Typical Spring Weather Around Here: Cold, then warm, then cold again

It has been a while since I posted an update on the lawn, the raised beds, the chickens and the tomato and pepper starts indoors.  I think I will try to break it up so my post isn't like a book.  I took pictures on April 22nd and then again a week later on the 29th so I will try to put matching things together so you can see how much they grew that week.  First a quick update on the veggies in the raised beds:

April 22nd -  The tendrils of the peas are really grabbing onto the plum branch trellis.

April 29th - The second row of peas I planted has pretty much caught up to the first so it is one big mass of peas.  I love it.  We are going to get so many delicious peas.

April 22nd - You can compare the peas in this photo to the April 29th ones above.  Also, the broccoli and salad mix are visible here.

April 22nd - You can see each of the potatoes poking their heads out, some more than others. After I took this picture I decided it was time to pull some of the dirt down of the hills to bury the potatoes more.

This is a closer look at one of the Yukon Gold potatoes.

Just in case you were curious, this is what the buckwheat looks like when it is a couple weeks old.  I am sorry that we won't see what it looks like later because I pulled them all up when I moved the dirt onto the potatoes.

April 29th - The potatoes are all up through the added dirt I pulled down from the hills.  It is looking almost level now.  Just the few smaller plants have little dips now. There will be room on the left side (the front that faces the road) to put in flowers to make it look really nice from the road.

April 22nd - The Spinach.  This comparison will be slightly misleading because I have picked some to make two salads.

April 29th - I have also harvested leaves from this mixed salad greens section on the end next to the spinach.

April 22nd - They grew a lot in that week, didn't they.  Sometimes plants are so fast, and sometimes it seems to take forever.

April 22nd - This is a brussel sprout plant.  You can see where my cat, Cooper, chewed on the leaves.

April 29th - I don't have a picture of the brussel sprouts, but this is one of the broccoli I planted at the same time.  Cooper ate pretty much every leaf off of this one.  It is growing really big new leaves.

April 22nd -This is the other mixed salad green section. This mix is very different. I scatter planted these instead of rows.

April 29th - This picture is taken from a different perspective and farther back, but on the left side you can see that the salad greens are really growing.  Like I mentioned earlier, I have made two heaping salads from the garden for all three of us.  I just take my scissors out there and cut off leaves and leave the plants to make more. On the right side and middle of this picture you can see the radishes.

April 22nd - You may be able to tell that these radishes need thinning in this picture.  Don't worry, I thinned them as soon as I finished taking the picture.

Here is a closer look at one of these crunchy, sweet and spicy little guys.  How do I know what they taste like, you ask? Well, I ate some, of coarse.

Look at all these radishes I picked when I was thinning.  I also picked a few more for each of the salads we ate and a couple more for my uncle when he came to visit.  I have told you before, my uncle loves radishes fresh from the garden.  It really is all for him that I plant those.  I do like them, but I just don't get excited about them like he does.

April 22nd - The award for the most impressive growth in a week goes to: the romaine lettuce...

April 29th - Look at it.  I have even picked some, too.

April 22nd - I was very curious to see what arugula looked like when it came up.  I have eaten it and ordered it on pizzas, but I haven't grown it before.  It is very small when it sprouts, but it is growing. Compare it to the picture above to the right of the romaine lettuce.

Super close up.  I need to thin it, but it is very small and crowded   The seeds are so small that it was hard to plant fewer seeds at a time.

Three Kinds of Kale:

             April 22nd                                          April 29th

Smooth Leaf Kale



 Blue Curled Scotch Kale

Russian Red Kale

April 22nd -The golden fingerling, a.k.a. banana, potatoes are finally starting to get a foothold.  They are all up and have lots of leaves I just started bringing dirt down from the hills to cover the stems.

April 29th - In the background you can see the fava beans and the cabbages.

April 22nd

April 29th - They are starting to form little heads:

Look how cute they are.

April 22nd - the fava  beans are so huge, but I can't really see them growing lately. I think they are putting energy into branching out.  It has been cold and windy, too.

April 22nd - This is the Strawberry and fava bean patch, with the extra pots in the background.  I am still figuring out where I want to put those to make it look nice and increase my growing area.

April 29th

Sage

Rosemary

Dill

Okay, I'd better stop here or else it really will be a book.  I will have more updates coming up.  The chickens are doing great, and the lawn is coming along.  I have some news about the seeds I started indoors, too.

