The First Salad Thinnings of 2015

I think I didn't do many posts on the vegetable garden last year, and don't know how many I'll get done this year, but I need to at least post on my first salad from the garden!  (I did add some things from the store, though.) The garden is on the north side of our garage, so part of it gets shaded some of the day.

This is looking south from the driveway.

Looking west from the garden entrance, I didn't show the rabbit barricade I have to lift my legs over to get into the garden from.  We need to come up with a better way to keep them out, and get me in.  Plus, they have managed to squeeze in a few times when I didn't get the wire back up high enough.

The strawberries escaped from a tub, and I decided to let them stay.  Our neighbors have a locust tree on the north side of the garden, which sends up more and more little trees I need to cut back from all over the garden.  I suppose that means there are tree roots taking moisture and nutrients away from the garden, and if the strawberries do well, I'll let them roam around some more.

I have lots coming up!  I started planting in January, and can't remember when I planted these, but it was probably March.  There is some asparagus in here that came up from the plants across the garden.  I decided to keep them there and see how they do.  I have random flowers on the side of the garage, goldenrod, brown eyed susans, and sometimes the white blooming obedient plants escape my pulling.

I like to have an assortment of lettuces, spinach, kale, radishes, and such.  I am thinning out the volunteer dill plants that come up so thickly.

This is such a pretty sight to me!

I hope to get lots of soup made with the spinach, kale and carrots this year.

I've mentioned this is the hardneck garlic that my mother-in-law had growing here.  I didn't know how to take care of it, so it got quite thick before I learned that you harvest it when it dies back, and replant it in the fall.  I hope to get the rhubarb harvested this year and used for something.  It is always picking time when I have the most other gardening jobs to get done.

I hope the resident garter snakes are enjoying their digs.  Soon, I will be turning part of the compost over to get it cooking.

Looking back to the east:

I have been pulling hollyhocks out of the garden for a few years, but it looks like I may be letting a clump grow this year.  Peas are one of the favorites of rabbits.

I see they found this row.

 I just have a small patch of asparagus, and we end up buying a lot of it from the farmer's market, but still, I am hoping for each year to have more.  I didn't get it fertilized this year, other than putting compost on it in the fall, but did use something organic last year.  What organic fertilizers have you found to work well with asparagus?

Walking further east:

Are you tired of lettuce close ups?  ;-)

It doesn't look like the rabbits got to these peas.  I planted them so closely because the seeds were a few years old, but it looks like they all came up.  I thinned them once, and put the tops in with some mushrooms, asparagus, and violet leaves and blooms.  I should probably thin them a little more  One of the seed packages said to plant them pretty close together, though.

I may decide to take out this volunteer spiderwort.  I will also take out some of the smaller violet clumps that have popped up.  I'll keep these, though.

I am not sure what the shiny green plant is.  Do you know?  It must have come in one of my mixes.

The lacy plants are annual larkspurs, and the longer leaved ones are bachelor buttons.  They and verbena bonariensis come up in the veggie garden every year, and I need to thin them out.

Today was the first day I made it out to start the thinning.  It's one of my favorite things to do, and one only a gardener would have the patience for.  I pull out clumps or individual plants, pull off the roots, and place them in a bowl.  I was hoping this was going to be enough to share with the neighbor whose yard I am also gardening in, so I did not pick any violets until I went in, and kept them separate.  I wasn't sure if she'd like them. 

I took this photo after the thinning.  There is still plenty to grow and thin again in a couple days.

I ended up not gardening much today, because I made some whole wheat sour dough with 1/3 cup rice flour in each loaf.  I enjoyed my lunch, and only had a bit of the thinnings I didn't use.  I want to pick some from her yard tomorrow if it works out, and will get some to her then.

I have not gotten to those who have visited here for my last couple of posts.  I hope to get those visits returned soon.  Happy gardening, or looking forward to gardening!

Vegetable Garden

It looks like spring is here to stay, with summer ready to make its appearance, maybe this week.  This is the kind of season that my gamble gardens are for.  I planted the first lettuce, spinach, and radishes in January this year.  I was glad I did, because of all the rain and snow we had, making it difficult to get into the garden.

I planted onions in the area next to the kale, which is getting ready to bloom.

I have been thinning the lettuce and spinach for a couple weeks.  I enjoy making salads with the thinnings.  I also picked my first radishes today.  The brighter green lettuce plants in the upper right were actually planted at the end of the season last year.  They did not get big enough to pick.  I was amazed that they survived winter, and are now growing!  I think I'll plant different kinds of lettuce this fall, and see how well they do.  Today, I planted a row of beets between some of the lettuces.  The feathery green plants in the right corner are larkspur seedlings, which pop up all over the garden every spring.  I let some of them grow.  There are also bachelor buttons in the area.  Larry's mom grew them, and they remind me of her, so I let some grow, too.

I planted peas in the area where the cage are.  They didn't all come up, but there are enough up that we'll get some peas to enjoy.  I  have red onions planted between the lettuce and the sage.

This pea plant will have lots of room to grow, since not all of the peas came up.  I wonder if they did, though, and a rabbit ate them down.  One discovered a way to get in, which is the entrance where I get in.  I have been blocking it with a number of things that are quite junky looking, but seem to be working until we come up with more wire or something to attach to the wire that was cut too low.

I can't remember whether this patch was planted in January, or after I was able to get in this spring.

