Monday, May 16, 2011

first spring harvest 2011 - spinach!

Here's a hefty spinach salad with some parsley for lunch! Yay!
It was especially fun to pick because I was simultaneously having contractions, waiting for my overdue baby to show up. Maybe some gardeny awesomeness will convince her.

I also planted 2 "crimson red" rhubarb plants in the front flower garden the other day.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Today's sowing

Well I never knew tomatoes would self sow in my zone. The third photo shows a few of the little seedlings that I've been pulling. There everywhere! I'm not growing tomatoes this year and they apparently miss me. My due date is tomorrow and that's pretty inconvenient for tending baby toms indoors - so I've decided to skip them. I've read it was best to pick these self sowers to avoid diseases anyway.

This year I'm dedicating last year's tomato bed to Waltham butternuts and Crimson Sweet watermelons. I planted seeds for both today and will thin to 3 seedlings of each. Yesterday I planted lots of Alaska nasturtium in there too. Hopefully I can have better luck with these this year. Last year I put them in my experimental front plot and they lost to weeds and drought. These beds are way more fertile and controlled, so I'm hopeful.

Fuzzy photo #1 shows the progress of my garlic, shallots, and spinach. Fuzzy photo #2 is of the potato bed. Little Beverly planted a pack of marigolds in there this morning. There's still open space waiting for our sweet potato slips.

Finally, I crammed sunflower seeds in every last spot! Thanks to some leftovers from last year and some seeds from my friend Shawn, I planted Russian Mammoth, Golden Cheer, Peach Passion, Jade, and Vanilla Ice. Fingers are crossed.