Okra and Corn Sprouts

I had fun this afternoon after work taking pictures of all of the new sprouts.  Sadly the long awaited beans have not sprouted yet, but lots of other stuff has.

Loads more carrots have come up.

Almost all of the nasturtiums have come up.

Our first okra sprout.  You can't see it very well yet, but it's there all right.

A few painted mountain corn have come up.

The mammoth sunflowers I planted last week are already coming up.

I planted two different types of sunflowers.

My potatoes have started to bloom already.  It is only May 16th.

Here is one of my celery plants I planted from seed on March 3rd.  Celery sure does grow slowly.  I hope I actually get some celery before it frosts.

The Cinderella Pumpkin has two true leaves now. Yay!

The zucchini has a true leaf and a half.

The cucumbers almost have one true leaf opened up.

The cilantro is finally growing.  I have to say that I do not like peat pots.  I had forgotten that since last year, but I won't forget it again.  They dry out really fast, and you have to carefully rip them off your plants in several pieces before you plant them.  Don't believe anyone who says you can leave them on the plant when you plant them out.  I forgot this fact, even though I did already learn it, and plunked these cilantro in the ground.  They sat there and complained to me until I said, "what is your deal? Why aren't you growing right?"  I scooped one out of the ground to bury it deeper because it looked like it had popped up and was kinda floppy.  Lo and behold, the peat pot was still on it.  I knew right away that was the problem.  I ripped the peat pot off and planted it right back in the dirt.  Now it is happy.  I did the same thing to all four of the cilantro plants.  I have also direct seeded the next round of cilantro, but they haven't come up yet. I plan on planting more very two weeks.

My husband and I went to Lowe's to get two more bags of potting mix so I could re-pot my smaller tomato plants.  We both thought that we should buy this sweet mint plant and a pot to grow it in.  We see mojitos in our future now.  If only we could grow a lime tree here.

I also finally figured out what variety of eggplant it was that I loved so much when I grew it two years ago.  Now I know it was a Hansel.  I thought I had gotten the right kind last year, but as soon as it started growing I knew it wasn't the same.  I didn't like it as well either.  Last year I bought an Ichiban because the picture of the fruit looked similar, but the plant is totally different.  It grows with a different habit.  The Hansel grows taller and with large branches all with fruit, and it also has dark purple colored stems and spines.  It makes lots more fruit, and the fruit are delicious.

This is my eggplant I grew from seed.  It is a new kind I have not tried before.  It makes small round fruit.  The picture of the fruit that was on the seed packet looks like the eggplants that my friend Sean Stephan gave me from his garden a few years ago.  They were delicious. He also told me that they made a lot of fruit.  More than their family could eat, if I remember right.  Come to think of it, of coarse that is true, or I wouldn't have gotten so many.

This is our first pea.  It is the same one featured in a previous post.  It won't be long now before it is ripe.  My daughter checks it everyday.  She loves peas.

Looky, looky.  My graft is growing.  I grafted two branches, but one broke off in a wind storm a few weeks ago.  This one is finally growing leaves.  I am so excited.  you can still see the thick layer of wax I put on to keep it from drying out.  It is cracking off of the parts that are growing.

Here is the end bud.  The leaves are even bigger than the leaves on the main part of the tree.

The strawberries are coming along nicely.  I don't think I will get enough this first year for a batch of jam, but definitely enough for a batch of strawberry ice cream  and fresh fruit on pancakes and cereal a few times.  Yummy.  I can hardly wait.

Next post will be about insects in the garden. There is some cool stuff out there today.

No Foolin' This 70 Degree Weather Is Making Everything Grow

Happy April Fool's Day!  I didn't even play any jokes on anyone today.  I guess I still have a few hours.  We'll have to come up with something.  Now I have some serious growing to report on from my garden, and I'm not foolin' around. Wow.  I planted a bunch of things last Tuesday, and a lot of it is already sprouting.

I planted three kinds of kale. Two of them have sprouted already. This is Russian Red.

You can kind of tell they are different. This is the smooth leaf kale.  I am still waiting on the Blue Curled Scotch.

It appears that the buckwheat that I planted a few weeks ago is coming up after all.  I have planted potatoes in one of the beds that I had planted the cover crop in.  I had given up on it. I guess I shouldn't have.

This kale seed must have been dropped here by accident.

The romaine lettuce is coming up really strong.

This is a picture of what is coming up in one of the salad mix squares.  Some of these sprouts look very radishy, or maybe kale like.

Speaking of radishes, these are the sparkler radishes I planted last week. With this heat they are going to catch up to the cherry belle.

The cherry belle radishes are looking very good.

This is the other salad mix square.  You can see little green sprouts everywhere.

I think that is all of the things that I planted last week, but all of the stuff I planted earlier is also growing by leaps and bounds in this wonderfully warm weather.

The fava beans that I started indoors and moved to the pot are really getting big.

