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.

Pictures and Progress

Almost everything is up in the garden! It was so awesome to leave for spring break with nothing up outside and the daffodills not quite blooming, and then to come back with beautiful daffodils in the front yard and seedlings in beautiful green rows in the garden.

I have been hardening off the celery, broccoli, and leeks, and today I transplanted the leeks outside. I also planted onion plants and another row of carrots. So far, so good. I took pictures two weeks ago to record the garden for March. Since I went on spring break that day and work has been crazy, I am just now getting pictures up.

Can you see the spinach just starting to come up?

The circle of pots for my pea teepee. They're not up yet in this picture, but now, two weeks later, several plants are over an inch long and just starting to put out tendrils.

The first two raised beds. Greens are in the back one, and root vegis in the front one. Nothing up yet though! The garbage bags are fall leaves from a free source waiting to build another bed and add to my compost.

There's some yellow coming... Now the daffodils are in full bloom!

A view of the whole front flower bed. A nice transition from the red nandina to the green of spring!

March Planting

My indoor seedlings are up and growing fast! I've already transplanted the broccoli to bigger cups. So far so good. I need to relook at how to harden them off properly.

Sunday I planted collards, turnips, parsnips, radishes, romaine lettuce, and dill in the brassica bed. I also weeded and finished setting up the bed that will hold my root crops. I put in old soil from my containers and then a generous layer of fall leaves. In one section, I added some peat moss just so I would be able to have some structure to plant seeds. Then, I planted the mokium carrots, scallions, swiss chard, and beets. I also planted parsley in a container on the porch.

Nothing I've planted outside has come up yet, but it has been really nice and warm since Saturday, so hopefully I'll see something soon.

One Bed Prepped

Today I prepped the bed that will hold the brassicas & greens this year. Since this rotates after the three sisters bed, I weeded and smoothed out the mounds. Then I put a new layer of mushroom soil on top. Now it looks very nice. I went ahead and planted kale and mustard greens in one end also.

So far, nothing has really come up outside. It is much colder than usual this year, and in fact, we will probably get some more snow again tomorrow. Boo! Inside however, almost all my seedlings are up and happy. They are now in their south facing window, and they are embracing the sun. Only the celery and anaheim peppers haven't sprouted.

I hope real spring comes soon!

Starting Seeds

Tonight I started my indoor seed tray. I planted celery, broccoli, leeks, anaheim chili peppers, roma & brandywine tomatoes. I've had a hard time with starting seeds, but I am determined to take care of them this time. Hopefully, I'll have some transplants to harden and set out in a month or two.

Restart

So, last year was bad. It wasn't too terrible in the garden, but it could have been better. However, it was super terrible in the recording department. I'm determined to do better this year. It really is so helpful to me to look back at how the previous year was.

I'm also determined to do the garden really right this year, and I'm already making a decent start. Yay! Part that reason though is because we've had a really cold winter and quite a few snow days. Today was one of those days, but I still went out as the snow was falling and planted peas, spinach, and lettuce in their containers with fresh new potting soil. It will be interesting to see if they take longer to germinate than they should because they're a bit cold.

I also made my seed order at Pine Tree last night. I can't wait to get my package, and moreso I can't wait for it to be spring!