Broccoli and a Garden Break.

Brought in another 10.5 ounces of broccoli this morning.  The broccoli is just doing amazingly well!  We had sunshine and temperatures as high as 89 degrees last week, followed by some showers yesterday and cooler but still sunny skies today.  The result has been a garden explosion, everything is taking off. 

I have noticed cabbage worms on the brassicas already though... for now I just picked them off, but I may skip over planting brassicas next year just to confuse them.  I've been planting these beds pretty intensively for four years now and they could probably use a good long rest with a cover crop or just some annual flowers next year.  Or maybe a blend of flowers with garlic and onions, they still seem to be doing well enough and it would be good to get some produce out of the garden still.

I'm still behind on the garden work, I'm really struggling to get myself out there and do something productive.  My daughter hacked down some blackberries for me for Mother's Day though, and I did finally get the hot weather starts going a week ago.  Usually my brother comes out to visit this time of year and helps get me motivated, but he has been busy with his own garden and other obligations, so I'm on my own this time around and all I want to do is sit in the sunshine and relax. 

Luckily there isn't a whole lot left to do, just weeding and adding compost to the whiskey barrels and the pumpkin bed, but I have a little time before they need to be ready since the plants going into them have only just sprouted today.

First Harvests 2013

The past three years my first harvests of the year have been peas, lettuce, kale or strawberries.  For some bizarre reason this year the first harvest was broccoli, and the next was spearmint and a winter carrot. 

Alex was very excited to have one of his August planted carrots finally reach eating size!

Sadly, the peas, lettuce and kale are still not ready.

The greens bed is still under cat screens.

 My little blueberry bush is just starting to have real berries on it, they are still tiny and green, but they are out there.  And last but not least, I planted the triangle by the driveway with bulbs and a few perennials, hopefully I'll get a few cut flowers out of it by the end of the year.

 Hope everyone else's gardens are kicking off to a great start!

Where Do I Start?

I actually had a moment this morning when I looked over the garden and thought "maybe I should just scrap it this year?"  There is still so much work to do, I only have one bed planted, and haven't even prepped the other beds or planted the hot weather seeds yet.  Then I thought to myself "no, I can still do it, just a couple days of work will get me caught up.  It's not too late yet."

So I started turning the second bed.

Life has been kind of crazy the past few weeks, lots of trips down south to Eugene and even Medford.  Family chaos, continuing cruddy weather, and just generally trying to keep up with the necessities has left me way behind on the garden.

My broccoli have taken off though and the tiny little heads I spotted in the largest ones were the boost I needed to get moving on the garden again.  Despite the fact that everything else in that one bed is still small, my husband forgot to water my starts while I was in Medford this week, and I still have nowhere to plant my potatoes... I will do my best to salvage things.

On that note, I sympathize with the gardeners out there who were still seeing snow fall last week.  I also could use some advise on a tiny caterpillar in webbing rolled into the leaves of my cherry tree.  I have no idea what they are, but I'm guessing they aren't good.  Though the tree itself is doing really well and seems to be in good health.  How do I get rid of the little critters before the cherries come in?  (assuming I get ANY cherries this year).

One thing I know we'll see plenty of this year is strawberries, they sent runners and moved their way further along the bed last year.  Also my daughter put a few in a planter in the front yard when I asked her to relocate a few runners from the path.  Not exactly what I'd intended as a strawberry bed, but oh well, they seem to like it.

The single blueberry bush I planted weeks ago has more than doubled in size and is covered in little white flowers.  I am surprised it is doing so well.  I think it liked the vinegar I poured into its planting hole.  I'm kind of wishing I had bought a few more, but I'd like to see how well it produces and if the berries are very good before I plant a bunch of the same variety.

I guess that's all for this update, time for me to get some lunch and then get down to the store for potting soil and some basil starts to replace the ones my husband killed.

Never Had Seedlings Do This Well

This year's seed starts have done amazingly well, normally they get their first set of leaves and then seem to stop growing at all until they are planted.  This time though, all the little plants are getting huge!

Not long now until they go in the ground... I hope! 

I Should Have Known Better

The weather has taken a turn for the worse.  I kind of expected it though.  This morning I had to bring my seedlings into the shelter of the porch and drain their trays of a good 1 1/2 inches of water before they drowned.  The wind is blowing and the rain is pouring down.  This week is expected to be more of the same until Saturday. 

I was hoping to hold off on planting until my brother came down to visit so I could save my back some pain and get his help turning over the beds.  I think I need to get the plants in the ground while I have some sunshine though.  The beds are still completely shaded, but they won't be for long, and I have to open up some trays and pots to get the hot weather plants going soon.

So I guess my plan for the upcoming weekend is to turn, fertilize, slug bait, grid off, and plant the big beds.  We were going to get the trailer from my mother-in-law last weekend put plans got mixed up, so hopefully we'll have it this weekend and be able to do a dump run and get some bark mulch for the front yard. 

I picked up a pile of flowers and bulbs from the store last week to use for a small flower bed in front of the driveway too.  If I have the energy I'll be out there raking out lava rock, turning in compost, and getting those plants into the ground as well.

At least the blueberry seems to be happy in its spot by the heat pump.  It is putting on new leaves and I'm just hoping I loosened enough of the clay soil and mixed in enough coffee grounds and compost to keep it happy.