Brussels sprout -- first harvest!

Harvested 10 or so smallish Brussels sprouts.  Roasted them with oil, salt, and pepper.  Quite edible, actually.

However, the plant I harvested them from was so incredibly huge, that I decided to pull it after this harvest.  (Needed to make room for other stuff.)

Some of the other Brussels sprout plants are looking fairly promising, others not so much.

Changing of the guard -- a mid-season swap out

Today, I pulled:
- 2 cabbages (1 was horribly full of slug holes, the other was just not heading up at all, maybe due to being under the roof overhang although last year's cabbages loved it there)
- 2 Brussels sprouts (1 was just wayyyyyy too huge so I pulled it after harvesting what I could; the other just wasn't looking very promising)
- 2 or 3 celery (these ones didn't have any nice mature stalks)

And I planted these, bought from Canadian Tire, which although teeny, actually look nice and non-leggy:
- 3 or 4 itty bitty broccoli
- 3 or 4 itty bitty cauliflower
- 3 or 4 itty bitty cabbages

Outdoor updates

Beets:  Of first two sowings, only 1 sprouted!!!  Sowed 2 more rows.

Carrots:  sowed more, all the way to the lettuce.  Carrot bed now full, other than some un-sprouted gaps to fill in.

Spinach:  FLOP!  Not one of the seeds sprouted.  Oh well.

Celery, bok choy, and rest of swiss chard:  Transplanted after about a week of living outside full time.

Bok choy seeds:  Just for fun, tossed some seeds in the defunct spinach bed.  Curious how outdoor-sown will compare to indoor-sown.

Lettuce:  Coming along.  Still way too tiny to harvest any yet.

Petunias from round one:  Living outside full time.  Will transplant soon.

Onions:  The ones I started from seed are coming along, some more quickly than others.  The multiplying onion bulbs though -- wow!  Love them!  Wayyyy more productive than "normal" onions that only send up one green thing.

Tomatoes -- big:  Living outside full time.  Will transplant 1 soon and keep the other as backup/give-away.

Tomatoes -- small:  Started hardening off today.

Peas:  Transplanted the rest of the indoor starts.  And, put plastic crow to guard the outdoor starts of which there are some new ones to the scene.  Crow seems to be working -- nothing nibbling on them since I put it out!  Knock on wood but it looks like I may get some actual peas this spring!

Cabbage / Brussels sprouts / kale / chard (which were transplanted several weeks ago):  Looking ok, haven't lost any, although not thriving, maybe due to the very cloudy and cool weather we've had.  The best one is the cabbage in the tiny "bed" near the patio door -- it looks great.



Grass:  Seeded half of the bare areas 1 or 2 weeks ago.  Seeded the more south spots today.

Transplants in.

Transplanted the other kale, chard, and two Brussels sprouts that had been sitting outside in their pots the last week and a half. 

Outdoor sowings and transplantings

Transplanted most of the cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale, and chard today. They should be well hardened off by now, having been living outside full time since last weekend. Trying some cutworm defence, in the form of paper cups and/or a fort of pencil crayons. For the paper cups, I found it worked a lot better to use two for each plant rather than try to squish one cup around the plant.  Still have a few to decide where they're going to, then get them in the ground.  There are also a few wimpy cabbages inside that haven't thrived.  I tossed two and sure enough, itty bitty root systems.  The bigger I'm giving a chance.










Not transplanted yet:


Sowed more carrots, up to the midway point of the hydro meter, and removed the plastic cage from the already-planted carrots.  No more plastic cages in the garden now.

Finally, sowed all three kinds of lettuce that came in my awesome seed collection.  I wasn't going to grow lettuce this year, because I couldn't think of what to use lettuce for other than salads, and I'm not big on salads without ample mega high fat dressing.  But!  Then I remembered my falafel sandwiches. So, in went the lettuce today, just to be used at the young stage for my falafels... and maybe some tofu tacos too. The lettuce went in the last part of the carrot bed, so once the lettuce is done I'll probably replace them with more carrots.

Hardening off update

Well it's official, my group of hardies is now living outside full time.  Still in their pots though, except for the one kale and the onions that I planted yesterday.

Last night was their first overnight outside.  Today I had to head out while it was raining and the forecast called for possible heavy rain, so now they're under plastic to protect them. 

Will transplant the rest of them soon.

First transplants in! (onions, and one kale) And, more carrot, beet, and spinach seeds.

I've had the same group of hardy seedlings out in the yard a fair bit this week (cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale, onions, and chard).  Thinking it will be time to get them all in the ground soon, very soon!  Today got a start by putting in the medium kale, as well as all of the onions.




Tomorrow I'll buy some paper cups to use as cutworm collars and hopefully get the rest of the hardy plants in the ground this weekend.

Today I also planted one more row of beets and 2 or 3 more rows of carrots.  This time I used the sifter to sift a fine layer of soil on top, just because!  Also planted more spinach.

It's alive! Busy day in the backyard.

(Oh and the "it" in the title of this blog post clearly doesn't refer to my grass! Tee hee!)

