is getting busy again!

Look for an outdoor update some time this weekend.