Garden Pics – Getting warm out

I forgot to get pictures yesterday, so I got some today. Spent most of the morning mowing the lawn and planting flowers in front of the house.

Here’s a pic of the backyard flower bed; the white/pink flowers smell like fruity pebbles.

Side bed with blackberries. I failed to prune them and they’re a mess, though flowering.

The 3 poppies are going to flower soon.

The onions, Haven’t grown much taller.

Though they are putting out flower stalks?

There are maybe 5-6 green bean plants that are just barely hanging on.

All the cucumbers are gone. I’m starting 11 in cups. Strawberries want to flower, but I’m on the fence about letting them do so.

The turnips and beets, nothing spectacular yet.

Carrots are abysmal. I’m guessing I had bad seed. I may just let it go and see if any grow. Last year I had awesome germination..

I put two Brandywine tomatoes in the ground because their leaves were yellowing.

The potatoes are up and seem happy.

Direct sown Lettuce

Kale, a bit weedy.

Volunteer Roma Tomato in the Kale

Direct Sown Spinach

Peas are swamped. I should do something about that.

Some are putting out flowers

Transplanted Lettuce and Spinach.

They’ve been hit by the insects. The spinach is quite holey, and the lettuce has browning on the veins from munching by mites/aphids? which have colonized the inner leaves.

Spinach also is starting to bolt.

Parnsips are starting to flower

I’ll know soon enough if they’re CMS.

Radishes, first two plantings are trying to bolt.

I’ve been thinning the ones that bolted first and/or have small undeveloped roots.Here’s about the best radish so far. There are about 5 the size of this one.

3rd planting of radishes including watermelon

Fava beans, I noticed a large pack of black aphids on the middle and ants crawling up and down prodding at them. Nature’s pretty cool. Also getting some flowers.

About 3 watermelon seedlings have survived the onslaught of the slugs, somehow… Only one cantaloupe is still alive.

Here’s a reseeding of Butternut squash. Will the slugs eat them all?

Tobacco is still too small to be transplanted. I’d give it another week or so..

Celeriac getting about 2 true leaves.

That’s about all I want to show atm. I’ll do a quick update because I forgot the Chard.

There we go.

 

Garden Pics – I hate slugs

I’m pretty hateful of slugs right now. They’ve destroyed the cucumber, green beans, and butternut seedlings. I’m going to have to A) get slug pellets, or B) throw protection on germinated seedlings. My family isn’t one that buys soda or water in plastic bottles, so I don’t have a supply to cut the tops off. I’m guessing my best bet is to place opaque yoghurt containers over seedlings over night and when the sun comes up take them off in the morning. In the future I’d much prefer to have my whole garden free of grassy habitat for slugs, and have some ducks that would forage on them if they were still a problem.

I also have to keep telling myself it’s only May 18, the average last frost is May 15, and most people are just now getting stuff planted. I should have another 4-5 months of prime gardening time.. I’m also anxious about turning over the rest of the grass by hand. It takes time and energy, I’m responsible for a kid all day already, and will have another by mid June.

TL;DR, not important, here’s some pics.

Indian Tobacco with about 3 true leaves.

Celery just starting to get its first true leaf.

The only 3 Tomato/Pepper seeds to sprout, all 3 Romas.

Onions. A bit of grass is colonizing the middle.

Strawberries.

Turnips.

Beets.

Direct Seeded Lettuce.

Kale.

Direct Seeded Spinach. Needs some Thinning.

Swiss Chard.

Transplanted Romaine Lettuce and Spinach.

Radishes.

Parsnip for Seed, no flowers yet.

Peas. Still quite small…

Broad Beans.

Chives

Green Beans obliterated.

Pineapple Sage making a comeback.

A Poppy plant next to some lettuce.

 

Reseeding

I had to do a reseeding today. Almost all the Butternut seedlings were eaten by slugs, so I dumped about 15-20 seeds per hill this time in the hopes some outgrow the seedling stage. Also reseeded some pole beans, and some cucumbers where the cowpeas where. Some New Zealand spinach seeds went in where the lentils died.

Watermelon Radishes were planted too. I got ancy..