I did not plant this sage here.  I think I plan to cut it way back, because it is too close to the little asparagus patch, which is on its third season.  I have been picking a little, but will stop soon to let it grow for next year's crop.  There are more larkspur by the fence, and I noticed the moonflowers were up today.  My mother-in-law grew those, too.  I just let one grow last year.

Do you know what the weed is in the background?  They come from our neighbors' yard, and I pull them out all summer.

Aren't these little cuties?  I don't remember what kind of lettuce they are.

Larry's mom also grew garlic, and all of the garlic in the garden are from what was already there.  It took me a few years to pay attention to when it should be harvested and planted again.  I planted pole beans by the compost fence today, and one spot with cucumbers.

I got this kale plant from the Community Crops plant sale.  I need to look at the tag again.  I think it said, "blue Scotch" or something like that.

The kale in the lower part of this photo is from the one I've had for awhile.  I decided not to let this one bloom, and have been eating it.  I added some to the soup I made today. 

I like to plant a few weeks apart to extend the harvest.  I also like a variety of lettuces and other greens.  This is a more recently planted area.

I see this hollyhock got quite large.  Some years I let them grow, some, I don't.  The rhubarb in the back looks like it will be ready to pick soon.  I am always deep into gardening when it is ready, and don't always take the time to cook with it.  I wonder if I have too much garlic planted.

I need to be stirring up the compost piles.  I have three sections so I can turn it over, but we had a large harvest of leaves last year.

Here's a look back to the east.

Here's a messy part of the garden, next to the garage.

I bought this cold frame this spring from someone in a Facebook group I was in, but have not figured out how to use it properly.  I decided to plant a couple tomato plants in it, but left the lid open, since we are supposed to have highs in the 80s and more this week.  We probably will need to move it soon.  I planted some cucumbers by the fence today.

I am having great fun going out each day to see what all is coming up, and how much things are growing in the flower beds.  I think about all that's left are the morning glories, which we plan on pulling out.  I would like to let one or two grow, but we'll see if that happens.  I moved the two clematis vines that were growing in the front across the sidewalk from each other because I didn't want to replace the arbor that broke in the wind last year.

I hope all is well with you and your gardens.

Snow Has Melted

Now that the last snow has melted, I want to put up another post so something else will be on the blog.  I hope all is well with you.  I thought I'd be catching up with my blog reading this winter, but have spent too much time on FB, I guess.  I am having fun following the beginnings of spring in the gardens I see there, and a few here, as well.

I am home today because I have had a growth on my ankle for a couple years, that I finally got checked out yesterday.  The PA at the dermatology office did a shave biopsy.  She said it could be cancer or a wart of some kind.  They should know in a couple weeks.  I thought I was going to go to work today, but it was hurting in the night, and has continued to off and on.  I am staying off of my feet as much as possible, and also battling a headache.  OK, I'll quit whining.  After I post this, I plan to take a nap.

While I was eating an early lunch, I heard and saw a tree crew trimming our neighbors' tree away from the electric line.  I am always glad when that gets done, because the tree sends its branches over my vegetable garden.  I have been battling more and more tree sprouts in the garden, too.  I use organic methods, and rarely fertilize with anything besides compost.  Oh, I do use something called Coop Poop from time to time.  I think I want to use something like that this year on my lettuce and such.  I haven't been getting as nice of crops as I used to.  I think the tree has enough roots under the garden that are stealing the nutrients.

I don't know why the photos I export don't show up in the order I place them, or even the order they were taken any more.  They used to.  These go back and forth between the two windows in the bedroom we use as a dining room.

The rosemary and other plants in the garden window are doing pretty well.  I have enjoyed using them in cooking.  Next year, I want to remember to have parsley and chives ready to bring in.  Can you see the yellow vehicle on the left?

There it is on the right, now.  My vegetable garden is on the other side of the garage, near the locust tree of our neighbors'.  (We are debating about taking the light pole Larry's dad put there down.  I'm thinking it is not currently working.  If we do keep it, I'd like to have an on/off switch.)

This tree really isn't in a good spot, being so close to the wires, (and my vegetable garden).  You can see the cuts to the poor thing here.

These branches were pretty long!  I'm not sure if all of these are from the same tree, or if they were working on others in the neighborhood.  The area by the trees to the left, across the street is where I also attempt to grow vegetables.

Crunch, crunch, crunch!

I took the next few photos out of the upstairs restroom.  The work was now finished.

Heidi was in the back yard, so I thought I'd show a bit of that.  The vegetable garden is on the other side of the driveway.  Please forgive the deck and carport roofs for being so dirty.

There sure are a lot of cuts!  I wonder how long it will take for the branches to invade the wires again.

This tree is not my friend, but I do feel a little, just a little sorry for it.

I hope my ankle heals quickly.  I need to get out there and get some lettuce and such planted.

For the fun of it, I went back and looked at photos from last year.  The next two were both taken 2/14/12.  We are a bit behind, but that's fine with me.  It was too warm last winter.  I want winter weather now, hoping that March and April will progressively warm up.

Look what happened after the above photo was taken!  I'm thinking that the crocus survived, and bloomed some more.

Well, I hope we all find productive things to do while waiting for spring to get here.  I am at the point where I am feeling a bit impatient.  I am excited to see if the seeds of native plants I planted will come up.  What are you looking for in your gardens this spring?