Spring Weather, It Can Happen

Last year we didn't really get a spring.  The spring crops, like lettuce, peas and fava beans, just didn't have a chance. This year spring has been really awesome, so far. It has been cool but not cold with lots of good sunshine and a bit of rain.

My adventures with this green house have been way too exciting. It is very light and acts like a sail.  You can probably imagine where this story is going.  Yes, it blew over, and yes, it had flats of sprouting seeds in it at the time.  It was a typical windy early spring day. My daughter came in the house from school and said, "mom, your green house blew over." I had been checking on it periodically, because I knew it was a possibility. It must have just happened.  This is what it looks like now. It's all reassembled and seeds are replanted.  I really staked it down tight and dug it down into the dirt a few inches. It has made it through a few wind storms now, so I am not too worried about it.

Here are the shelves full of seedlings.

Arugula

Sweet Onions

Jalapeno Peppers

Pak Choy or Boc Choi or whatever.  I had some fun with the spelling.

Gotta have my dark greens.

This is a whole flat of herbs with loads of lavender.

I know you can's see them, but this container has lots of tiny alpine strawberry sprouts.  I am so excited about them.  The plants are pretty, the flowers lovely and the strawberries delicious.

I found this packet of celery starts at Bimart.  It takes months to get celery from seed to this stage so I decided to speed up the harvest and buy it.

I also bought this little guy last week.  Its called a jellybean blueberry. It stays small and really bushy and makes really tasty berries.  The tag says you can even grow it in a pot. I want 12 of these to replace the boxwood bushes in the front yard, but I want to try it out this year first.

This large blueberry bush has already been planted.  It is going to look lovely here next to the front porch.

The flowers are already coming on, so I made sure to get it in the ground right away.

I finally got myself a quince.  It is very small, but its healthy and the flowers will be very pretty on the other side of the porch.

I bought some cabbage starts at SavMart because they were so cheap and looked really nice. I put them in the pots that the tomatoes, peppers and eggplants were in last year. I want to rotate crops families. Also, cabbages get so big that they take up too much room in the raised beds.  At least in the pots they can just hang over the edge and not crowd anything else.

The June bearing strawberries are putting for their leaves.

The spinach that I planted in the fall has been great this spring.  I haven't seen any leaf miner yet, and I have harvested twice, a big bowl full each time.

I haven't harvested any kale yet, but the fall planting is looking good.

The peas are coming up strong...

I love...

PEAS!

Radishes, I planted three different kinds: Easter Egg II mix, Cherry Belle, and French Breakfast.

I actually remembered to plant some beets this year.  I love beets.

Another variety of arugula.

My rhubarb

Strawberry bed

Fall planted bed

Onions and Lettuces. The back left corner has four collard green plants.

Broccoli and lettuces

You can't really see them but there are shallots, onions and peas galore here.

Radishes, beats, carrots and mixed salad greens with peas

Swiss chard, carrots and cover crop peas and oats

 

The mojito mint is showing signs of life in its pot.

This furry little guy is the oregano. This year I will plant the rosemary in a pot and try bringing it inside for the winter.  I have determined that it just will not overwinter here. When my chives, thyme and lavender sprout I will have a complete compliment of perennial herbs for all of my favorite cooking.

The Beans Are Finally Up.

Thank goodness I pre-soaked those bean seeds, or who knows how long that would have taken.  Most sources say that they take 4 to 5 days longer without soaking.  As it was it took 10 days for the first ones to show and they are still coming up today.  In their defense, it has been pretty cool out there these two weeks. I planted them on the second to last warm day before the cold snap we've been having.

The Scarlet Emperor Runner beans have come up the best.  They look really healthy and strong right out of the ground.

This picture shows both rows on either side of the trellis.  I see only two gaps.  I think I will need to thin these anyway.

This is where the rows of pole green beans should be.  They are definitely straggling behind. A few have had the leaves eaten off by birds or something.  You can see the bird netting I laid over one side.

This is what the pole green beans look like up close when they haven't been terrorized by birds or insects.

The cranberry beans have about half sprouted.  There are large gaps here, but new sprouts come out every day, so I think it will all fill in.

This is a close up shot of one of those.  They are a bush bean that is good as a green bean, or shelly bean or even as a dried bean.

This is what the okra sprouts look like up close.  They are hairy and cute.

Our french alpine strawberry sprouts are coming along.  They are still very small, but very cute.  They are actually starting to look like a strawberry.

This is the biggest of the celery plants.  It is starting to be recognizable, as well.

The whole row of cucumbers have their first true leaves.  I thinned them out a bit.  I may need to thin them more later.

This is the largest tomato I have so far.  It is about two inches wide now.  I think the first to ripen will be the sungold cherry tomatoes, but these won't be to far behind.

The eggplant I planted from seed is getting bigger and bigger.  When the warm weather comes back, this thing is really gonna take off.

The Cinderella pumpkins that I planted in the hills near the beans and three sisters garden area are finally up, also.  The other ones I planted earlier are much farther along:

You can just see the butternut squash

and the kabocha squash.

The 65 day cabbage is really coming along.  The head here is over 4 inches wide.

The red cabbages aren't even forming heads yet, but the plants are getting bigger and bigger.  I pulled out and stir fried all but three last week to make room for other things.

A few of the peppers are already budding.  This one is rather yellow.  I think I will add some calcium and compost to the soil in the pots.

This is a close up look at the brussel sprouts.  You can see where the actual brussel sprouts will form.  The buds are about a quarter inch in size.

The potato blossoms are about to open.  I can't wait.  They will be pretty.

This is how many tomato plants I have that are still waiting to go in.  There were 16 when I took this picture, but I have given one away now.  I have been trying to find homes for them, but I don't know what varieties they are, so it can be a hard sell. I will fit about four more in when the peas are done and perhaps some more when the fava beans are done, or I get tired of them and pull them out.  These tomatoes will be okay in these pots for a little longer.  Some of them are still quite small. I have fourteen planted in the garden now.

Still no sign of broccoli heads forming on the broccoli.  That is actually good.  The bigger the plants get before starting to bloom, the bigger the broccoli crowns you get. Or so they say.  Don't ask me who they are.  I'll quote my cousin, whom I have been spending entirely too much time with and tell you, "your mom!"

Have a wonderful day. Hope your Memorial day weekend was as awesome as mine. We spent ours with our family and friends, several of whom are retired or recently active duty military and we talked and reminisced about our grandpa who was a WWII veteran and has now left us.