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.

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.

Watermelon Radishes were planted too. I got ancy..

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

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.

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

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.

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..

Onions are picking up.

The direct seeded lettuce mix is showing itself.

The Kale is pushing out true leaves.

An overview of the direct spring seeded spinach. I thinned some of the closer ones out. Will do another round when they become well established.

Direct view of one of the better performing spinach plants.

Some of the Peas.Getting to be around 3″?

Swiss Chard. Seems to be taking its sweet time getting growing.

Transplanted Romaine Lettuce and Spinach. Very happy thus far with their growth.

First planting of Radishes.

Second planting of radishes popping up.

Broad Beans doing good. The Lentils have been eaten badly. Will have to do a much larger area next year/this fall to hopefully find some capable of growing here.

Parnsips I’m letting go to seed seem to be gobbling up the “fertilizer” I’ve been giving them.

I prepared 6 “mounds” and planted a mix of butternut squashes.

My mother in law brought some BrandyWine tomatoes down from her brothers. I planted half in the ground hoping they do better than if I had kept them in the trays.

Turnips are looking good.

Many of the beets are up, but very small and hard to photograph. Only a few of the carrots are up. I’m hoping more pop out with the warm weather. Worried, because I love carrots more than any of the other root crops, and they’re all doing better so far.

Some garlic I planted shortly after the onions has finally started waking up. I know garlic is supposed to be planted in the fall..

Strawberries are still alive. Don’t believe there’s been too much growth.

Planted the row by the fence with pole beans. There was only 3 or so varieties that got intermixed.

Some Cowpeas got planted on a short section by the fence.

First tomato seedling up! This one’s a Roma.

Tobacco seedlings. Most are starting to put out true leaves.

Celery is germinating. This is actually celeriac, so it’ll grow a swollen trunk.

Mint that got destroyed by the last frost, looks like it’s putting out new growth from the roots.

Pineapple sage that got nipped too, seems like it’s putting out new growth from the roots too.

And that’s about it so far. I still have to plant the rest of the Curcurbits, and then the grain type plants in the back… And potatoes….

This is about half of what I need to turn over. In all actuality I will end up turning up squares in which to plant the seeds, and then newspaper and mulch around to keep the grass down. This should work for the Curcurbit family quite well(cucumbers, melon, squash).

Things I will be planting in the near future:

• Pepo mix: Pumpkin and acorn squash
• Moschata mix: different varieties of Butternut squash
• Watermelon: I have around 5 varieties mixed together, red and orange flesh
• Cucumbers: more than 5 varieties, will plant close to the fence for partial trellising
• Cantaloupe: 2 or 3 varieties.. I have had bad experiences with melon, in which it tasted like hairspray.

• Bush Beans: +7 different varieties mixed
• Pole Beans: 2 or 3 varieties. Not as much to choose from compared to bush beans
• Cow Peas
• New Zealand Spinach.

• Corn? I have some sweet, dent, and Indian corn
• Amaranth. I like this for popping. Will have to develop a better processing strategy
• Pearl Millet. Not sure if the taste is edible on the variety I have. Will do a taste test after harvest
• Sorghum. A syrup variety.
• Sunflower. Confectionery type.

I also need to get my Solanaceae’s out, though they aren’t old enough to transplant. I will be planting Tomatoes,  Peppers, Potatoes, Tobacco, and Datura.

I also finally got around to planting a 6-pack of strawberry plants I bought with the lettuce/spinach/chive transplants. Wasn’t sure where I wanted them, seeing as how they’re a perennial creeper. Ended up putting them behind the onions, where I planned to put Bush beans. They’ll have to go somewhere else.

I noticed my turnip seeding has sprouted. I’ll have to thin them when they get bigger..

My tobacco seedlings seem to like the cow-dirt thus far. Will know truly when they start putting out real leaves.