Peas!!!!!

Yes, that's right!!!!  A pea harvest!!  After such a roller coaster ride, they're here, they're really here!

Lots on the way, but so far have harvested just a dozen or so, spread out over the past week, and shared with the dogs of course.  Most of the plants are well over the top of the frame now; I assume they will flop over at some point given the lack of support up there.

One pea plant died.  I noticed the leaves were dried up and it was wilted; checked the root, and I was able to pull it right out with hardly any effort.  Hope it's nothing contagious!

The peas I've had so far, while I won't dare complain, mostly weren't particularly sweet.  I wonder if I'm picking them a bit too soon.  The plumpest one was the sweetest one, so will try to be a bit more patient to see if that's the key.

Radishes, bleh!

The radishes sown on May 21st are mostly all harvestable now.  I tried one the other day and was promptly reminded why I don't grow, buy, or eat radishes!  So, these will go to my dad. 

Lettuce out; carrots in

Harvested the leftover lettuce tonight, will it up for falafels.  There was lots of it, and even though it didn't seem to have gone to seed yet, I hadn't eaten any in a long time.  I'm just not a lettuce person, I guess!

So, in went another round of carrots.  This time I broadcasted the seeds instead of putting them in little rows that needed major thinning and still resulted in gaps here and there.  I think this way will work better, with less thinning.

They've sprouted already!

Wow, that didn't take long.  Quite a few of the cabbage, chard, and kale seeds sowed on Sunday are up already.

Fall crop indoor sowing: Cabbage, kale, chard

Cabbage:  Looks like the spring cabbage is starting to head up already.  Last year my cabbages took the whole season to head up, I assume because of groundhog-related delays.  This year, new fence, no groundhogs (knock on wood), so the cabbages have been doing their thing.  So, figured I'd try starting some seeds indoors now, in the hopes of having a new round of transplants to replace the spring ones once they're finished.  Wouldn't that be neat!  Sow, I mean so, today I sowed 5 pots, 2 seeds each (will thin to 1).

Kale and chard:  I've been enjoying excellent harvests so far, but I imagine they will soon go to seed.  So, like the cabbage, sowed new seeds today, to take the place of the old kale, chard, and choy as well.  11 small pots of chard and 6 small pots of kale, with 2-3 seeds each (will thin to 1).  Ended up not sowing more bok choy, seeing how much the slugs loved them.  That makes me wonder though, with no bok choy, maybe they'll be happy to go to town on the kale/chard -- oh well, hopefully there will be enough for us all to enjoy.

Didn't put them under a plastic dome, figured it's plenty hot and humid without that.

Zucchini update (usual early flops as in past years)

Quick zuke update:

The one by the air conditioner is growing great, the biggest one by far.  About a week ago there was a finger-sized zucchini whose flower opened, but I think it didn't get pollinated and I was a day too late, pollinating it by paintbrush after the flower had closed -- so, the end went hollow and I plucked it.  Another one, smaller, looks like the flower was going to open, but it didn't, then it went hollow and I plucked it.  No more imminent right now, but lots of males.

The one by the compost bin is coming along, but nothing imminent.

The experimental late sowing in the pot is by far the smallest, has some males.  Will be interesting to see if anything happens.

Chard and kale vs. Choi vs. baby choi

Ding ding ding!  There is a clear winner to this match-up, this year anyway.

Baby bok choi went to seed a few weeks ago after hardly any harvesting.

The other choi (which I could swear the package said was also a baby version but is pretty normal-looking in size) has not yet gone to seed, but the vast majority of the leaves are full of holes (slugs I believe).

And then, there's the chard!  The glorious, bountiful chard!  And the kale, too!  Wow.  Both are going strong with no sign of bolting yet, and the slugs have hardly touched them at all!

Lesson learned:  Probably won't try baby bok choi again.  Will probably grow regular bok choi again just for some variety, but will definitely grow swiss chard and kale again.

Hello yellows! (beans, that is)

Hallelujah, the yellow beans are finally emerging in their peat pots!  I had been starting to wonder.  So, perhaps there will be yellow beans, after all!

Bean saga continued

So, the only beans that came up in the peat pots indoors were the lima beans!  Gak!  I dug around in the pot soil, and all of the yellow beans failed -- smooshy and no sign of life at all, except one lonely seed that seemed to have sprouted (which I then tried to re-sow, so hopefully it will survive).

I wonder if it's because I pre-soaked them and then put them into moist soil and the peat pots were all one up against the other so the soil remained very wet, and they rotted.  And for some reason the lima beans were ok with those condition, but the yellow ones were just not.

So!  Yellow beans round three tonight.  Two seeds per pot.  This time I did NOT presoak the seeds, and the jiffy pots are spread out so there's ventilation around their sides.  Oh, and I forgot to put inoculant.

Fingers crossed!!

Bok choy bolting

The mini baby bok choy started going to seed a few days ago -- flower buds have begun to emerge.  The other kind is still good.

