April Pictures

Look what I harvested last week! Yes, as usual, I'm slow in posting the garden's progress. As of now there are more radishes and tons of mustard and turnip greens ready to be picked as well. Salads are now officially more interesting. Yay!

I took pictures of the garden just before we went on spring break the second week of April. It looks so much greener today, but here's the pictures that will be recorded for April.

This is the root vegetable bed. It has a lot of fall leaves on top that, unfortunately, are not very composted. Currently there are red gold (early) potatoes planted on the far left, then onions, carrots, chard, and beets. I put a little peat moss on top for the seeds to germinate in. On the far right are a couple of extra russet potatoes that didn't fit in the potato bin we built.

This is the brassica bed. In the back are greens (collards, kale, and mustard. For some reason the collards didn't really germinate that well, I will have to buy new seed for the fall. I planted parsnips in the next row forward, they also didn't germinate that well, but I did get a few. Next is turnips, then radishes and romaine lettuce. The romaine is another seed that didn't germinate well this year. Near the front is cabbage, broccoli, and dill. I also had trouble with the dill germinating, but I'm hoping that what did come up will not only be nice for pickles, but will also shoo away the cabbage moths.

Here is the pea teepee. They might be twice as high today and are starting to put out flowers.

Here is the potato bin we built for the russet (late) potatoes. The idea is as the potatoes grow, you keep piling leaves/straw/soil on and build the bin another slat high. The higher the potatoes grow, the more you get. Apparently this only works with late potatoes and not early ones. We'll see how that goes.

I am so proud of myself! I actually did get tomatoes and ancho peppers started from seed this year. They look pretty good, if I do say so myself.

This is the green ice leaf lettuce. It did look better, and then something dug in the middle of it. :/

My strawberries look the best they've ever looked, I think.

Left to Right: Parsley, Spearmint, Cilantro, Greek Oregano, and Thyme

Left to Right: Sage, Rosemary, Chamomile that volunteered from last year, Chives, and Parsley

My spinach also looks twice as big now. Salads are going to be a wonderful thing!

I just had to add some spring pictures from my front flower bed. I just love my tulips!

I love the daffodils too!

Here's the front of our house at the beginning of April. As you can see it's a nice day, so all the windows were open. Now all the flowers are gone, and the Bradford pears are in full leaf. Now I have to wait for my daisies and day lilies.

April Planting

Sunday I transplanted the broccoli as well as some cabbage I got at Lowe's into the brassica bed. Only one dill and no romaine had come up, so I planted more of them as well as some more radishes. The radishes are starting to be ready to add to salad. Yay, my first harvest!

David built a potato bin for my russets. I'm very curious to see how it works. All of the seed potatoes, except two, fit into the bin. I planted the extra two into the raised bed for a comparison of growth. I also planted more carrots in that bed.

I had intended to transplant the celery, but the sun burned them. I will have to try that once again next year. I am getting better at starting seeds since I have successfully started broccoli, tomatoes, and chili peppers for the first time this year. However, celery is still eluding me.

I also got almost all of my herbs started on the porch. I bought sage, oregano, thyme, and rosemary as plants and started chamomile, spearmint, and cilantro. The parsley I started a month ago is starting to produce small leaves, so it shouldn't be too long before I can use some of it.

I had hoped to get my corn planted, but I still need to get another load of mushroom soil. Hopefully that will get done this Sunday, if not before.