Planted Leafy Greens Today In Perfect Spring Weather

It is 63 degrees outside right now.  I can't believe I am inside typing this blog instead of sitting outside.  I think I got enough sun on my face earlier, though, while I planted the leafy greens and fava beans.

I have never grown fava beans before, so I tried a little experiment.  Last week I planted four of them in toilet paper roll seed starters.  Today I noticed that they were all growing.  They are so huge when they sprout that I was instantly scared that they would be harmed by being in those small tubes.  I planted them outside in a pot. You can see three of them in this picture if you look very close.

Here is an up close look at one of them.  This sprout is as big as a nickle.  They each had a huge thick root sticking out the bottom. as well.  The seed packet says you can plant them the same time as peas outside so I went ahead and planted the rest of the seeds directly outside.  They should be done in time to pull them out to make room for the warm weather crops.

This bed received a bunch of new seeds today.  On the right, I planted three types of kale.  Since kale grows very huge I planted three to four seeds in three different spots for each variety.  I will thin them to just one plant each. I hope they do well.  I love kale.  The far right corner was planted with two small squares of greens. One square is arugula and the other a mix of romaines.  The far left corner is a mesclun mix that looks really tasty on the package.  I also added a very small rectangle of sparkle radishes right behind the cherry belle radishes that have started sprouting.

Here are those radishes. I planted them a week and a half ago.  You can see the rows now.  They each have their seed leaves out now

This is a close up of one of them.

When they first push their little leaves through they look like this.

The spinach is just starting to poke out.  This is a close up of one of them. You can only see three or four so far.

The garlic is growing very tall and green.  I think it is the prettiest thing in the garden so far.

The peas are getting loads of leaves, but up until today they had kept them folded up pretty tight.  This warm sun must be coaxing them out because they are starting to open up.

Close up.  I love peas.

The onions I planted from bulbs are looking really strong.  After this year I might decide that this is the way to go.  Only the harvest will tell.

I planted my potatoes outside today.  I didn't have room for them all in this one bed, so I didn't plant all of the russets.  You may recall that I wasn't that excited about them to start with, so it isn't that sad.  The potatoes are in the ground in the trench. As they sprout, I will keep taking dirt from the hills and piling it around them so they have to grow higher and higher.  This encourages them to make more tuber producing stems.  I learned this from my good friend, the potato guy.  He had to figure out how to grow potatoes in every season and condition for his master's degree in entomology.  He did his research on a potato pest, the potato psillid.

Here is a look at my rhubarb plant.  I planted it from a sickly looking start I bought at Bimart a few weeks ago.  At first I wasn't even sure it was alive, but then it started growing inside so I planted it outdoors.  It is actually looking pretty good.  I bought a package that said it had two rhubarb starts in it, and it had only one very sickly one.  If this guy makes it through the winter this year to next year I think I will be happy enough, though. I really only wanted one plant.

Here is a look at one of the leafy green patches.  This is the spicy mesclun salad mix.  I put seeding potting soil on top of the seeds to keep it from crusting over them.

I used the pots from the pansies and violas to start some more eggplants and some bell peppers.  I keep saying I won't waste any more space on growing bell peppers, because I never get enough peppers to make it worth it, but I can never resist planting them in the spring.  Here goes.  Hopefully, I will discover the secret to making them productive this year.

Yay! Surprise! The grass we panted in the front yard is finally coming up.  From far off you can't really see it very well yet, but especially in the warmer, sunnier spots it is coming up pretty strong.  Suddenly, all the time we have spent watering it feels a little less wasted.  I am still a bit disappointed that I gave in and agreed to plant any lawn at all, but it is always exciting to see things sprouting and growing when you plant them.  The yard that we planted is very small and won't take too much water, because it is a drought tolerant fescue.

Things are getting exciting out in the garden.  I can't wait to see what is sprouting next week.  I am scheduled to plant another biweekly row of peas on Thursday.  I have also been transplanting some of the seedling I planted indoors, tomatoes, peppers, collards and celery.  They have been a bit disappointing so far.  It seams like I have one strong sprout for each variety.  I planted between six and 18 of each so that is not good odds.  I dug up one of the peat pellets to see what was going on inside there and I found seeds with roots, but no shoots so they will probably come up eventually as long as they don't get sick.  The seedling trays have not been keeping as warm as they should.  I added my reptile heat mat to the bottom of one of the trays.  I will see if that helps.  I think I will build a heated seed starting table for next year.

Happy planting to you all.  Hope you get out and enjoy this weather.