I put my hand in this one so you can appreciate how big they really are.  The ones that I planted directly in the garden have not sprouted yet, but with all of this warm weather I don't think it will be long. It only took 3 days in the window for the toilet paper roll experiment. I never did tell you what I thought about the toilet paper experiment.  Well, I won't be using them again, sorry to say.  They all grew the most disgusting thick layer of fungus all over them.  I was surprised to find one of the fennel sprouting right through the 1/4 inch layer of mold three days ago. I transplanted it, just in case it will make it.  so far so good, but no other seeds have emerged through the fungus.

The peas are growing so fast in this warmth that I think the second row is going to catch up to the first row.  I had planned to plant a third row of peas last Thursday, to keep up the pea planting every two weeks idea, but I didn't.  I just don't know if I want to use that much space.   Maybe this weekend I will plant a third row.

The spinach sprouts are getting bigger and bigger, but have not gotten their second leaves yet.

The strawberries are getting more green new leaves, and the old leaves are dying off.  I don't think we will get a huge crop this year, but hopefully they will spread out with their runners and cover the beds they are in.

The potatoes haven't shown any green above ground yet, but I think they are working on it because I can see cracks starting to break where they are planted beneath.

I think you can finally see the grass on the photographs of the front lawn now. Look at it. It is getting pretty green. I am a bit worried about how many weeds are there with the grass.  I have been reading and everything says we can't treat with herbicide until the grass is really established and has been mowed a few times. I carefully pull out the ones I can reach from the side, and some of them will be taken care of the first time we mow (the sunflowers and the maple trees) but some of them will be an ongoing problem, possibly into next year.  We have some of those early spring annual weeds that are already flowering and will be done making seeds for next year well before we mow this lawn.  I will have to remember to put on a very early weed and feed treatment next spring for those sprouts.  Just in case you haven't figures it out yet, I am not one of those organic only people.  I am a chemist by training and have loads of experience with pesticide analysis in food, soil and water and have come to grips with the fact that chemicals are everywhere and are useful. I believe the real problem is that they are not being used in a sustainable way.  I might expound on this opinion in a paper or video later, but since my family has heard it all, and they are the only ones reading this blog I won't take the time and space here.

Okay, here is an update on the pear grafting experiment.  Well, sort of.  There is nothing really to report.  I can't tell if they are taking or not.  They aren't dried up and dead, yet, but they also aren't really showing signs of being healthy either. The natural buds are starting to open and show leaves and flower buds, as you can see in the pictures above and below. The grafted terminal buds seem to have swollen a bit, because they cracked the wax that had been covering them, but that is the extent.  I believe that if I had placed these buds into the ground they would be this far along.  I will not call this a success or failure until the grafts are really dead or have leaves growing on them.

I will have flowers very soon on this pear tree.  Since I need cross pollination I may not have pears this year. I know I should remove pears this year to give the tree a chance to establish itself, but I really love comise pears, and I am excited to see what they are like on my tree. I could bring home a few flowering branches from work and put them in a bucket of water next to my tree for the bees. I could make sure and pick off all but a few pears.  Hmmmm.  I will think on it.

My little rhubarb is taking off.  I am no longer worried about it. I don't think I will pick any this year, but it will be just fine despite the fact that I thought it was a goner when I bought it. I won't have enough strawberries for strawberry rhubarb squares anyway.

The tulips we planted last fall are getting loads of leaves but are showing no signs of flower buds yet.  I think I do remember reading on the label for these tulips that they were a later blooming variety.  I think that will be lovely.

The miniature irises have all bloomed now.  Look how cute.  I think for next year I will try to plant a few more, so they are not so lonely.  I know they will fill in a bit on their own, also.

This tulip bud is on one of the volunteer tulips. It looks like I will get to see what kind they are pretty soon.  I will probably dig them up soon after they are done.  If they are really pretty I will relocate them. If not then I will get rid of them.  I am such a ruthless gardener.  I have adopted the mantra "if I didn't plant it, I don't want it."  It saves me a lot of decision making anxiety.  These tulips have survived this long because they are beneath the weed block, and it will be quite an ordeal to dig them out.  My procrastination may save their lives.

Here are a few more pictures of the front lawn coming in all green.

You can see some sunflower sprouts in this close up shot.  They are everywhere.  When I pull them I can tell that some of them have been tilled way under and have still come up through 6 inches of dirt. They are determined little pests.  I want to eradicate them this year.  I do plan, however, to plant some sunflowers of the mammoth seed producing variety.  I hope those do not create the horrible weed problem that these ones have.  The neighbors said that they may have grown from the bird seed that the lady threw out for the birds, but they remember her saying she loved them.

Oh my gosh! I almost forgot to tell you I finally found some fingerling potato starts.  I have never grown them but I do love to eat them.  I wanted to try growing some this year.  My aunt had some fond memories of  a specific variety that her friends grew in Alaska and I found some seed potatoes for them at the Savemart here in town.  I only bought five of them.  I really don't want to use any more space for potatoes, but I had to give these a try.  They are in one corner of the bed with the fava bean row.

My blog posts are always way too long for any sane person to read, but if you are still reading, then have a very happy April Fool's Day and don't play any cruel jokes, just nice ones.