Greens harvest (kale, bok choy, swiss chard)

Woo hoo, the greens are looking very nice and I took my first harvest today, as salad.

Self-sown bok choy already going to seed!!!!!!!!!!

Crazy!  Many of the self-sown bok choys are already going to seed!  After growing only 3 or 4 leaves!  Cleary those must have been from the fast-seeding variety last year.

The other ones, that I started inside from last year's longer lasting variety, are looking great so far.

Zucchinis finally appeared (inside)

OMG, finally two of the six inside zucchinis appeared.  Not sure what I'll do with them though, as I already bought and planted others since I thought these weren't going to do anything.

Beans sowed (two kinds, outside)

Sowed five each of the "tendergreen" from the gift pack, and of the seeds collected from last year's plants.  Pre-soaked for several hours.

Transplanted cucumbers

Transplanted all of the cucumbers today.

Carrots and beets from round 1 have been up for a few days

Carrots and beets from round 1 have been up for a few days.  Argh, sowed the carrots way too thickly again... thinning will be "fun"!

Various gardening tasks

- Transplanted 2 Malabar spinach to the edge of the pea frame
- Transplanted several basil -- 2 to planters, 2 to garden
- Transplanted 1 store-bought pepper
- Can't remember if anything else

Tuberous begonia has a flower

The one lone remaining tuberous begonias looks be-gorgeous, so healthy, and has a pink flower starting.  Has been living outside for a week or two but not yet transplanted.

Hope on the horizon, but bought some seedlings just in case

Hmmm, I dare say all, or at least many, of my sad-looking seedlings look like they're on the up.  Now that they've been in the ground a while and we've had some great sunny warm weather.  Chard, celery, kale, tomatoes, even the ground cherries may have some hope.  But, that's not  risk I'm willing to take!  So, bought 3 ground cherry seedlings at Ritchie's today.

Peppers however I'm not so sure about.  But, they're also not a staple crop, so, bought just 2 pepper seedlings.

Will need to also buy 1 normal and 1 small tomato plants.  This is because I put all my own tomatoes into the bed along the neighbour's house which may need to be torn up this summer to fix her basement leak. 

Zucchini resown; cukes all well up as of several days ago

The cucumbers all came up several days ago, looking keen

The zukes were still nowhere to be seen, so I dug around and they seem to not have done anything.  Also the soil was dry, so maybe everything dried out.  So, bought new zuke seeds and sowed them today  into the same pots, 2 new seeds per pot (and the old seeds still in there too).

Carrots and beets sowed round 2

Sowed the other half of the bed with more carrots and beets.

Onion stalwarts

Was going to toss some of the onion rejects that last fall were tossed near the compost bin.  But then decided dang it, if they can survive this long under such heartless treatment, they deserve a chance to shine.  So, expanded the prime bed a little further, to give them a spot.  Would be cool if they would go to seed this year and allow me to collect the seed to start the cycle over again.

Also tucked in with those onions, some mystery onion-sets-all-in-a-bulb which I have no idea where they came from (many of these in various parts of the garden... mysteries...).

Mystery self-sown seed

Noticed a mystery self-sown seed today, which looks like something.  I'm hoping maybe ground cherry, as it was in that general location.  So, moved it to the little mini bed next to the porch, to see what it becomes.  However, I don't think the sun reaches that spot until plants are a little taller, so we'll see if it does anything.

Transplanted almost everything

Transplanted, almost all with a trowel or two of mushroom compost:
- peppers (all look sad)
- tomatoes (some not too terrible, but definitely stunted compared to where they should be)
- rest of the ground cherries (all look sad)
- asparagus (with plenty of vermiculite added in) (these actually look pretty good, not sad like everything else)

All that's left inside now are the zinnias, Malabar spinach, and the one tuberous begonia.  Those are all looking good and healthy so far.  Plus a very sad looking pepper and tomato reject or two.

Sowed zucchini and cucumber

Sowed 6 zukes (of which 3 will be planted) and 12 cukes.  This time, put them directly into soil, into the new bag of a different brand I bought recently.  Hopefully they won't suffer the same whatever everything else.  Put them on the heating pad although that's probably not needed.

Transplanted bok choy

Transplanted all the bok choy.  Lots of bok choy!  They look happy, so I wanted to get them into the ground before they grew enough to look sad along with most everything else.

Bok choy self-sowed appeared

Noticed some self-sowed bok choy while prepping the garden today!  That's a nice surprise.

Bok choy hardening off

It's weird with this plant failure to thrive thing -- plants look good at the start, then just completely stunt and go sad.

So, getting the bok choy ready to be transplanted.

If things get set out too soon and don't make it to weather, oh well, they won't make it suffering whatever it is they're suffering inside.

Transplanted kale, celery, chard, and parsley

Transplanted kale, celery, chard, and parsley.

They are so incredibly sad looking.  Like the end of July leftovers at Canadian Tire. 

I couldn't wait any longer, had to get them into the garden in the hopes that maybe they will find a new lease on life.

Many of the remaining indoor plants look equally pathetic.

I have a feeling there will be an expensive trip to the seedling store this spring.  Sigh!!

Almost everything indoors is stunted

What the heck.  Almost everything I've started inside this year is stunted.  Pathetic-looking.  Leaves purple, pink, pale green, yellow.  Never had this problem before.

Tomatoes.  Peppers.  Chard.  Kale.  Ground cherries.  Celery.  Maybe others, can't remember.

Could it be the Promix soil (black bag)?

So, hoping to get as much as possible transplanted outside ASAP in the hopes they will be able to bounce back.

Otherwise, will have to buy all my transplants this year after buying almost none at all last year.

:-(((((((((((((

Hardening off kale, chard, parsley, and celery

Hardening off kale, chard, parsley, and celery.  Spending the days outside, in at night.