Time for Vegetable Garden Updates

My first vegetable garden post of the season was March 24th.  Much of the lettuce and spinach I had planted in January were coming up, since the weather had been unseasonably mild, and the soil was warming up.  Since then, I had been doing a pretty good job keeping up with the weeds in all of the planting areas, until I got sick a week ago.  Between that, and a good amount of rain, a lot of weeds have taken advantage of the situation.  I did get a little weeding done in the vegetable garden last night, and took some photos so I could do a post.

Most of the pots along the driveway have different kinds of mints in them.  I'm enjoying the gas plant blooms, and when they are finished, they will have cool looking seedheads.  The vegetable garden is on the other side of the fence.

I hope to get some kale harvested soon to make some soup.  I have been tasting the leaves, and so far, even though these are blooming, they are not bitter.  The truck belongs to our neighbors, who rarely drive it.  The only time it bothers me there, is when the flowers along the curb are blooming.

This is the area just behind the kale.

Turning the other direction, The peas are doing very well.

 I can't remember what kind they are, but I love the color of the blooms, and look at all of them!

The asparagus I planted 2 years ago seemed too small to harvest, so I just picked 6 spears this spring, and Larry and I each ate 3 of them.  They were tasty!  Can you see how tall they are now?  I planted a few potato plants between the asparagus and the compost pile.

The pole beans I planted to grow up the compost fence are coming up.

Most of these leaves are from spring.

Whenever it's time to pick the rhubarb, there always seem to be so many gardening jobs to get done, and I frequently miss the time to get it picked.  I hope to do something with it in the next week or so.   The rhubarb is next to our neighbors' fence.  That's their bush on the other side of the fence.

Next to the rhubarb is the garlic patch, which is looking very healthy.  That's a sweet pea growing on two old plant stands next to the garage.

Next to the garlic, are the 2 kinds of onions, and some more blooming kale.

Turning around, back to the east, here is a broader view of the garden.  There are a couple more pots of mint by the garage.

There is a lot of dill coming up, and I need to thin it out a bit.  This is the area that does not get as much sun, and took a little longer to warm up than the first part of the garden shown.  These photos were taken after I did a little weeding and thinned some of the lettuce.

I love fresh lettuce from the garden!

Another garden regular is cilantro that comes up from seeds every year.  There just seems to be a small window of opportunity to harvest it before it blooms and makes more seeds, though.

I love the look of borage, and its pretty blue blooms.  I always forget to look up ways to use it.  I've heard of people doing something with the blooms.  Do you use borage in your cooking?

I am pleased that the showy milkweed I planted a couple years ago is back and looking pretty good.

 It looks like a monarch has found it!

 I have been trying to get my tomatoes, peppers, which are quite small, and basil plants hardened off.  They stayed out all day today.  Now, I need to get the energy to plant them.

Here is the salad I enjoyed from the lettuce thinnings.  Oh, and the radishes are from the garden, too.

The garden I have across the street at the neighbors' is not faring as well.  Now that I have chicken wire around my home garden, and the rabbits can't get in there, they seem to be grazing more heavily at the other garden.  I need to get out there and plant again.  Maybe, now that other plants are up, they will leave some of the lettuce and such for the humans.

Spring is in full swing here, and I hope it is making its way to those of you in more northern places.