Spring Gardens 2015 Pt 2

Yep, I'm planting pots of them around my maters, and counting on ever having to sow again.

Let me see, basils, mexican mint marigold, 3 or 4 diff rosemary's, lemon thyme, parsley, fernleaf dill, lavendar, garlic chives long overgrown and rootbound, marigolds, zinnias, eau d'cologne mint, vanilla grass, and thats all I can remember from Here anyway.

first harvest of the season! :)

needed a good snack for this evening

Awesome, I am at the house assessing this years deluges of rain, jungle soaked soggy here.

I was gone for less then a week. It is amazing how fast weeds/grass can grow in that short of time.

got the first tomato blooms of the growing season. My eggplant has gone purple on me, at first i thought it was something to be concerned of, until i read that its normal in asian and japanese varieties, although while growing it indoors it stayed fully green, its growing pretty well though.

Also the green beans are coming up, going to have to replant a couple of seed though, we had some hard rain last night and it beat them up a bit, a few missing seed leaves on some, and one that was snapped in half entirely, which you can see in the photo

I just got home and I cannot believe how much plants grew.
My garden is in full bloom and it is amazing.
I did harvest tons of lettuce, onions and fennel.
I found the first ripe red cherry tomato from Koralik and I ate it right away !
Tomato plants are huge and full of green tomatoes. Squash plants grew so much I had to uncover them ... oh well SVB will feast on those plants while I will be gone for 20 more days !
I have peppers on the plants and also small cucumbers.
I love this time of the year !

We've had so much water here -- and my property stays wet for days after rain as the mountain drains -- most of my plants are just creeping along. Nights and days have been a bit chillier than normal, too.

My radishes are loving this weather, though!

Colder winter = lots of artichokes
We ate so many in the past few days

Strawberry are ripen.
Tomato plants are growing and loaded with fruits

I had to remove the row cover from my squash plants ... they just got so big and they really suffer while I am gone ... so bugs will have a party ... oh well
I was able to harvest my 2nd tomato of the year: GLACIER.
I will take it with me on my luggage and eat it on my trip ...
I harvested all the squash I could see, blanched and froze them for a later soup.
It is so hard to go away while my garden is so nice. All my flowers are in full bloom and it looks amazing !

Onions are bulbing up.
Cucumbers are making fruits.
Peppers are forming and I have tons of blackberries on my plants.
Happy gardening

always so humbling to see your garden photos, lol! ;)

but then again i have to remember that i am 3 growing zones colder than your area, so it will come soon enough for me.

The peas are blooming! The peas are blooming! I'm so happy because I planted them later than I should have this year. Thanks to lots of rain, cloud cover, and cooler temps, they've done great!

The pole beans are up! Planted these after some torrential rains. Nothing like trying to plant seeds in the very wet ground.

Planted Burgundy Okra for the first time this year. Having germination issues because the rain and cooler temps. Thankfully, I can replant to fill in what didn't germinate.

Blackberries as far as the eye can see. I think it's going to be a bumper crop this year.

Saw my first little jalapeno this morning. Lost one of the bullnose peppers to the 90mph winds we had a few days ago. Ran to the local garden center and got a replacement. Different variety than I had grown from seed, though. Have tons of watermelon sprouts. Resowed cantaloupe seeds. Either this variety doesn't have a high germination rate or the cool temps have hindered germination. Also sowed some cucumber seeds today.

I hope these 40F degree nights dont last much longer, so i wont have to bring the sweet potatoes indoors each evening, because they are already sticking their "feet" out of the bottom of the pots, and will need to be put into the ground really soon.

Also looks like i have blueberries on the way, time to invest in some tulle mesh to serve as an anti bird netting

jmc, do tell sources where we can find tulle? I'm trying to grow some squash and will try to see if I can protect the young plants from SVB.

I'm cooking up a big pot of kales--as I type, in which generous neighbors shared in our community garden. I learned to love to eat those kale with big appetite. :)

Lily_love,
Would you mind posting your kale recipe here? Thanks!

Tulle source:
https://www.onlinefabricstore.net/108-inch-white-tulle-fabric-.htm

yeah tulle can be found at pretty much any fabric department, and is just about the cheapest thing there.

I also plan on growing zucchini this year, but im going to try waiting until around july to start mine, as i have read many sources that say by then all SBV egg laying activity is pretty much done for the year.

We're unseasonable cool down here as well, jmc. We've had many nights in the upper 40's, which is really strange for this time of year in Alabama. The warm weather plants are just stalled. My squash should be thinking about those first few blooms by now and they are just a few inches tall.