How timely -- came across this interesting article about bolting and some tips for way to deal with it.

http://www.creativevegetablegardener.com/bolting/

To bean or not to bean... Sigh!

Well, the beans are pretty much a complete deja-vu of the outdoor pea seeding situation:  The beans I sowed on May 20th are kaput.

Two of them showed themselves a few days ago, poking just out of the soil.  But today when I noticed they hadn't grown at all since then and were a sickly pale colour, I checked them out and sure enough both had been chopped.  So, I dug around to look for the rest, and -- no sign at all of any, except one which had germinated.

Sigh!

So, tonight I sowed round 2, inside in peat pots, just like I did with the peas.  Put 3-4 lima beans per pot (will thin) and 2 yellow wax beans per pot. 

Hopefully the beans will do as well as those indoor-sown peas are doing (they look great!)

Harvest: Kale, chard, bok choi

Just like the title says.

For the kale, tried a new recipe.  Kale salad (i.e. chopped kale) with a great chickpea dressing.  So easy, and pretty good!  I omitted the suggested "potato croutons" out of laziness, but will try them sometime.

Used the chard and choi for my tofu / yellow pepper rice dish.

Zinnias

Decided next year's home-sown flowers will be zinnias.  No more petunias because they don't do much if anything for bees.  But zinnias seem to be a hit with bees from what Google tells me, plus I love the look of their daisy-like flower and their bright, bold colours.

Bought some today to fill in some holes in the vegetable garden and hopefully attract some bees.

A few zinnia bookmarks:

- I like the "Zahara bonfire" mix seeds in this page.

- 9 honeybee-friendly plants

- A general zinnia page

- Quick guide to zinnias

- https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/mar/05/alys-fowler-zinnias-viburnums-pruning

Harvest: Kale, chard, green onions

Woo!  Used some kale, chard, and green onions for a vegetable soup recipe. 

And wow, WHAT a different the multiplier onion sets are compared to the normal onions.  You get soooooo many more green onions!  Multiple little green onions per bulb instead of just one.

Carrot bed backfilling

Filled in the gaps from the original carrot/beet sowing.  (Only 3 or 4 beets germinated!  Gah!)

Mostly filled in with new carrots. 

On the north end of the bed, filled in with some radishes.  Not sure why, as I never eat radishes and don't really like them!  But they were in my seed collection, so... figured I'd just give it a try.

Busy day transplanting and sowing

Almost everything is in the ground now.

Yellow beans:  After 2 hours of soaking, sowed about 12 seeds under each tripod pole.  Put the plastic crow in the middle in the hopes it will deter whatever made a meal of so many of my pea seeds!

Peppers, cucumbers, zucchini:  All have been planted now, except the one "reserve" zucchini planted late which is still inside under lights.  I'm sure I should have kept especially the peppers inside longer until the weather really warms up, but...  Oh well, too late now!

Ground cherry:  Saw ground cherry seedlings at the garden store, never grew one before, so bought one to give it a try.  Sounds really neat -- I hope it works!

Petunias:  The original, now very leggy, petunias are now in planters in the yard.  (The later round will get planted out front soonish.)

Basil (green as well as purple), parsley, coriander:  Sowed these in planters, just for fun.  The coriander is from 2012 so no idea if it will take.

Wildflowers seed packet:  Sowed a packet in another of the planters, again just for fun to see what happens.

Peppers are out! As are the cukes, zukes, tuberous begonias and the rest of the petunias.

Set them out today to start hardening off.  Amazing weather this week, so warm.  I've set them behind the chair and other stuff so that they're mostly in the shade to start, but I'm throwing caution to the wind and leaving them out full time.  Will transplant in a week or two.

Oh and I transplanted both zucchinis into larger pots before setting out. They sure do grow fast.

The shelving unit inside is down to one lonely little shelf... with just one spare zucchini, and the pathetic looking columbines.  Oh and the one last tuberous begonia which is finally getting its itty bitty leaves on!

Tomatoes are in!

Planted the big tomato yesterday; planted the little tomato today.

A spare of each is still kicking around for a little while, just in case... then will go to my dad's.

Indoor updates

Not much left inside now.  Down to only two shelves.  Soon I will be suffering from empty nest syndrome.

Peppers:  All 10 plants look great!  Have started to form flower buds.  Hoping that's a good sign.Leaving them there, not pinching them.

Tuberous begonias:  The 3 early takers look great!  Not flowering yet, but great looking plants.  Big news:  a fourth has taken!!  Expecting full on leaflets any day now.

Petunias:  Looking good, although part of them became pretty leggy I think because of a less than ideal lighting setup when I was short on space.

Columbines:  So pathetic compared to the petunias!

Cucumbers:  Looking good.

Zucchini:  The first 2 starts look great.  A week or so ago I started a few more seeds, just in case.  2 of them have sprouted.

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.