No sign yet of tuberous begonias

No sign at all, from either of them.  Will keep waiting, and seeing.

Started lettuce and turnips outside, for fast food re: covid-19

Started three kinds of lettuce, and turnips, in the kitchen door bed.

I don't normally grow these -- and have never tried growing turnips --  but had the seeds (from the "Survival Seeds" kit of a few years ago, ironically enough) so figured why not, some fast-growing fresh food to help avoid trips to the grocery store during this pandemic.

The hopes is it will grow to harvestable size by the time I need the bed for the zucchinis.
--> 12 July 2020 update:  Yes, this worked great!

Although, even when it's time to put the zucchinis in, the zukes will be so small that only a small number of the lettuce/turnips would need to be removed, at first.
--> 12 July 2020 update:  Yes!  That's what I did, removed only as needed to transplant the zukes, then gradual removal/harvest of lettuce as zucchinis grew.  Left a few of each variety to go to seed for seed collection.

The round 1 broccolis definitely look OFF

Sigh.  All of the round 1 broccolis definitely look off.

- little specks on the leaves
- yellow tinge to the leaves
- burnt spot
- leaves tending to curl
- growth slowing
- failure to thrive

Not sure why yet.

Reminds me of the tomatoes last year.

For now they've been moved to the top shelf.

These were planted in my first bag of soil, the blue one.

I've now put away the blue bag and will only use the new bags I bought.

Started more parsley

Started more of the Italian parsley (the flat-leaved one), in case the first starts go to seed prematurely since they're growing so quickly.

Potted round 2 broccoli

Potted 6 of the round 2 broccolis.

These are in one of the new bags of soil, "Home Gardener", mixed with vermiculite.

Snow nearly all gone from yard

Nearly all of the snow is gone from the yard.

Only some icy hard snow left in the SW section.

Potted up chards into soil

Wow, the fordhook variety went gangbusters sprouting, almost all have sprouted now so I transplanted them.

The Italian variety is slower; four sprouted/transplanted so far.

Oh no!!! Does one of the broccolis have signs of thrips??!!?!?!

Say it ain't so!!! 

One of the broccolis has a crimped leaf, and slightly yellowing tinge overall on the plant.

Had a close look at it but couldn't find anything crawling around...  will keep a close eye.

Started chard in paper towel

Started two kinds of chard, in paper towels:

- fordhook

- some Italian variety

(Both are left-over seeds from previous years)

Ate the last of the carrots

Ate the last two carrots.  They had held up well.  Amazing they last so long just sitting in a plastic bag in the fridge.

Broccoli sprouted! Potted into soil.

Wow, the paper towel broccoli have already started sprouting!

Potted 5 containers with 2 in each. Will thin to 1 per plant later.

Broccoli started in paper towel

Decided to try growing broccoli again this year!  Tried it only once I think, quite a few years ago, with no success.  Oh wait -- thanks to the blog I see I also tried some in 2017, but they were late-season runts from Canadian Tire planted in July (which also didn't come to anything) -- so, doesn't really count.

Have been hesitant to grow it due to caterpillar issue, but will try covering it with row cover. 

So, started seeds in paper towel / bag today.  Might be a bit early, but being a cool-weather crop I figure might not hurt to give them a good head start.

(These are the "Waltham" seeds from the foil pack, which is now 3 years old)

More parsley started in paper towels

In retrospect, I'm not sure why I did this, but started more of both kinds of parsley in paper towels today.  I think it's just in case any of the ones I have so far don't make it, such as due to me waiting too long to pot some of them.

Potted into soil more onions, celery, and parsley

Up to 5 celery potted now if they all take.  No more needed, that's plenty.

Up to 19 onions potted now if they all take.  No more needed, that's plenty.

Up to ... (I can't remember, I think8 or 9) parsley potted now if they all take.

I waited too long to pot these ones -- many roots had grown quite long in the paper towel, several cms.  Hopefully they'll forgive my tardiness.

Yellow-red perennial sprouted! And some celery. Moved into soil.

Cool!  One of the seeds collected from 2019's yellow-red perennial has sprouted (in the paper towel).  It looks like two leafs, but I don't see any actual roots yet.  Moved it into soil.

Celeries have started sprouting too.  Moved into soil as well.  And some more onions and parsley.

Potted into soil 1 parsley and a bunch of onions (no sign of celery yet)

These were from the plastic bag "sowing" last Sunday, February 16th.

The 2018 onions are sprouting, but more of the 2019 onions have sprouted, so far.

The 1 parsley that has sprouted so far is from the Single Hardy Italian variety.

Celery, parsley (two kinds), onions (2019 and 2018), and yellow-red perennial started in paper towel baggies

Today, I started these, using the paper towel baggie method (which for some reason I don't think I've really ever done before):

- celery (same variety as always, from the foil packet)
- parsley (two varieties:  forest green and single Italian)
- onions (2019 collected and 2018 collected)
- yellow-red perennial from in front of the fence (2019 collected)

Still many beets, potatoes, and squash (and a few carrots) from last year

Last year's harvest still here:

- beets (quite a few)
- potatoes
- carrots (only a few left now)
- butternut squash (5, including 2 biggg ones...  slowly getting through them)
- jumbo pink banana squash (the 2 ginormous first harvested ones, and one relatively reasonable size)


The freezer meals are getting eaten, but still lots left.

Shop lights

Picked up some shop light housing and T8 bulbs 2600 lumens, 6500k a few weeks ago.  Made more progress on setting them up today.  This will be quite a bit cheaper than the lights I bought from Lee Valley a few years ago.  Hopefully they all work well.

Tuberous begonias have been started

Started the tuberous begonias today.  This is later than last year, when I started them on January 12th which I felt ended up being too early.