more spring stuff

Today pricked out the tomato seedlings into pots. 

Over half my tatsoi got eaten by a slug before I remembered to put out a beer trap. A single slug I think, because I only caught one medium-sized slimer, and the remaining three tatsoi are undamaged now. 

Squirrel is (as always) irritating me by digging in the beds. Where the peas, collards, lettuces and chard are planted it does little damage- I just fill in the holes again.

Where the young beets and turnips are coming up, quite a few have gotten destroyed. I put wire mesh over those beds, held down with rocks- but the squirrel digs through the mesh! Must be very determined to recover whatever nut he remembers hiding in that spot. Grr. I need to finally fence the garden, or build a few frames with chicken wire to cover the beds that are direct-sown more securely. 

My rhubarb is making funky fat flower stalks. Cutting them off to encourage more foliage instead. 

Delighted to find that the wormwood survived winter!

Bed of collard greens, tatsoi and tokyo bekana (although this picture from a week ago, plants are bigger now!)

Pink clematis is blooming!

spring planting

Carrots and beets are sprouting. Yesterday I planted out into the garden beds shelling peas, yellow snap peas, the collard greens and half the leeks (rest are too small yet). Today planted out the leaf beet chard, swiss chard, arugula, tatsoi and tokyo bekana. Those last two shown here, crowding their seedling tray. Pricked directly out into the ground.

Almost all the beds have something in them, now. And there's a lot more still to plant! But I hope to stagger some of it- tomatoes will go in where the lettuces are, green beans and squash into the beds that have snap peas, amaranth greens where the shelling peas are, and so on.

Delicate little true leaves emerging on my parsley and chervil seedlings. 

The overwintered tokyo bekana in greenhouse bolted- I emptied the pots to re-use. Greenhouse stands empty now ready for the next round of plants- tomatoes, peppers, marigolds, amaranth . . . 

There's a robin been frequenting the messy bed between the pannicle hydrangeas, where salvia and wild chrysanthemum are emerging from leaf litter. He sang short bursts and poked in the litter and eyed me, came pretty close after a while, just across the bit of grass from the garden bed where I worked. Cheering. Even better was to see the perky little wren flit about, I just saw and watched it for minutes. Wren makes me feel happy. There's a cardinal appears to be nesting in the large holly shrub. I can't wait for the return of catbirds, and the skinks.

up quickly

Snap peas, shelling peas, tatasoi and tokyo bekana sprouted in just a few days. Tatsoi pictured.

greens in the little house

The weather has really been fluctuating here. Yesterday it was in the seventies during the day, then it fell to freezing again overnight. So my tatsoi in the little greenhouse

suddenly bolted. Their winter end!

There's still some tokyo bekana, small now as I've eaten more of it again.

And lettuces are filling the shelves (hope to plant them out soon in March)

plus the baby kale, collards and leeks go out on warmer days- more progress on their true leaves!

small greens

From my little greenhouse- tokyo bekana (chinese cabbage). Not much, and the leaves very small- but a nice fresh garnish on the lentils we had for dinner.

dried tarragon

 The only thing to eat from outside right now in bitter cold (we're having nights down in the teens) is an occasional picking of winter savory, green onions when it thaws out for a few days, and once every other week, tokyo bekana from the greenhouse. It really doesn't keep anything warm enough. Success was low. While I feel better that there's not plastic sheeting bits potentially shredding across the yard, the mini greenhouse doesn't gather any warmth from the ground. My chervil never got beyond seedling stage, the dill and lettuces are just barely alive. I have a few tatsoi but the only one that is doing well, got the earliest start. Really the only plants in there worth tending and picking from time to time are the tokyo bekana now. 

But I have my favorite herb all dried and stuffed in jars. I was always so stingy with tarragon in the past, having one plant that did poorly. Last year's new variety thrived so, I was able to pick and dry tons. It feels a bit extravagent to be able to have eggs with cheddar and tarragon whenever I want, or add it to chicken soups and pies.

My bay leaf plant is also doing great, and the rosemary down in the basement window. Maybe I will get a photo of that to add here soon. The bay leaves look so healthy.

winter greens

It has been very cold nights, some down into the low twenties, but often warm again during the day. The leeks I left in the garden didn't last, but the few green onions left are still okay, and I can still pick to eat sorrel, winter savory, sculpit, and purple dead nettle in certain sheltered spots. What I tried to grow in my little greenhouse- only part worked out. Nearly all the pots sprouted- but the lettuces are doing very poorly and leggy. Lack of light, or the soil was too poor, or it's just been too cold for them to thrive. Tatsoi I only got one good plant, but that one's doing fine. Haven't eaten it yet because I wish there was more. Chervil all growing but are slow to put out their first true leaves. Dill is okay and I've used some of it. Tokyo bekana is doing well!

