… and last lettuce (for now). I also pulled some more onions. The garlic is almost ready. I spent a couple of hours in the garden this morning weeding and trellising the cucumbers. I also planted more beans. Only a few came up and most of them had their little leaves nibbled off. I am blaming the woodlice, of which I have many in my plot. It is probably all the decaying wood from the plot borders that keeps them happy (as apparently are my tender seedlings).
Spent some time in the garden this beautiful Saturday morning harvesting almost all of the remaining lettuce and planting pole beans, more rainbow carrots (some I sowed earlier have actually come up, yay!) and three more tomato plants (Paul Robson, Jaune Flamme and Black Krim). The garden plot is getting there, but most plants are still small because I did not really plant anything until we had water about a month ago.
I harvested a nice bunch of overwintered leeks, a big head of lettuce and some volunteer hard-neck garlic that grew in the wrong spot. The strawberries are from a plot neighbor.
I spent three hours in the garden this morning weeding and pulling the mint that had taken over the better part of the back of my plot. I tied the asparagus and planted more Chiogga beets and a few dahlias, marigolds and cosmos. I also had meant to sow pole beans, carrots and more lettuce (in between the tomatoes so it can grow in the shade) but forgot, ha!
The garlic will be ready in a few weeks and I will need to harvest all the lettuce very soon. I also need to take out all those volunteer onions. The squash and cucumbers have settled in nicely, the chard and beets are looking good as are the new leeks. The kale is being eaten by something, but seems to manage to survive. Quite a few nasturtiums are coming up as well. The tomatoes have some flowers but not very many. I am worried that I overfertilized again, despite only using seaweed emulsion (once!) and sparingly so. Fingers crossed.
I did some more planting yesterday. In the plot, I planted chard seedlings, two types of squash (butternut and delicata), a hot pepper, a zucchini and three cucumber plants. All of them were grown from seed. I also harvested some lettuce from the back porch and replanted that container with chard seedlings.
Finally! Two days ago, the water was finally turned on in our community garden. Yesterday, the kids and I spent two hours in the garden weeding, planting and watering. We needed to pull a large amount of onions to make space. They are currently curing on the front porch much to the chagrin of my daughter who has to live with the smell as her bedroom opens to the porch. I planted most of my seedlings: 6 tomato plants, 3 basil plants plus kale, chard, different lettuces and leeks. I also sowed nasturtiums.
We harvested some of the radishes. The peas never came up, not a single one but I know that some of the seeds germinated. I suspect the birds, which have been very active in the garden. The carrots sadly also never came up.
Still no water in the garden. So, currently I have radishes, carrots, lettuce, beets and parsley growing in the plot. The seedlings are strong and ready to go in the ground, but I will wait a few more days hoping that we will get water soon.
I replanted two tomatoes, one hot pepper, eggplant, parsley and basil plant each on the back porch. There are also two lettuces in medium-size pots and a variety of herbs. The front porch has dwarf peas, lettuce and kale as well as mint, chives and cilantro grown from seed.
We still do not have water in the garden. It is supposed to be turned on this season but not until the governor lifts the stay-at-home order, which is currently scheduled to expire a week from today. So, not much is going on in the plot. The radishes are coming up and I transplanted some Chiogga beets (a gift from another gardener) and some head lettuce today. I also resowed peas today, which miraculously have been disappearing over the last few weeks. I suspect the birds. This is my third (and last) attempt.
Not much happening in the garden yet. It has been a cold and wet spring so far, we even had snow on April 18 and night frost just a few days ago. The radishes are beginning to show, but none of the carrots and only a few of the peas. I reseeded sugar snap peas and rainbow carrots yesterday. The previous carrots were likely washed out, and my guess is that the birds got the rest of the peas. Fingers crossed for this batch. It is supposed to warm up to the sixties in the next few days.
Meanwhile, the porch plantings are making progress, the spring greens are coming in nicely. I also have growing radishes (and hopefully mache), and I sowed chard, kale, cilantro and chives. Of those, only the kale is coming up. Very slowly.
The seedlings are looking good. Pictured above are tomatoes, lettuce and basil. Under the grow light I have going: tomatoes, lettuce, parsley, kale, hot pepper, eggplant, cucumbers, zucchini and winter squash (butternut and delicata).
Today I re-potted my tomato seedlings and sowed cucumbers (Longfellow and Tokiwa), zucchini, butternut squash and Delicata squash indoors (two each). I also set two of my lettuce seedlings outside on my porch. Might have been a bit too early as it will be cold the next few days, but I needed the space under the grow lights.
It is snowing today. A cold and wet day in the middle of spring. The forsythia bloom is almost over as are the daffodils. My seedlings are doing well under the grow lights and with the heat mat underneath. I currently have going: 4 tomato varieties (2 each), 2 basil, 2 parsley, a dozen or so head lettuces in different stages (half of them sown two weeks ago, the other half four weeks ago with the majority of the seedlings), 5 Tuscan kale, 2 hot Thai peppers, 1 eggplant (reseeded two weeks ago, only one of those plants came up and there may be a second one just poking out).
