Much goings on in the garden this week!
I’m currently harvesting broccoli, kale, salad greens and radishes. I planted PacMan broccoli this year, picked up at a big box store. The only other broccoli transplants I’ve gotten have been much bigger plants, so I wasn’t expecting the compact and quick-maturing PacMan to be ready so quickly, and to take up so small a space. Had I known I would have planted more. I’ve been steaming it and eating it with olive oil and a squeeze of lemon. It’s awesome. I’m already planning my fall broccoli strategy.
Favorite use of kale is currently omelets, made with eggs fresh from a local farmer. I have a small patch of kale (about 1’x2′) and I go out there and pick all the decent sized leaves once or twice a week. It’s the perfect amount. Same deal with the spring salad mix greens. I also have my red speckled romaine doing well, which I really like. Not big enough to eat yet though!
I finally identified the mystery volunteer growing up in my pea patch – it’s my old friend kohlrabi!
Speaking of volunteers, I think this is a Johnny Jump-Up from last year’s planting. So pretty. Quick web search confirms that that is, in fact, what it is.
Speaking of peas, I’ve confirmed once again that they don’t do well in my garden. Neither does spinach. I’ve either got to give up on them or solve the problem.
Speaking of problems, I kind of discovered by accident that the reason my broccoli leaves are turning magenta whenever I put my transplants in is probably a phosphorous deficiency. I’m going to keep this in mind and amend the soil before putting in my fall transplants in a few months and see if that fixes the problem.
My beneficial bug mix flowers are coming up, but except for a few things which are obvious (only because they’re big and unrecognizable) it’s still kind of hard to tell the flowers from the weeds, so I haven’t tried to pull any weeds out of that spot yet. Much more obvious to me are the calendulas coming up.
I LOVE these flowers. They’re great for little arrangements in the house. My marigolds are coming up quite nicely and I expect to see little blooms on them before too awful long.
Speaking of blooms – my first tomato blooms!
Finally, a female bloom on my zucchini!
Peppers getting ready to bloom! Boy am I excited about my peppers this year.
I moved my one watermelon transplant today because it appears that I inadvertently planted it in an ant hill and it wasn’t doing well. We’ll see if the transplant helps. But if it doesn’t, I seem to have some volunteer watermelons applying to take over the job. I may move them to somewhere that will be a little more convenient for me when they get a little bigger.
I am still compost impaired. I decided I really just want to get a compost tumbler. Sure, they’re probably not necessary, and it’s an expensive way to do something that shouldn’t cost me anything, but trust me, I’ve made a number of attempts and I can’t get this thing right. However, funds – make that priorities with funds – do not currently allow that kind of indulgence, so I improvised. I figured, if you can do it out of a trash can, you can do it out of a Rubbermaid tub, right? Well, we’ll see. If this works you can bet I”ll be posting pictures of my black gold.
And finally – the cavalry is out. Hurray!
Oh, and of course it wouldn’t be a picture of my garden if there wasn’t a muddy kid in it…..
