Garden Update - May 2013

It's been a while since I last posted, but much has been growing well in the garden, while a few other plants have been struggling to outlast some some viscous looking attacks from birds, earwigs, and pill bugs.  I don't have pictures or updates for EVERYTHING, but here's a thorough look at where most things stand as of this week...

First off I have a couple of 4 x 4 boxes filling up with Mesclun mix salad greens with a Baby romaine in the middle of each.  Once they've been fully harvested over the next few weeks, they'll become the home of a Black Zucchini and a Yellow Straight Neck Squash plant respectively.

Mesclun Box #1

Mesclun Box #2

Nearby are the strawberry beds and in between each of the strawberry beds are 2 x 3 ft spaces growing some varieties of spinach (Round Leaf, Matador, Bloomsdale),  Radishes (Cherry Bell), Swiss Chard (Bright Lights, Rainbow), and more lettuces (Baby Romaine, Cimarron).  Also in between each new strawberry bed in the walk way are some mature June Bearing strawberries.  I'm not sure of the variety because they were already in the ground when we purchased the home.  Last year, before I made plans to put in new beds, I cut them down after they were done producing and then watered in a bit of 10-10-10 fertilizer.  While I had to dig out much of them to place the new raised beds in their spot, I was able to leave a few as seen below.  There's another walk way on the other side of the bed to the left.  These also send out tons of runners through the summer and have actually spawned quite a few plants here and there behind the beds as well.  How they are thriving in such hard compacted clay soil is beyond me.  They have become full of blossoms with many already producing some nice size fruit.  As soon as any start to show some color, I'll throw some small cuts of bird netting over them.  Within the new strawberry beds themselves I have planted out one bed with Albion (ever bearing), the middle bed with a Shuksan (June Bearing) and the third bed with Hecker (ever bearing).

Clockwise from top middle: Spinach & Lettuce, Hecker Strawberries,  Unknown Strawberries, Shuksan Strawberries

Close up of spinach & lettuce between strawberry beds

Some of the spinach and pretty much all of the Swiss Chard have been falling victim to birds (as evidenced by the triangular beak-shaped bites from the leaves).  I've been told birds love to much on Beet sprouts and since Swiss Chard is part of the Beet family, I'm guessing it has been birds taking clean cuts at all of the Swiss Chard sprouts and seedlings.  I'm sure some earwigs and pill bugs jump on to help a bit through the evenings.  While the spinach grows on, I'm already preparing to replant the Swiss Chard, with more mature seedlings rather than straight from seed if it becomes necessary.  If it comes to that, I'll also throw on some bird net and diatomaceous earth if necessary to help protect the plants.

Bird bites on spinach & Swiss Chard in background

Close up of Swiss Chard damage

Something ate a big chunk from this leaf

Behind the strawberry beds is a stretch where I've planted in 3 different grape roots. Two are now showing signs of life (Seedless Suffolk Red & Seedless Green Lakemont) while the other I'm still holding out hope for (Seedless Concord).  The Concord grape start had much less roots developed on it than the other two so I'm thinking it is putting more energy into growing out more roots to establish itself underground first and will start to bud out on top when it is ready.

Suffolk Seedless

Lakemont Seedless

Concord Seedless

Further north along the same stretch I also planted a couple ever-bearing red raspberries, a couple of black raspberries and thornless blackberries.  All four raspberry bushes appear to be on their way while the blackberries haven't put forth much growth above the ground surface yet.  I've gone out at night a few times and found a few of the plants swarmed by baby earwigs that I've had to spray off with some soap spray.

Raspberry growth

Next to the raspberries is the 10' x 4' bed I have some peas (Sugar Snap & Little Marvel), Broccoli (De Cicco), and Brussels Sprouts.  No blossoms on any of the peas yet, but I'm expecting some any day now.  They need to start producing quick because I'm going to be replanting the bed with some corn, squash, pumpkin, and amaranth in 2 - 3 weeks.  Otherwise, we'll just settle for eating lots of pea shoot salads and smoothies with the leaves. The broccoli plants are all showing heads now which is encouraging.  As for the Brussels Sprouts.  They clearly won't be producing before its time for them to come out so I'll give them another try this winter.  A benefit to growing them in the fall is that some early frosts should help sweeten up the sprouts should we get any then.  Also in the bed is some Spinach (Bloomsdale, Matador) and some struggling beets (Detroit Dark Red).

