First Harvest

On Monday, I impatiently harvested some of the first greens of the season.
I picked (clockwise from top) two radishes, chives, freckles romaine lettuce, arugula, kale, and chard. With store-bought spinach at the bottom of the bowl, the greens turned into two colorful to go with our dinner. I can't wait for more!

Tomato Transplants

On Saturday we did two things to help the tomato plants, which seem to have been stuck at the seed leave stage for the past month. First of all, we replaced the florescent lamps in the seed starting set up. We bought one plant/aquarium bulb which is at the red end of the spectrum and one natural daylight bulb in the blue end of the spectrum. I also transplanted the seedlings into larger cups. I split up the pairs of seedlings of each variety. One will remain inside under the lights, and the other will go out into cold frame. I'll know the lights helped if the ones inside do at least as well as the ones outside.

I may have to resort to planting seedlings from a friend and give up on mine if they don't take off soon.

Garden Update 5/7

This week's rain and moderate temperatures have allowed the garden to really get growing. It's amazing when compared to last week's pictures. The early-transplanted seedlings have really adjusted and taken off. As you can also see, the weeds have too. I need to get out there and start pulling.
Here's the kale,
spinach,
arugula, and freckles romaine lettuce.

The radishes are also enjoying all the moisture. I may be able to pick a few soon.
The carrots have begun to get their true leaves. These are my Chantenny Red Cores.
Here is one of my two peas. I need to re-seed again. My broccoli raab have mostly all sprouted and already show signs of starting true leaves.

In the cold frame, the tatsoi(far left) is looking like there's a bit too much moisture. Also some pest has been attacking its leaves. The golden beets (center) and the sesame plants (right) are doing well. I also have yellow chard starting as well as radishes, cosmos, dill and over-wintered onions in the ground.

Inside is another story. I gave my tomatoes a sun-burn last week and they still haven't moved beyond the seed-leaf stage. I read online that this may be caused by over-watering. I'm guilty of that. I'm trying to leave them alone for a while. Luckily a few of the seeds recently sprouted and are looking better. I may loose the first batch of started seeds. Also under the lights are basil, sesame, oregano, thyme, summer savory and two peppers. Last weekend I started cucumbers and zucchini, but no sprouts yet.

Hopefully the rain will abate on Saturday and I can get some more gardening in.

Garden 4/30/09

The warm spell helped some things in the garden really get going. The arugula and lettuce seem to have recovered from transplanting too early.

Carrots seed on 4/11 sprouted on 4/25. The seeds got dispersed a bit erratically by the rain. I'll have to do some thinning later on.
The radishes have taken off in the heat. It also helped my second sowing of them sprout in 5 days.

The garlic is taking off as well.
Cooler temperatures are in store for the rest of this week, but the row cover should keep everything protected.

Quince Bush

The quince bush is one of many plants around here that have really enjoyed the five-day heat wave we recently had.

Here are the buds on 4/11,
and 4/18 after the rain,
and on 4/28 in full bloom.

I hope we get lots of quince fruit this year. Quince jelly was the biggest hit of last year's canning season and we'd like to make more this fall.

Also blooming in the yard is the forsythia. It's like a ball of sunshine.

Seedlings

Recent plantings include:

5 blocks of golden beets
4 blocks of sesame seeds
10 blocks of Sugar Snap Peas
Dill and Cosmos inside the cold frame but in the soil where they will remain
Radishes inside the cold frame
3 Sorrel in the raised bed
14 Broccoli Raab Quarantina in the raised bed( We tried Broccoli Raab just before a recent seed order so I ordered some)
9 spinach in the raised bed

Here are the seedlings as the progress. Most have moved out into the cold frame for this hot weather. The tomatoes will probably come back in as the weather is supposed to cool starting tomorrow. If the photos aren't identified in the text, hold your cursor above them and a label will appear.

The peppers and some herbs are the only plants that have remained under the lights. Today my second pepper sprouted. It's #4. I seeded these back on 3/27 so that's a month germination. I'll be starting peppers earlier next year.

The sesame seeds on the right are ones I started from seeds bought in the bulk section of the local coop. I'm also starting some that I ordered and I'll be comparing the plants. If the harvest goes well I should have plenty of black sesame seeds for topping rye bagels.

My "Sugar Daddy" Snap Peas that I seeded in the garden had horrible germination. I had the same problem with them last year. I planted between 20 and 30 seeds, the rest of the packet and have two seedlings with no signs of any more coming. So I've started Sugar Snap Peas in soil blocks. Here I can see that the seeds are putting down roots and beginning to send up shoots. I'll transplant them to the row shortly after they sprout.

The tomatoes seem to be making slow progress. Last year I planted out seedlings in the middle of May with walls of water around them. I'm not sure these are going to be ready to put out then. We may have to wait until after my last frost date at the end of May.