In the Garden

There are new and interesting (to me anyway) things in the Potager this week.
We are continuing our hot days, big rainstorm routine and it is making the garden grow incredibly fast!

The rain gauge doubled as a japanese beetle trap today! That's fine with me!








The Mammoth Sunflowers are living up to their name. They are huge!

When they finally bloom, I'll only be able to see them from the second story window!

I am hoping to collect seeds to eat. I know you have to wrap the seed head in something so the birds don't eat them all.

I'm gonna need a bigger ladder!

Some of the Freckles lettuce has bolted. I am going to try to collect seeds from it.
This was my favorite lettuce this year.
We are still eating the ones that haven't bolted.
I am amazed how heat tolerant this lettuce is.
The leaves seem to be a bit thicker, but they are still tender and tasty.

I have about three spinach plants that I hadn't picked yet. I always seem to notice them after dinner and say, tomorrow, but then eat something else the next day. Poor planning on my part.
I guess ithey're bolting, but instead of getting flowers on the top , it's getting broccoli looking like things up and down the stalk! That's different.

I need to pick these and saute the leaves for dinner.

I've never grown onion before. Are they supposed to form on top of the soil like that?

Look at the size of this Black Krim tomato! And no bottom rot! I can't wait to eat this guy!
No signs of turning red yet.

This looks like it will be my first White Scallop Squash. I've had other little ones, but they all had blossom end rot. This guy looks pretty healthy!

And I love the little curly-cues this plant makes!

If you look past the leaves, you'll see two (there are actually three) Eight-Ball Squash.
These were my favorite new vegetable last year.
They get eaten when small so they are only a few days away from dinner!
Stuffed squash - yummy!

The spaghetti squash plant looks healthy, but there is the tell-tale damage along it's stem that a Squash Vine Borer may have made a home inside the stem. I will clean it out and bury the damaged part. Hopefully the rest of the plant will send down roots and survive the onslaught.

We are eating cucumbers already. They are so wonderful this time of year - a taste of summer. I remember having so many by the end of last summer that I could not keep up with them. But at this time of the season we anxiously watch each one, anticipating being able to harvest a true "summer" vegetable.

Our church has Vacation Bible School this week, so the garden may get ignored a bit. I'll have to make an effort to get up extra early to get the gardening done before work.

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