The Surprise of Spring.

I've complained a lot about the poor production last year. Summer lasted about two weeks. This winter was very mild too. Although earlier this year it seemed spring would never reach us, we finally made the switch. Temperatures are at least in the 50's now and we are having sun breaks nearly everyday. Even yesterday, which had a terrible bike ride in steady rain and gusty winds in the morning, resulted in a pleasant ride home with light sun and scattered clouds. It's getting nicer and the garden knows it.

There were a lot of plants I just left at the end of last year out of frustration. I didn't even want to deal with them and they could die slowly over the winter and do what they do. Turns out, they didn't die over the winter and we are already harvesting! Let's have a look around:




Little broccolis that never made it over a couple inches last year have revealed themselves as purple sprouting. The heads aren't large, but for being ignored and unweeded for the winter, I'm pretty happy with that.





The chard survived with flying colors. The red chard last year never got very large and we didn't harvest much, but they have suddenly swelled this spring. I gave them a nice thinning last weekend and it looks like we could start harvesting more leaves already.




I bought this rosemary back when I lived in big house with a bunch of roommates and I started my first real garden on my own. I kept the rosemary in a pot on the back porch and it moved here with me. The pot broke and half the root system of the rosemary was exposed. It sat like that for an entire season because I didn't know where to put it (and I was lazy). We finally settled with a spot on the corner of the house and it did well in the ground for a bit. We aren't sure what happened, but half the plant died. Perhaps it got waterlogged over a wet winter, I'm not sure. Rosemary is a very hardy bush and grows well here. People all around have four foot and more diameter rosemary bushes in their yards. I'm hoping the flowering is a good sign and it will grow big and strong and odorous this year.





Speaking of perennial herbs, the oregano is returning. I also bought this oregano when I lived in the big house with roommates and it has traveled with me and received equally poor treatment as the rosemary, but it keeps coming back. I put it in the ground last year, but it had been potted its whole life prior. It seems to like the extra room.




There is hope yet that I will successfully grow a cabbage. These should have been harvested last fall, but they never grew more than a few inches. Looking good so far for a late spring harvest.



We might even get a harvest from our cover crop. I put out clover and fava beans as a nitrogen fix to cover the bare areas at the end of summer last year. The fava beans took hold well and they are now flowering. It would be a nice surprise to be able to get a small harvest from something unintended.

Picture update: August

I took most of yesterday off work to help tend to Mike, who had wrist surgery on Tuesday. He tended to me back when I broke my arm and had multiple surgeries, so now it's my turn. I did a couple things around the house that I normally don't have time to do.

I baked some whole wheat bread. It is quite possibly the worst bread I have ever made. I let it rise too long and it collapsed in the oven. I also used up some old flour and I don't think that helped matters at all.




I finished up some yogurt I started on Sunday night. A half gallon of milk makes this much yogurt:



Tomato season is here!



I learned a new trick from America's Test Kitchen (I love those guys), if you store tomatoes with the stem side down they stay fresh for longer. Oxygen penetrates the core through the stem and this prevents much air from accessing the fruit. Cool!




I did a brief outdoor tour...Bees in the roses.




We might, might, actually get to eat a cabbage from the garden this year. They were nearly dead, eaten by aphids and cabbageworms. I did two applications of castille soap and water spritzed all over the plant and it did the trick! We've got three cabbages (out of six) that survived. Still not much of a head on any of them though.




The squash bed...



There are two delicata squash coming in!




This happened. One of the tomato plants got too heavy and fell over, bending the wire to the cage. We tied it back up as best we could and rigged a guywire system, but now it's falling over in a different direction. Lesson learned. Next year will be heavy on the pruning and probably trying out a different staking system.




A couple big ones...

Seedlings.

It's almost time for some of the seedlings to graduate to the yard. This weekend I'm setting out the cabbage and broccoli.

This is my best cabbage. I'm really excited about them; the variety is Mammoth Red Rock. I hope they turn out like they sound.




Something funny happened with a lot of my seedlings. They grew tomatoes off to the side. The best I can come up with is that there were tomato seeds in my compost. I mixed seedling mix and our own compost from the worm bin for all the seedlings. Tomato seeds are hearty and survived the decomposition process and weren't eaten by the worms. There are random tomatoes in about one out of every five pots.




This is my best broccoli. It is the same variety I grew last year, DiCicco, but these seedlings seem a lot stronger and larger than they were last year. The yield last Spring was great, so I'm sure this season will be even better.




The lettuces aren't going out just yet, but this is my best lettuce so far. I can't wait for summer salads.

Report Card.

Planted in the garden today:

• 1 row Northern Lights Swiss Chard
• 1 row Rainbow Carrots
• 1 row Napa Carrots
• 1 row Bloomsdale Savoy Spinach

Harvested from the garden today:

• Last batch arugula (it's starting to flower. Seeds soon!)

Delayed from the garden today:

• Sowing more peas
• Transplanting cabbage and broccoli to garden

I ran out of time to sow the peas. I'll have to get up extra early tomorrow for that one. As for the cabbage and broccoli starts, they are delayed due to weather. The next two days are highs in the 40's and raining. I'm going to wait until this little chilly snap is gone and we are back in the 50's. I don't want to freak the little guys out.