GA: Open! Planted onions, leeks, parsley, celery, forget-me-nots, crimson clover

Day 1 of GA being open!

Sadly the weather this weekend and upcoming week is the pits -- cool and rainy.  But good for the cold-hardies.

So, today, these went in:

- Onions:  First, to the east are the ones from my home-sown seedlings consisting of New York Early, with a few Frontier in there; then the rest to the west are all from sets bought at Ritchies', consisting of (in no particular order) red, large white, normal white, and yellow.  All had some kelp, a few alfalfas, mrp, and az.  Leafs loosely scattered over top.  9 per square foot with a few leftovers tucked in throughout.  Covered right away using the short metal fences and a sheer curtain.

- Leeks:  All are from my home-sown seedlings.  I used the dowel to make nice ~6" deep holes, into which I added alf, kelp, mrp, and az.  Placed the seedlings, then when I watered them in the holes kind of filled up right away.  Leaves loosely scattered over top but then I decided I wanted to give them a few days so brushed most of the leaves to one side.  9 per square foot.  Covered right away using the short metal fences and a sheer curtain.

- Parsley:  ~5 seedlings.

- Celery:  ~6 seedlings.

- Crimson clover:  In the east part of the southmost bed.  Didn't amend the soil at all, just loosely raked it, scattered seeds randomly, raked to gently cover, watered.  More seeds were showing than I wanted, so scattered soil over top for better cover.

Transplanted yard kale, chard, parsley, and green onions

The chard and kale are in the ground and covered.

The green onions are in a pot and covered.  As the seedlings were dense, I dumped them out into water, and it's true what they say, it was fairly easy to separate them out this way though some I left together.

The parsley is in the ground uncovered.

Started broccoli (Belstar & Piracicaba), parsley, and celery

 Started broccoli (Belstar & Piracicaba), parsley, and celery.

Belstar is new to me this year, recommended by Susan M.

Celery, parsley, broccoli (piracicaba) started in PT

^^^

Broccoli, chard, kale, celery, parsley, lettuce transplanted (some still left in pots for now)

The broccoli's soil was amended with the following into each plant's hole:  1 tbsp kelp, 1/2 tbsp mrp, 1/2 tbsp az, and a generous sprinkling of alfalfa.  Forgot to add myc.

All the others were amended with a bit of each and some myc.

Haven't installed the tulle/cover yet.

Hardening off of onions, parsley, broccoli, and celery started today

Hardening will be a bit sporadic because the weather forecast is so-so.

But today started with 1 or 2 hours in the afternoon shade, around 2 or 3 degrees.

Parsley, celery, and broccoli started in paper towels

Forest Green parsley,

Piracicaba broccoli (not doing any of the other types this year),

Tall Utah Improved celery (from the foil package seed selection from several years ago).

Parsley harvest -- and yes only grow curly parsley in future too

Pulled a nice bagful and made tabbouleh for the first time -- quite tasty mixed with homemade hummus!

The curly parsley was perfect this year -- I hadn't grown flat leaf parsley this year because I've found it goes to seed way too soon.  No need to grow flat leaf in future.

Un-tulled the other kale/chard(/parsley) bed since was touching top of tulle; found cabbage worm

Given today's broccoli fiasco, figured there was zero point in keeping the other kale bed tulled, since those plants are huge now and definitely in contact with the netting.  Hacked a few of the kales down thinking maybe I'd hack them all, then re-tulle in hopes of harvesting a second growth later, but in so doing found a teeny worm hanging fairly low on a plant, so, nah -- my kale season is over for the year.

I'll leave some of the kale plants there to see how they grow for the rest of the season, re: rot etc.

Chards, parsley, and celery transplanted

Several chards, all of the parsley, and several of the celery will share a nice tulled section in the west bed.  These were all started inside and have been living outside full time for the last week or so other than coming in on some cold nights.

More chard to come still, as a few are still hardening, and there's also the winter sowed chards which are still in their containters.

Have been hardening all of the cold hardies

For the last week or two most of the cold hardies (chard, parsley, celery, piracicaba broccoli) that I started inside have been hardening off, now just coming in on the coldest nights.  Should be ready to transplant soon.

Sowed in PT: celery, parsley (Forest Green), broccoli (Waltham & Piracicaba)

I'm sure I'll end up needing to do a round two of the broccoli as WS, but why not given inside a try again.

Aphids on carrots (FOY)!!! (lots of them) but harvested a nice carrot -- and some on parsley too

Geez, it was just yesterday that I was admiring the carrots (and harvested one runty forked carrot) -- then today I happened to notice the carrot leaves have many aphids... yellowish aphids in various life stages. (seems to be a different type of aphid than the ones on the cucumbers)

Some of the leaves upon close inspection are looked tired/bothered/not-quite-right.  A few leaves are distorted/skinny.  Harvested one carrot with a distorted leaf -- it was beautiful and delicious, a nice size, not huge but pretty perfect!

It seems aphids might not do too much damage to mature carrot plants, so I guess for now I'll just do nothing.

What a day -- discovery today of cucumber beetles, rotted kale, and carrot aphids, augh!!

p.s. / edit:  Harvested a sprig of curly parsley this evening and lo and behold, a couple of aphids there too.  (but much less density than the carrots -- so far, at least)

Removed tulle from chard/parsley/kale bed

Removed the tulle from this bed because I'm over chard for now (enjoying kale instead), parsley doesn't need a cover and will soon outgrow it, and the kale under the tulle has been all sluggy, which I'm not sure is because of the tulle or because of the intense spacing in that bed.

Transplanted chard, parsley, onions, and wimpy broccoli

 General approach was to mix in these:

- kelp meal

- alfalfa pellets pre-"dissolved" in hot water (they dissolve really quickly, 10 minutes is plenty) (this is my first time ever using alfalfa pellets, bought them from Ritchie's yesterday)

- some of the leftover horse manure went under the parsley, onions, and broccoli (not the chard bec I forgot)

Used pencil crayons as cutworm defense for a few of them "just because", though I haven't seen any cutworms or grubs or anything in the central bed.  I always worry I'm piercing key roots when poking the crayons into place.

Hardening off started today! So beautiful and warm!

 Wow, it's the start of a really warm and sunny stretch, highs of ~10-15.  Figured why not get start hardening off the parsley, forget-me-nots, celery, indoor onions, and indoor broccoli.  Gave them an hour in the sun today, then back inside under the lights.

Started more Italian parsley bec first seeds are getting stinky and only 1 has germinated

 ^^^

2 parsleys sprouted so far

 One of each variety (Single Hardy Italian and Forest Green).  Potted them up.

No sign yet of celery, parsley (either kind), or lupin

Parsley (two kinds), celery, broccoli, and onion started in paper towel baggies

The parsley (both kinds) are from seed packs a few years old.

The celery and broccoli ares from the foil pack many years old.

The onion are from my 2019 collected seeds.