Everything In

It has been a while since I did a full status report on the garden and this morning I had time while it was raining to put one together. 

The corner bed that has the peas in it is doing very well.  They are all up and clinging to the trellis’s.  I have been winding the vines back into the trellis because they are reaching to the south east for the sun.  So far the weeds haven’t been too bad and I'm hoping the leaves that I laid down as mulch between the rows keep them that way.  I have had an issue with creeping grass the last few years and because it is almost impossible to get out, I'm hoping I can smother it.

The bottom bed with the tomatoes, peppers and beans has been finished.  The tomatoes are doing pretty good.  They have started to send out new roots and new shoots.  A couple plants were damaged during the storm we had last week but nothing that should effect their long term growth.  I also noticed that some leaves have bite marks in them but again nothing that should hurt the plants too much.  The leaves that were spread out are keeping the weeds down so far and you can still really smell them.  The peppers just like the tomatoes are sending out new roots and are setting new leaves.  The plants that I was worried about are looking better and the new leaves that are showing on them are darker.  The beans aren’t up yet, but should be through any day now.

The top bed with the garlic, asparagus, rhubarb and greens is the only bed to produce anything yet.  The garlic started to send out scapes around a week ago.  There are a couple scapes on the polish white that have started to curl and others on the northern Quebec that have not appeared yet.  The Viking asparagus that was transplanted last year has been doing very well.  I have been harvesting for about 5 weeks and think that it is time to let the remainder go to seed.  I have had a ton of asparagus beetles that are attacking them and want to make sure I have strong plants for the future.  The Mary Washington is doing better than they were, but I do have some plants that I thought should be stronger than they are.  There are also approximately 10 seeds that have taken seed by themselves.  All of the info I have read says to pick them out so they don’t compete with your other plants.  Because I appear to have something eating the crowns in the wintertime I might let some of them stay.

The rhubarb is doing very well; it has doubled in size since last year and is being picked regularly.  There is something that is nibbling on the leaves but we don’t eat the leaves anyways so it’s not a problem.  The kale, bok choy and broccoli are all going strong.  The transplants survived and all of the new seeds are coming up.  The bok choy has already started to go to seed, so they will be eaten as baby’s and then reseeded throughout the summer.  Of the 5 varieties of lettuce, 2 are fully up and the other 3 it’s hard to tell.  It looks like some of them are coming up but there are a lot of little sprouts there right now.

The carrots boxes are looking great.  I have carrots up in every box and every row I planted except for 2 rows of the scarlet Nantes.  I think it was because of the sandy soil and the fact they just needed a little more water than they were given.  Because I have tons of seeds I have replanted those rows.  In a few of the other varieties I tried to space the carrots exactly so that I didn’t waste seeds or have to thin them, but in a few cases if a couple seeds didn’t germinate I have a 4” gap. I will finish reseeding the very few bare spots next week.  The parsnips are doing just as well as the carrots.  I always read that it’s hard to get parsnip seeds to germinate, but in 2 years I have had great success.

There are also the herbs.  I noticed sprouts this morning in every box but will have to wait a few days to see if its weeds or herbs.  They are literally day old sprouts and could be anything, although I think they are my herbs coming up.

Last but not least is the flower garden. Although I don’t usually talk about it I recently found a plant that I have been looking for since last year. It’s a sedum called red dragon’s blood.  It is a low growing sedum and to be honest I liked it because of its name as well as the red colour that will give the flower bed a little more colour.

Although it’s not really part of my garden I put the fish out yesterday and here is a picture of them, they were moving pretty fast so just look at the blur in the bottom left.