Broccolis appearing!!

The central bed broccolis are looking really nice and healthy with a relatively nice but still small main head.  The north bed ones look bolt-y.  (All are piracicaba.)  We shall see...

... We shall also see how in heck I'll manage to keep the leaves etc. from touching the tulle...  but so far so good.

Cukes, zukes, and zinnias transplanted -- including 2 zukes in pots

For the cukes (all Eureka, 6 of them, consisting of 4 from round 1 and 2 from round 2 for staggering the harvest),  and zukes (7 in ground (3 8 Ball and 6 Golden Glory) and 2 in big pots*), amended with lots of mrp, semi-lots of azomite, and some kelp.  Oh and for a few of the zukes I did add some alfalfa but not a lot.  Also put some of the freezer rabbit poop in with most of the zukes, but not the pair... oh which pair.... I think not the SW-most pair.  Or was it not the pair in the central bed.... Ah well.

Didn't amend the zinnias with anything.

* 2 of the zukes (both Golden Glory) are in big pots.  The soil in these consisted of a mix of garden bed soil and a mix of my potting mix (peat, ProMix, lime, kelp, mrp, azomite, and a small amount of alfalfa).  I've never had success with potted zucchinis before -- the plants have always been wimpy and never produced anything -- so I'm curious for this year, now that I have bigger pots and lots of mrp and azomite in there.

Mulched most of the things with the last of last fall's basement mulched leaves.

Undecided which of the zukes I won't tulle.  For sure I'll tulle at least 6 of the 7 in ground.  I may also try tulling the potted ones and the hydro bed one while they're relatively small at least.

Beans soaked yesterday, then sowed today -- pole and bush

...

Mulch: Wins from last year! Overwintered chopped leaves in basement garbage bag; overwintered hollyhock and zinnia

The garbage bag of chopped leaves that I put in the basement last fall to use this spring is great!!  Looks like it has started to mold (but no bad smell)!  Used half of it to mulch various things; saving the rest to mulch the other things that will be transplanted soon.

And, the hollyhock stems and zinnias that I had overwintered in the yard for the birds -- were mostly a fail birdwise (saw birds eating their seeds only a couple of times) -- but are coming in very handy as a woody mulch for established plants.

I'm also using cut grass from the yard, letting it dry out before applying it as a mulch.

Big planting day!! Only remaining are the zukes, cukes, zinnias, and basil

The 14 day weather forecast looks good, with nights no colder than 10 (fingers crossed) and days in the 20s.  So, planted a bunch of stuff that was finished hardening:  tomatoes (several Mortgage Lifter (which were my best-looking seedlings, nice and sturdy), Big Tofu Plus (leggy seedlings), and one Jasper (leggy seedling)), stevia (in-ground and in pots), store-bought peppers (jalapeno in a pot; hot banana pepper in-ground; and several sweet banana peppers in-ground and in pots) callaloo, and coreopsis.

And, sowed pre-soaked pole bean seeds:  Scarlet Emperor (beautiful big beans) northmost (south of the peas); Kentucky Wonder Wax (brown seeds) southmost.  Covered with clear plastic after watering.

Now I have to finish hardening the zukes and cukes; and wait for more zinnias to flower so I know which colours they are; and I need to start hardening the basil, no rush there since nights are still too cool for them.

Allotment: Planted most things!

Here's what I did/planted today at the allotment, roughly from the north end to the south:

- 5 zinnias (tall) along the north end)

- 4 peppers (yellow sweet banana, from Ritchie's)

- 4 squares of bush beans with 9 per square (Taylor Horticultural in the north two squares (brown spotted beans), Carson in the south two squares (white beans)) -- pre-soaked seeds, and placed clear plastic on top after watering, to keep in water while germinating and hopefully keep out squirrels

- 2.5ish squares of yellow onion (sets, from Ritchie's)

- 16ish potatoes (Superior, from Ritchie's), nicely spaced out so I'm excited to see what kind of harvest might result.

- 1 stevia in SW corner (my seedling)

Amended with kelp, mrp, and azomite (won't use alfalfa here).

Still have 4 squares remaining.  Planning to put a ground cherry, though my veryyyy late-start seedlings are itty bitty, still at home under the lights to get a good start.

Grass in backyard sprouting (was sowed May 16th)

Wow, seems like overnight it sprung up from nothing to a couple of cms!

Up-potted tomatoes bec were looking sickly in small pots

Yikes, I really should have uppotted them sooner, but was lazy and hoped they could hold off... Then the forecast showed some really cool nights in early June so I thought I may need to delay transplanting until then -- though now the forecast is changed back to ok, so I'll likely go ahead and transplant everything this weekend.  But anyway transplanted, with a boost of kelp, azomite, and mrp (and scant alfafa).

Tulled the potted green onions

Not sure if it's too late, but today decided to tulle the one pot of green onions.  Used the red plastic support and clipped tulle around it.

Added second layer of tulle to both broccoli beds and the dwarf kale-chard bed

I just couldn't bear the thought of using floating row cover as a second layer and not being able to peer inside without pulling it aside...  So I'll use this as a trial year, to see if my dual strategy of never letting the brassica plants touch the tulle, plus using a double layer of tulle, might work.

Fingers crossed!

Moved potted potatoes into sun instead of full shade along fence

I figured why give all that prime sun to grass, when those poor potted potatoes were sitting in full shade.  A handy way of expanding the prime sunny area without doing any digging.

