It's a Small World

To the casual observer, the garden looks like nothing is growing. But that's not true. There is a lot growing, it's just very, very small now.

You might notice the little radishes, but in between, you have to get very close to see the carrots coming up.

You may notice the onions (which are not looking that good) but you have to look hard to see the baby spinach coming up between the onion rows.

It's easy to see the towers for the peas, but you have to observe carefully to see the peas coming up!
And the lettuce, beets and turnips were too small to see clearly in a photo. Yes it's a small world now, but give us a few weeks of warmer weather and see what we become!

Seedling Update

Just to keep up to speed on what's growing inside, these are the onion seeds I planted on January 22. They are about 5 inches tall and are looking healthy. I had to make a decision at this point whether to pot them up individually or leave them in the flat until I plant them outdoors. I decided it would be less stressful to leave them in the flat. These are Spanish Yellow onions.

That same day I planted scallions - Evergreen and Red Baron. None of the Red Baron germinated. The seeds were two years old. I know better now. Onion seeds don't keep.
This is what the Evergreen look like today.

I find it funny that several still have their seed "hats".

Both the onions and the scallions will be moving to the Potager at the end of the month. They are in a sunny window in my guest room/sewing room with no heat on. I'll harden them off in a few weeks.

Sharing the cold room with them are the broccoli seedlings. Aren't they adorable? They will be thinned out when they get their second set of leaves.
I planted these on President's Day, Feb. 21.

To the left of them are the Red Globe onions I also planted on President's Day.

They are growing nicely.

In the bay window in my living room, I have the warm room seedlings. In the foreground are Black Beauty Eggplant and behind them Rosa Bianco Eggplant. Both were started on March 1, but the Rosa Bianco took a bit longer to germinate. Only three of them have sprouted.

This sad little seedling is one of two lavender seeds that have sprouted from my sowing on February 26th. I tried lavender a few years ago and had no luck. I have also winter sown a bunch out in the yard. I'm hoping a few will make it to a plantable stage.

The Delphinium I started on the 26th has not sprouted at all and is still in the heated cabinet, along with my peppers. I planted King of the North Bell Pepper, California Wonder Bell Pepper and Jalapeno M Peppers on the 5th of March.

They should be making an appearance later this week.

I really need to plant some cabbage tonight. I should have done that last week. So little time, so much to do! I need to quit working full time and garden full time!

"I'm not really a career person. I'm a gardener, basically."-- George Harrison

Seedlings and Caterpillars

It was chilly in my garden yesterday - in the 40's when I went out to work in it! I hope we don't have an early frost!
The radishes I planted between the carrots are looking good. These are a blend of Black Spanish, Cherry Belle, China Rose, Easrly Scarlet, French Breakfast, Long Scarlet, Minowase, Sparkler, White Hailstone and White Icicle. It's fun to see what you get when you pull one up.

These are purple top turnips.

I pulled out the dill and put in lettuce. Now I have a bunch of dill seedlings growing with the lettuce!

Dill is one of those plants you only have to plant once!

I stuck some mint at the edge of the woods and it looks good. Mint is too invasive to keep in the garden. The deer and rabbits don't eat it, so it will flourish here.

And just when I thought the asparagus I had transplanted was dead, this little sprout appeared.
I hope the frost holds off until he grows a bit bigger.
I'm not sure what the Asparagus bed will look like next year.

Cabbage -- not so good. I need to find a way to keep the bugs out of these. They are starting to form heads, but the heads are full of bug scat and holes. Yuk! Not just the green caterpillars but also these brown guys. They are ruining my crop! I spend most of my time picking them off lately. And all the gardening books said cabbage was an easy crop to grow!

The parsley has caterpillars too, but these will turn into Black Swallowtail Butterflies. They are different from the Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillars the parsley had before (which got eaten by birds!)
There are three of them. Maybe I should put a netting over them to help protect them.
Why don't the birds eat the cabbage moth caterpillars?