Hopefully (fingers crossed), the warm up we have coming this weekend will be permanent.

Last year was the same -- not really a cold winter (this one was actually warmer than normal overall), but a few crazy cold out-of-zone temps followed by a late arriving summer -- then a late arriving fall. Same growing season length, just moved forward. It's sure throwing my planting routine out of whack.

you know i have noticed that myself, the weather conditions that we normally associate with a certain month seems to happen one month AFTER we are expecting it (we got insanely wild and relentless winds for most of april for example, and march is supposed to be the month for that).

Im beginning to think our calender was never really in tune with the earths seasons like people thought--albeit just a small difference, but perhaps over the years, that difference has caught up and become noticeable.

Gym girl, I am from SE Asia. So my recipe is slightly different. I first wash the kales. Cut them roughly 2" in lengths. I use either chicken or beef broth to boil the cut up kales stalks for about 30 mins. on high heat, then add the leafy portion into the pot. Season the green with 3 tablespoons fish sauce. A pinch of blackpepper. And it's ready as a side dish. Of course you can use salt as a substitute for the fish sauce to taste.

Oh thank all for the info. where I can find the tulle. Nicole, our weather is very unpredictable. Hope this year will be a good year for us gardeners.

You can find tulle in the fabric section of stores like Hobby Lobby, Joanns Fabrics, and other craft stores. Or, you can click on the link Gymgirl posted above.

Thanks, Lily_love!
I happen to have fish sauce and washed kale leaves in the fridge!

Thanks, Steph!

I am writing you from one of the Azores.
Here Hydrangeas and Azaleas grow wild like weeds! Just amazing.
Tons of vegetable gardens. Huge cabbages and tons of potatoes and fava beans.
I miss my garden ...

I think I have tomatillos forming!

The peas are still doing great. This one seemed to be saying, "Stttrrrrreeeetttcccchhhh!"

The tomatoes are blooming, the peppers are blooming, and I'm waiting on the cantaloupe and cukes to sprout. I'm also waiting on more okra to sprout. We've actually been drying out and warming up this week.

I also am trying tomatillos this year, although they will probably be really late, as the seedlings are just now popping out of the planting mix (they were a bonus gift for buying a blueberry bush) Just planted some cantaloupe seed today as well, in a really huge container. also plan on watermelon soon. And i am waiting until July to start zucchini seed, because from what i hear, by then most of the SBV activity will have died down for the year.

Peppers are blooming and im seeing little nubs of peppers starting. My purple coneflower seems "stuck", lol. it started growing these two pair of leaves several weeks ago, then just stopped, it hasnt grown a tiny bit since, at least not that i can notice.

Maybe the coneflower is working underground. Not sure what your weather's been like, but they like it on the warmish side.

I found my first pea pod this morning! Yippee!

I also found my first jalapeno pepper this morning.

The cukes and cantaloupes are sprouting. I'm really excited about the cukes because they are from seeds I saved last year. It's my first year growing them from seeds I saved myself. :)

we have had a lot of days in the 60's and 50's for the past few weeks, and tonight will be our first night in the 50's (we've been stuck in the 40's at night a lot for the past few weeks), and we are about to hit a good warm spell from here on, hopefully the final boot out for the colder weather, lol!

oh by the way, what are those yellow blooms in the second photo that were blurred out?

Those are blooms from the dill plant.

oh nice!

oh, i had forgot to post one more photo, my red romaine lettuce :)

Got an update on my ummmm, herbs. Sorry if they blur, I didnt crop them. Kohlrabi, dill, bronze leaf mustard, rosemary, parsley, maters, taters, marigolds, thyme, onion chives, onions, and prob the whole bed is a fire ant bed, sigh. Still, I am glad they are still growing without me!

Everything is so green! You can sprinkle some dry molasses for the ants. It really does work.

Forgotten that, will have to find it! We've had more than our share of rain this season, and these beds are in partial shade, they make me ready to get to the house!

Thanks for the ant remedy! I'm finding piles in all my raised beds. They were all over my feet Saturday, before I saw the pile in one bed...

I have dry molasses. I had just been drenching them with the hose, 'cause I read they don't like the wet soil...

Linda, dry molasses is also great for your soil. If you still experience issues, look for Mound Drench by Nature's Guide. It's organic and works on those stubborn ant hills.

Today on my garden walk, I found my first cherry tomato babies! Yeehaw!

Thanks, again, Steph.

I'll be sprinkling the molasses this evening. Or, should I wait? It's supposed to rain tomorrow.

Duh. DRY molasses...