Monday, May 13, 2013

Garden Progress 13 May 2013

Still no harvest from the garden but this week should be the turning point. So far it has been a very dry spring, and very windy. The wind made the drought situation worse by evaporating water from plants and the beds, and it beat up some of the tender transplants. The dry spell was broken with two days of rain Wednesday and Thursday, sun on Friday, and two more days of gentle, soaking rain on Saturday and Sunday. Since there was no need to water the garden and nothing on the planting schedule, I didn’t get to the garden until Sunday. It appears all of the plants enjoyed the cool, wet weather and are finally showing some life.

 

garlic

 

The garlic has been growing slowly and steadily but I think it enjoyed the rain.  It seems to be taller and the stems are starting to thicken a bit. That’s German extra hardy on top and Red Chesnok on the bottom.

 

broccoli

 

The Di Ciccio broccoli is looking really good again and is definitely growing. The transplants were damaged by a freeze a week after they were set out which then made them susceptible to what looked like flea beetle damage. I haven’t actually seen a flea beetle yet, but what else peppers a leaf with pin holes?  Now they have recovered nicely and I won’t be needing the backup starts I planted.

 

kale

 

The Beedy’s Camden kale was less affected by the freeze and is now starting to grow.  I don’t have a photo of the collards in the same bed, but they are also appreciative of the change in weather.

 

greens

 

The endive and escarole  in the top two rows were least affected by both the freeze and the flea beetle attack. The Win-Win choi in the bottom row however was seriously affected. It has a more succulent leaf with higher water content so it doesn’t take well to freezing. You can still see the bug damage on the leaves of the choi but once it gets going it grows so rapidly, I hope it can outpace the pests.

 

lettuce_1

 

The lettuces are doing well and really like this weather. They probably have at least doubled in volume in the last 4-5 days so I think salad is on the menu this week from my first harvest. That is New Red Fire on the right and Green Ice on the left.

 

lettuce_2

 

These lettuces are buttercrunch on the right and Forellenschluss on the left. The Forellenschluss is an heirloom Austrian romaine with specks of red on the leaves. The parsley obviously also likes this weather.

 

spinach

 

The Tyee spinach has germinated from seed and is adding leaves. It remains to be seen if I will get any before hot  weather. In the same bed, turnips have sprouted but not a single kohlrabi seed germinated in four squares of them. Are they really that hard to start? The seed catalogs all claim they are easy to grow, but I have not had any luck each time I have tried them.

 

favas_and_peas

 

The fava beans and snow peas are taking off. Some of the favas grew 3 inches in a couple of days. It’s time to put up the supports. I bought a couple of 12 inch tomato towers, which are 4 feet when unfolded. Those will span the long dimension of the bed, supported by some garden stakes at the ends,  and I will use some burlap twine to enclose the sides. Hope that is sturdy enough.

 

copra_onion

 

Finally, the onions are perking up after looking sad and droopy for the past few weeks. The stems have thickened and the greens are now standing up.

This week I need to reseed the kohlrabi, the mustard greens, and set out the Swiss chard. The chard was originally lost in the mass of brassica seedlings I started in 1.5 inch soil blocks. Chard germinates slower and grows slower than the brassicas, so the seedlings were shaded out  and I did not notice until too late. So I had to restart them. Meanwhile I am juggling pepper and tomato starts between my single grow lamp and the back deck on sunny days, waiting for the weather to stabilize and warm up. This has been a wild spring and they are predicting overnight lows in the mid-thirties for the next few days.

 

That’s what is growing in my garden this week. To see what other gardeners are harvesting from their gardens, head over to Daphne’s Dandelions, our host for Harvest Monday.

 

16 comments:

  1. Your garden is coming along nicely. I too am having trouble with my kohlrabi germinating this year. I should reseed also.

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    1. I heard sometimes kohlrabi is finicky and won't germinate. I have no idea why, since it is supposed to be a cold weather plant and it's been cold.

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  2. Your garden is looking really good. I don't know how you keep from picking at all that lettuce, mine never get that big because I take what I need and let it keep growing. One year I didn't and I had so much lettuce I had to give a bunch away because there was no way we could have eaten it before it went bad.
    My onions are tiny compared to yours. I got them out too early so they have had to recover, but still, they are barely visible.

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    1. Be assured, I am going to be picking the lettuce. A few days ago before the rain, it was much too small. And it seems a lot of people are complaining about the slow growth of their onions this year, you're not alone.

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  3. Oh wow it looks like in a few weeks you will be having many basket of harvests with those yummy greens.

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    1. I sure hope so. This season it seems the garden is in slow motion.

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  4. I have never had a problem with germinating kohlrabi (or any of the brassicas actually) but perhaps your seed is older? Your garden is looking phenomenal and the lettuces in particular seem very happy. our lettuce patch is on a rampant growth spurt right now too and it is nice to have fresh lettuce salads back on the regular menu again.

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    1. The seed is new. Who knows, I'll either reseed or try again in the fall. Meanwhile, I was looking for a place to house the 6-pack of radicchio I couldn't resist buying, so those will be going in the center of those squares.

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  5. Your garden is coming along quite well now, it looks like you will be feasting from it soon. I wish my garlic looked half as good as yours, mine always gets infected with rust or something else that makes it ugly and sometimes ruins the entire harvest.

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    1. Garlic is supposed to be fairly trouble free here, so hope that's the case. I'm assuming the yellow tips on some of the leaves is just winter damage that doesn't matter.

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  6. Your beds look wonderful! the red garlic looks more robust than the german hardy... Hmmm... LOL.

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    1. I think it is the camera angle. The camera was closer to the Red Chesnok so those plants look bigger, although the German extra hardy is 3-4 inches taller.

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  7. Things look lovely, so much promise! We look to be still a little behind you...

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    1. As I keep telling myself, spring is coming, have patience.

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  8. I always start my kohlrabi indoors since they are much easier to start that way. I just transplanted them today because we've been have freezing weather.

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    Replies
    1. I'll have to try that. I know people do it, but kohlrabi being a root vegetable, I was skeptical of it working. But I guess it's not a root vegetable but a cabbage with a fat stem.

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