Also noticed 2 watermelon seedlings up. They’ll probably get eaten though.. dern slugs.

 

Radishes and Root Bed

I did a little selection/thinning on my first planting of Radishes. It seems most of what got planted and grew where white icicles. They where also the most thinned. I tried to pull up radishes that didn’t seem to be making roots.

Here are a few Radishes that are doing a good job at growing roots.

The main phenotypes for roots are red, pink, and white globe, and white icicle. I mixed in some black skinned radishes to my stock, but guess none sprouted. I noticed I thinned a radish that had a purple icicle shape, and I am remorseful.

I also did another planting of radishes. The next planting I do It will be mostly watermelon, so I can get some color to the flesh of my radishes.

I also became frustrated with the carrots, so I reworked the bed, and threw all my carrot seed onto it. It was raining hard while I was doing this..

The turnip and beet sections got a weeding and I planted some more seed where it was empty.

Turnips

Beets.

The cucumbers are sprouting.

And a view of the green bean sprouts.

 

Planted Potatoes and first Salad

Yesterday I was able to dig up some grass and plant the potatoes.

Potatoes in the darker mulched row.

I also noticed the Butternut squashes germinating.

Today I made my first salad from my garden.

Spinach, a few baby radishes, and an onion leaf.

Radishes and onion leaf

Washed and cut.

With a little ranch and cheese, Tastes pretty good

 

Garden Pics – Another Week..

Welp, Not much new happening in the Garden. The newest thing to pop up would be the Pole Beans. Need a free day to get more ground prepared..

Pole Beans are germinating.

This is what appears to be a poppy plant growing in my flower beds. There are 2 other plants like this.

Chives are still alive.

Onions have been getting floppy. Doing fine though. No apparent pest damage.

It seems as if the Strawberries have finally adjusted to being planted, and are putting out new growth.

Overview of the direct seeded lettuce.

Closeup of a good performing lettuce.

Kale being scraggly. The others are even worse, not much to see from above.

Overview of direct seeded spinach.

Best performing spinach so far.

Overview of Swiss Chard. A bit sparse atm.

Broad leaf and thin leaf chard?

Radish bed. The newer planting has been more hit and miss for germination.

Radishes starting to swell. Some are swelling below the surface, which I think are the storage type daikon radishes? If you pull the soil back, you can see the roots

Also, it seems that the radishes swelling below the ground have more leaf mass than those swelling above ground.

This one might be White Hailstone. A couple of the radishes have had their roots nibbled at by slugs..

Fava Beans still growing. Lentils are fried. I am sad, as Lentils are my favorite dry legume.

Transplanted Romaine Lettuce and Spinach. Lettuce is heading up or whatever they call it. Will have to start harvesting soon.

Parsnips for seed getting bigger.

Peas are getting taller. Most have been ravaged by slugs.

Mounds for the Curcurbits, Moschata, Watermelon, and Melon.No germination yet. Cucumbers haven’t germinated, and neither have the cowpeas.

The Brandywines I planted have perished. I have 5 more, so not worried. I don’t even like tomatoes that much But I will remember to make sure my transplants have more leaf mass and are farther past the hardening stage. I might also try sourcing lots of seeds and starting them outside. The Roma seeds are still the only ones to have germinated.

The root crops look abysmal. The beets are flopping on the ground and have thin germination. Half the turnips have been eaten and the rest are severely chomped on. I can’t find a carrot seedling anymore, where I had at least noticed a few before. Not sure if the Parsnips would be up by now or if they’ll take a little longer. I might just turn everything up and reseed.

 

Been raining

It’s been raining for about 3 days. I haven’t been able to get outside and plant more of the summer crops. I failed to mention earlier, though, that on Saturday I got 12 more mounds put in and watermelon and regular melon/cantaloupe planted.

There’s been a bit more growth, but I’ll wait until Friday to put up pictures. It seems to be a good interval to show change.

Also, because of the overcastness and rain, the slugs have been having a ball. Lots of holes in the plants and seedlings gone. Half of the turnips have disappeared. On the note of plant breeding, I’m not sure if what’s left has any “resistance” to slugs, or it’s just been lucky. The direct seeded spinach seems to be mostly untouched..