First Harvest

I know, I know, it's been a week since my last post, but it's just been crazy, crazy, crazy at our house these past few days.  Not only has the weather improved (no more rain, no more tornadoes, and finally warmer weather), we're getting to the end of the school year.  And not to be outdone, the garden is off to a great start.

Here you can see our first planting of radishes ready to be harvested.  

And here you see them right after being harvested.

I was never a fan of radishes, that is, until I started gardening, now I love radishes.  They are one of the funnest vegetables to grow, mostly because they can be planted in the early spring, they grow quickly, and they don't get diseases or pests like some of the other vegetables do.

These radishes were amazing in a radish salad of radishes (obviously, right?), orange segments, red onions, fresh mint, olive oil, and salt and pepper.  Yum!

I can't wait for the next crop of radishes to be ready so I can have that salad again.
 
 

Putting Down Roots

This past weekend, before the tornado that hit our area on Monday, during a few minutes without rain, we were finally able to plant the baby plants that were still in their pots, hanging out in our patio. The pepper plants had grown so large, that they were almost the same height as the support ladders.

The tomatoes were already tall enough to be threaded through the trellis netting.

Here's Bubba planting a marigold.

And here you see one of my containers.

The garden made it through the storm we had this Monday without any noticeable damage.  Tomorrow I'll see how the garden survived today's storm.  We are currently experiencing large hail and strong winds.
 
 

Forty Days & Forty Nights of Rain



Source: www.wunderground.com


Well, actually it's been more like forty-two days of rain. How do I know?  Well, since I haven't been able to go outside and work in my garden, I have used my time to check the rainfall we've gotten since March.  I even crosschecked our statistics against the most notoriously, rainy city in the United States: Seattle, WA; and what I found out wasn't pretty.  We actually have gotten more rainfall between March and today than Seattle, WA has gotten during the same time period.

As a gardener, I can appreciate the importance of getting enough rain to help the plants in the garden grow; however, as a gardener I also would like a few nice, non-rainy days in which to work the soil and do some planting.  The last frost date in our area is officially here; but where-o-where is the last drenching-rainfall date?

This past weekend, I spent a day shopping for my vegetable and herb plants in anticipation of the last frost date.  I brought home a nice little collection of baby plants that were excited to arrive at their new home, but they've been spending their time still in their little pots, waiting to put down roots.

Aren't they cute?

They want to be in the garden

Last week, on a rare, non-rainy day, I was able to check things out in the garden and found some growing activity.

Lettuce

Radishes

Carrots

I even found that some of the herbs from last year had made it through the winter.

Tarragon

Oregano

Chives

Additionally, the onions I planted last month seem to be doing well, and I'm sure that after all the rain we've gotten, the potatoes are probably doing well too, but I won't know for sure until I can get out there to check.

Onions

Hopefully the rain will stop soon.  On the bright side, I planted some grass seeds in a few bare muddy spots in our yard, and with all the rain we've gotten, the grass seedlings will be growing rather nicely, I'm sure.

The Most Exciting Time of the Year

 

As a gardener, I find late winter and early spring to be the most exciting time of the year.  The days are getting longer.  The sun is starting to shine more.  The snow has melted and the birds are starting to sing and migrate back.  And, finally, after months of reading gardening magazines, visualizing how the garden will look, convincing myself that this year the garden will be better than any previous years’ gardens, and deciding what plants I will grow, it’s time to order the seeds.

In the past, I tried starting my herbs, tomato, and pepper plants from seed but the plants did not do as well as the store bought plants; even though,  I had grow lights and researched the best techniques for starting plants from seed.  Therefore, this year I will be buying those plants from the local garden center instead of trying to start them from seed.  I’ll probably attempt to start them from seed again next year.

I like to use the Square Foot Gardening method outlined in Mel Bartholomew’s All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space. This method involves using groups of 4’x4’ raised boxes that are separated by square feet.  I also try to use organic techniques in my garden and grow as many heirloom varieties as possible

I have a total of 128 square feet of garden space available but will only be able to start off using half that amount of space this spring because the other half of the square foot boxes are in a shady area of the yard. I plan to move those boxes in the middle of the summer, so I am not counting on this space until the fall.

This year, I will be growing:

• Carrots—(Danvers Half Long)
• Eggplant—(Orlando)
• Flowers—mostly marigolds in the vegetable garden but will grow geraniums, petunias and other plants on the patio
• Green beans—4 square feet of pole beans (Kentucky Wonder) and 8 square feet of bush beans (Tenderpod)
• Herbs— whatever varieties are available at the local garden center of: basil, lavender , marjoram, oregano, parsley (curly leaf), parsley (flat leaf), rosemary, sage, and thyme
• Lettuce—3 varieties (Green Star, Simpson, and Red Sails)
• Onions—(Copra Plants)
• 8 pepper plants— whatever varieties are available at the local garden center of: bell, banana and jalapeno
• Potatoes—(Russian Banana)
• Radishes—(Crimson Giant)
• 4 tomato plants—2 big beefsteak type and 2 cherry type
• Winter squash—(Honey Bear)

I just placed my seed order today and this month I will start getting the beds ready for planting the early crops; such as, the onions, potatoes, radishes and lettuces. Of course, right now it seems like there is plenty of time to get ready for the last frost day, but I always find that the day has a way of sneaking up on me, and then I’m running around trying to do everything in a couple of days. This year will be different, I think!

Gardening Is So Much Fun!

Yes, it's Labor Day, the un-official end to summer . My garden is still doing well; however, the tomatoes did not do as well as they did last year. Our yield was lower and now the plants that are left look like they might have late blight. I'll probably spray them with an organic fungicide from Gardens Alive. That fungicide helped me save a tomato plant earlier in the season that had early blight. Also, the peppers have been doing so well that I have been harvesting banana peppers, Hungarian peppers, jalapeno, Serrano and green-to-red peppers out the wazoo. We are still trying to figure out what to do with all those peppers. However, I did not have any luck with the cucumbers this year and the pumpkin plant only yielded one pumpkin.

This year I have the most amazing garlic ever. I planted them in the fall from bulbs I ordered from the Garlic Store and I am so impressed with the quality of the garlic I got from them that I just had to order some more for next year. This week we will eat the last of the potatoes from the garden :( No more yummy fresh potatoes until next summer.

It's too bad that the lettuce didn't do too well this year. No problem, next year will be better. Bubba was so excited to find four parsley worms in the curly parsley. He collected two of them and placed them in this "bug habitat." He already raised one swallowtail butterfly this year and last year he was able to raise two swallow tails and one monarch butterfly. The caterpillars really like the curly parley. We can't figure out why they prefer the curly parley over the Italian, flat-leaf parley. We have both of them planted next to each other and have never found a parsley worm caterpillar on the flat-leaf parsley. Of course this is fine with us since we eat the flat-leaf parsley. I'll post pictures of the caterpillars and the butterfly if I get a chance to do it.

Tomorrow will be our official first day of school. Let's pray that it will be a good one.