Last of last year's beets eaten (great shape); carrots still in fridge

The beets lasted super well in the fridge.  Had the last two today.

There's still a big bag of carrots in the fridge.  They've been slowly starting to sprout, so I'll need to eat them soon.

Started hardening the zukes, cukes, and begonia

Today was cloudy with showers, so I left them out for the whole daytime in the shade.

After these, the only thing left to harden will be the basil but I'll wait a smidge longer for that.

Begonia is back!

Looking good!  It woke up a while ago, and is a nice size now.

-2 last night and everything is fine without covering -- even the volunteer buckwheat

.

White cabbage moth seen!!

FOY.  I havenèt yet added a second layer é row cover to buffer the tulle, but the plants are still small so good margin, so hopefully the mothès visit was fruitless... 

Plot: Bought yellow onion bulbs, Superior potatoes, pepper seedlings, and bush bean seeds

 ...

Sowed bulbs: Multiplier onions and yellow onions

Picked up some onion bulbs from Ritchies, mostly for the plot, but figured would try some here too.  For here was two giant multiplier onion bulbs, and a few small yellow onion bulbs.

Sprinkled some mrp and azomite in with the onions.

Tulled beets

Used the tall garden fencing as the supports.

Sowed grass

In the bare and topped-up spots.  Used leftover grass seed from past years.

Started ground cherries in PT

For the CG!  Kind of a late start, but will give it a try.

Community garden plot!

Oooo!  Didnt think Ièd get a spot this year, but surprise surprise, one opened up!  So I took it.  Itès a small bed, 8x3 or 8x4, and squirrels will be an issue, but Ièm excited to give it a try!

Hardening off tomatoes (many are very leggy, too tall for lights) and stevias

Weather forecast is very nice -- warm daytimes, lots of sun.  So, today started hardening the tomatoes and stevias.

Whatever imbalance in my homemade potting mix that affected the dill (leggy with poor roots) seems to be affecting several of the tomatoes too.  Not sure what their roots look like yet, but several are so leggy.  I'm assuming too much nitrogen, not enough of the other stuff.

The leggy tomatoes have outgrown the space under the lights, so I'm grateful for the warm weather to start getting them outside.

Dill direct sowed

Just in case the wimpy indoor-started dills don't pan out, direct-seeded some dill of the new seed pack ("Bouquet") in the north bed, along the north edge of the carrots.  Amended with mrp, az, and kelp (no alfalfa).

Carrots (Tendersweet) sowed in northwest corner of north bed

To use up the south edge of the broccoli tulle area.  For these I simply loosed the soil, amended with kelp/az/mrp (no alfalfa), sprinkled seeds randomly -- and did NOT cover with any soil.  I figured watering them in will probably bury them enough.

Potatoes (3 kinds) planted

Three kinds this year.  The cuts I did a few days ago have definitely all sealed over.  In all cases I amended with a sprinkling of mrp, azomite, and kelp (no alfalfa).

- Banana fingerlings:  Exclusively the harvest from last year that sprouted in the fridge this winter.  Locations:  Main patch is north of the a/c; some runts in a clump in NE corner of north bed.  Also poked a few along the north edge of the north bed within the grass, just for fun -- these ones I didn't amend at all..

- Superior (bought from Ritchie's a few weeks ago):  Three pots against the fence (two pots with three each, one pot with one), and a row in the middle of the central bed between the broccoli and kale/chard.

- Grocery store white (from grocery potatoes that sprouted in the fridge recently):  Three pots against the fence (two pots with three each, one pot with one), and a row in the middle of the central bed between the broccoli and kale/chard.

Basils looking great so far! Drought conditions seem to be working. First pruning.

I've been diligently avoiding over-watering the basils in the hopes of avoiding the issues I had with basil the last two years.  I water them probably less than half as often as the other plants.  And so far, so good.  

Did the first pruning of the most advanced plants.

Killed almost all short yellow zinnias due to not watering enough!!!

OOPS

Lesson learned:  Don't put other plants on the same shelf as the drought-loving basils, unless those other plants are in front and not tucked behind out of sight.

There's only one short zinnia that's alive, and it looks very puny with not much root system, but we shall see.

Up-potted stevias and other small-potted plants

^^^

Chitting worked great -- really got the eyes growing for the big kinds of potatoes

Great growth happening from many of the eyes, just from having taken them out of the fridge and somewhere warm!

The banana fingerlings, however, don't seem to be doing much since being taking out of the fridge.   Oh well, we'll see how it goes.

Zucchini and cucumbers started in PT

Zucchini will once again be Golden Glory and Eight Ball.

Cucumbers will once again be Eureka.  I'll do a round 2 of the cukes a bit later, to try to avoid having too many cukes ready all at once.

Hardly any beets sprouted!!! Sowed round 2 beets. Carrots more sprouted but sowed round 2 carrots too.

What the heck!  Why such low germination, especially for the beets?!?  My only guess is they cooked under the plastic on the hot sunny days a while ago.  Both kinds of sowed beets were equally low germination.  So, poked in some round 2 beets today, mishmash of the two kinds.

For filling in the carrots (in the bed, not the container that I sowed more recently), I had no patience to carefully poke so many new holes, so I just scattered the rest of the bolero seed package over top.

Watered them all in.

Chitted the potatoes

Placed all of the potatoes out onto cardboard in the seed-starting room (since it's the warmest room), and for the bigger potatoes I cut them in half with multiple eyes each.  Didn't cut any of the fingerlings, will just plant those whole.