Peas & Broccoli

South of the peas and broccoli is a 4' x 8' bed currently growing some other peas that got off to a later start and certainly won't be producing in time before it's time use the space on some summer veggies.  I currently have some Amish Paste tomatoes slated to take their spot.  Same story is true for peas I have in the rest of the beds (Sugar Ann, Lincoln, Snow, etc.).  I also have some green beans (Red Bergundy), more Broccoli from later starts, Spinach, a stray Pok Choi that was mis-labeled and grouped with the Spinach, Kale (Lacinato & Blue Curled), Onions (Candy & Red), and Cilantro.  The Lacinato Kale and onions in this bed are some of the only store bought starts I have in the garden.  The only other store-bought starts throughout all of the garden beds are a row of Sweet Yellow Onions, a row of Walla Walla Onions, the Albion strawberries (the other two varieties were started with bare roots) and some flowers in my wife's big bed.  Besides all that, the raspberry and grape roots, everything else in the garden has been started either in our home, or directly in the garden.

Onions, Broccoli, Cilantro, Spinach, w/ stray Pok Choi, & Kale

Moving on over from the bed above is a 4' x 4' bed growing some late-starting peas and three varieties of lettuce (Salad Bowl, Red Sails, Butter head).

Lettuce Bed

Next to the lettuce bed is a 4' x 12' bed currently growing a number of things:  Peas (Snow, Lincoln), Lettuce (Red Cimarron, Black Seeded Simpson, Summertime), Onions (Green Bunching), Arugula, Beets (Detroit Dark Red), Spinach (Round Leaf), and Carrots (Scarlet Nantes, Kaleidoscope Mix, and Purple Haze).  All are doing quite well except for the peas (as mentioned further above) and the beets.  Nearly all of the beets in this bed have been swiped off by what I can only assume to be more birds.  I also lost a square of Scarlet Nantes Carrots to a cat who replaced it with something a bit more foul.  I've since built out PVC box frames around this bed and the 4' x 8' bed right next to it to hold up a barrier of bird net surrounding them.  I haven't noticed any new cat tracks or scat in the garden since.  The Arugula was started indoors and was all but lost at one point because I failed to get them hardened off more thoroughly when I planted them out nearly two months ago but most are now making strong come backs.  At the foot of the bed and just outside of it, I also have a nice looking volunteer Cilantro plant from seed dropped from a plant from last year.

Purple Haze Carrots

Volunteer Cilantro

Out in my wife's big bed is a 4' x 4' block growing some Yukon Gold and Purple Viking potatoes.  They were started beneath the ground level about 2 months ago and have already leafed out above the bed after having been topped off.  Against the house the buckets of Yukon Gold and Red Pontiacs are also showing some good growth.

Potatoes

More Potatoes

I moved out all of the tomato seedlings to be outside full time a couple of weeks ago.  I had them up on our back deck over the weekend to give them some protection from some rains storms we had.  They are all looking quite well.  The ones in the red cups that were the first to be transplanted from their cell packs are clearly miles ahead of the others as far as growth goes, but they've also had about 2 more weeks of more root growth.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes up front, Tomatillos in far back

Indoors I've been growing some Sweet Potato slips and they look well.  I also started some Alpine Strawberry plants from seeds about two months ago.  They've required a lot of patience to see much growth, but they are now starting to fill out and take off a bit.  In addition, I also have lots more basil (Sweet, Lemon, Purple Ruffle) started.

Sweet Potato Slips

Alpine Strawberries

Basil

Also noteworthy for the month of May is that we had our first "official" or measurable harvest this last week.  We picked a bowl full of Bloomsdale Spinach that was used in some panini sandwiches.  We've since harvested some other spinach, and a bit of cilantro and basil to use in some other dishes.  On Mother's Day, I stumbled upon a Garter Snake.  I love having those around because I know they prey on many bad bugs as well as mice as they get older.

First Harvest - Spinach

Serpent in the Garden

We also recently got a couple of Goji Berry roots shipped to us that we hope to raise to maturity (and find space for them) as well as a number of new seeds, mostly melons, that we'll be trying out this summer.  I actually just got the melon, squash, cucumber, okra, nasturtium, and amaranth seeds started this morning, so there will be plenty to look forward to as the season moves along.

For those faithfully following the blog and keeping up with the garden, I will have to number my beds and post an actual layout of everything we have growing in each bed and then update it with each season.  Then it should be much easier to keep up with.