A bit spindly, but grew much better than anything else. I actually picked some to eat just yesterday, glad for a bit of fresh greens. 

Maybe if I do this again next year, skip the idea of lettuces (unless I start them sooner) and just do the cabbage and spinach relatives.

july garden

I have peppers! These serranos are perfect for flavoring beans or lentils

and the 'yolo wonder' look great, too. My husband ate one fresh- said it was rather spicy, so we're letting them ripen more to be sweet.

They're all still in pots on the deck. Get a lot of sun here, and far from most of the bug war in the garden.

That's what it feels like, down there. We ate all the young chinese cabbage last night, from that scattering I did by accident. Full of bug holes, but tasty nonetheless.

The bed they came out of still has plenty of amaranth greens, though it seems the insects are eating most of it. I sprayed last week an insecticidal soap. It seems to have knocked out most of the whitefly, aphids and cabbage worms (though not the egg-laying white butterflies of course). However I'm daily pinching off these striped beetles I never named but recognize well now, and there's cucumber beetles too.

There's one in there, the flowering kind of amaranth- looks just like the celosia I grow elsewhere. The bugs aren't eating this one.

In that same bed I have two benne (for sesame seed). Looking rather shabby. 

But they're flowering! Trumpet shaped with a lip, quite pretty.

Starting to pick some green beans.

Other side of the garden, zucchini are failing. They don't stay green but turn yellow and rot.

My big tomatoes are still on the vines, and some of the plants are regrowing green leaves. Lots of cherry tomatoes, but many are splitting. 

However this charmed me yesterday, as I was sitting near the garden on my bench with a book. A robin poked through the garden, and then a female blackbird- quite close to me. Then a catbird came, perched on a tomato vine, and jabbed its beak into the split cherry tomato! I don't know if it was getting moisture, eating the seeds or insects from inside?

geranium pinks

My new geraniums have flowered-

bright pinks 

the two darker ones are only slightly different-

one has accents in the center

Small russet-and-orange one (I'd need to look at the tag to remember its name) flowers are vivid red 

Sweet peas are done flowering- such a short period- and I left a few pods go to seed.

Pulled handfuls more of tokyo bekana seedlings. This time just ate them as a side to meat pie. My husband thought I was growing sprouts on purpose and asked me about the "alfalfa" in the garden. Ha ha.

new outside

I planted out my bush green beans and cowpeas- on either side of the leaf beet chard row that grew between the snap peas (now removed). There was more space than I expected, so I sowed a few more too. (Mulch is green. Will make a better picture later when it's dried.)

Unintentionally, I now have tons of tokyo bekana seedlings. When I gathered up the plants, the ones that still had green, immature pods I just hung under the deck to dry. Few days ago I split some open. The seeds were nice brown and dry, but very small. I thought: those won't make great plants. So I crushed all the dry pods and stems, scattered them in the bed with amaranth, adding to the mulch.

Turns out they were plenty viable. They grew up thickly all over the bed.

I've started thinning them. And made a little salad from the sprouts. With shredded carrot, raisins and sesame seed. It wasn't the tastiest, though. Kind of a sharp flavor.

come up

All my new plants are sprouting in the greenhouse!

Outside, spears of gladiolas are coming up on the sideyard. Tithonias look great, one aster died. My purple clematis is blooming again, lavender is flowering, cardinal climbers are starting to go up the trellis. More sweet peas are in flower, lots of white nicotiana, and a hummingbird visited yesterday. I only caught a glimpse of it, though. At first I thought it was a cicada!

I pulled the older tokyo bekana and cut off all the dried seedpods. Just as many more were still too green. Even all these weren't good- on opening, more than half were mildewed. 

Still got plenty of seed, though!

tomatoes and what

Scratching my head over this plant again.

It's the one I've previously thought was a weed, or a wild type of reverted coleus? but it's growing in a row right where I swear I planted the strawberry spinach. One of these was out of the row, and I moved it into place. Did five just happen to grow in the same space? or what. When I look at pics of strawberry spinach leaves, they're much toothier on the margin. Well, I think I'll let them grow out this time, and finally maybe resolve my confusion on their identity.  

Set out my tomatoes a few days ago. These pics before I placed pole supports, and dug the holes.

The seed is not yet mature on those tokyo bekana in the rear. I calculated in my head- if I planted the usual ten or twelve chinese cabbage per year, I'd only use two of those seed pods. Each of those plants has probably over fifty of them. So well more than I need! I pulled the third plant and tossed it. Tied these two up by the trellis to get them out of the way (they had flopped across the ground).