Couldn't resist the fantastic weather to spend most of the day in the yard, my first gardening day of the year. Here's the yard after today's activities -- small yard, even smaller gardening area, but amazing how much can grow here!




- Sowed 1 row of beets and 2 or 3 rows of carrots, under plastic dome







- Sowed peas!  Yes that's right, I decided to sow them outside again and take my chances.  Last year's pea seeds were a big failure.  They either rotted, met their end via cutworms, or were plucked out by birds or whatnot.  I suspect all three of those were a factor, no idea why as I had no problems with peas when I last grew them a few years ago.  So, all year I've been saving my toilet paper rolls with the thought of starting them inside this year.  Well, today I decided to get them a shot outside.  Differences over last year:  (1) in a different bed, (2) under plastic cover.  Here's hoping they succeed.  I sure do love sugar snap peas, such a delectable garden treat!







- Sowed spinach, under plastic dome made with garden fence supports




- Planted some multiplier onion bulbs (the ones I planted on February 23rd don't seem to have done much)





- Set out the kale, onions, brussels sprouts, cabbage, and chard (the older plants, not the younger ones) to harden off for a few hours, their first time outside -- although, it was such a nice day I'm not sure how "hard" that was for them!




Charlie the cat enjoyed some good sun time.




It occurred to me that I'm in the process of hardening off not only my veggie plants, but also my little dog who's coming off 8 weeks of cage rest due to a disc issue with his back.  Both the plants and Scooter need to ease themselves into life in the real world!





Charlie had no qualms with Scooter being confined while he was free to roam :D

Seedling update

I think the accidentally unlabelled tomatoes have made it clear which two are the Tiny Tims and which two are the beefsteak!



Very happy with some of the older Brussels, kale, chard, and onions -- they look great.



Generally, the other things are coming along too:



However, the cabbages aren't looking too great in general.  Seems some are just failing to thrive... but maybe they will rally.  Worse comes to worse, off to the garden store I will go for some good healthy transplants.  Loved harvesting the cabbage last year, hope to do it again this year one way or the other!

Photo update on some the older seedlings

Petunias -- looking amazing!  So healthy!




Brussels sprouts




Kale




Cabbage -- sadly looking yellow whereas a few days ago it looked very healthy



Swiss chard




Onion



Tuberous begonia
No photo because nothing to show!  I think my tuberous begonias will be a big tuberous flop!

Woopsie -- Farewell to a cabbage and a brussels sprout

Two flops this week:

(1) In separating out a cabbage pot that had two plants, taking one out into its own -- the removed one is doing great, but the other one died.  I guess I disturbed the roots too much.  I've done similar dividings in recent weeks and that's the only one I've lost so far.

(2) In moving plants from one shelf to another, I broke the stem of a Brussels sprout.  D'oh! 

March 11th sowing: Swiss chard, and, round 2 of Brussels, cabbage, kale, & onions

Swiss chard sowed today.  8 joined-pots, 2 seeds each which were pre-soaked for a few hours.


And, round 2 for these:

• Brussels sprouts:  3 pots, 2 seeds each
• Cabbage:  3 pots, 3 seeds each in case the March 4th sowing has germination issues
• Kale:  1 pot, 3 seeds each in case the March 4th sowing has germination issues
• Onions:  1 pot, 4 seeds

More sproutlings have appeared: Update on March 4th sowing and petunias

Spring is springing inside, despite the -20 degrees outside!  Here they are, under my brand new T5 full spectrum lights from Lee Valley.  Raised the lights up for photo-taking purposes -- will keep them nice and low.




Update on March 4th sowing:

• Brussels sprouts:  3 of 3 pots have sprouted, both seeds in each as noted a few days ago.  (wow, 100% germination rate!  A+ for Brussels sprouts!)

• Cabbage:  2 of 4 pots have sprouted, but only 1 seed in each (planted 2 each).  (seen in upper left of above photo)

• Onion:  1 of 1 pot has sprouted, 4 seeds (planted 4 or 6, can't remember).

• Kale:  1 of 1 pot hasn't sprouted yet.

• Petunias, sown on February 18th, are looking good. Thinned them to 1 per pot.

The Brussels sprouts have sprouted!

Well what do you know, overnight all six of my Brussels sprouts seeds suddenly appeared!  They caught me off guard with their pale green/yellowish colour. Hopefully this is normal for this type of plant – never grew these from seed before and don’t remember other seedlings looking like that.  Regardless, very exciting – and, that’s only 6 days from sow to sprout.  Impressive little things!

Seeds started: cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, & onions

Started the first batch of cabbage (Golden Acre), kale (Premier Forage), Brussels sprout (Catskill), and onion (Evergreen Bunching) seeds today, all of which are from the Open Seed Vault set -- here's hoping they'll germinate!   Put 2 seeds in each pot, with the hopes that at least one will do well (the other will be removed). Will start a second batch of them all in a week or two, to try to spread out the harvest a little.  (Well, that's assuming they make it to harvest!)