Garden Update

It has been too long!  I have been working three jobs, so my blog has been suffering.  However, I do have time to give a quick update.

I harvested the first plants of the season!  Lettuce and kale.  Some of the leaves look like they have been munched on by something (snails?).

The beets and radishes are coming up!!!

One of my three pea plants died, but the other two are going strong.  Peas are more frost tolerant than I originally suspected.  Lets just hope that these last couple of cold nights hasn't stunted the peas.  I have a healthy pea plant growing inside to replace the dead one.

Here is my lettuce, kale, and spinach!  The lettuce wasn't quite ready for harvest.

There are mushrooms growing next to my garlic.  They are Peziza vesiculosa, aka Blister Cups.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peziza_vesiculosa
I haven't found a source that indicates they are edible.

Here are some more of the same mushrooms.  These mushrooms are common in horse manure, which is the dominant composition of my garden.

I attempted to grow squash next to my greens, but a frost destroyed them all.  However, some parsley might be coming up (either that or weeds).  So far, the horse manure hasn't had many weeds.

Brooke is growing an herb garden.  In the round pots (counterclockwise starting in the foreground) is cilantro, oregano, and basil.  She also bought some basil and mint seedlings on sale at Whole Foods.  Supposedly, the mint grows like a weed, and can easily take over a space.

My harvest of greens!

Inside, I am growing eggplant (foreground), peppers, lavender, and tomatoes. 

The tomatoes are having a hard time getting enough water.

The eggplants are looking healthy.

A couple of my pepper seedlings are also doing well.

I am also growing two varieties of cucumber.  The seedlings are looking healthy.

The vine is my remaining pea plant.  I also have tomatoes in this picture.

So....that is it for the garden update.  I promise not to keep you hanging much longer.  I will finish one of my jobs in late June, but I will update before then.

I hope to talk about mushroom cultivation,  jumpstarting a compost pile, working with concrete, and other fun garden-esk topics.

Garden Update

My garden plot as of 4/2/2013

My containers.  Yesterday I planted two fig tomato plants in the one with the wall-o-water.

The garlic is doing well.

   

Root vegetables.  Most of what you can see in the picture are radishes.

Some kale.

Lettuce, spinach, and kale.  Some of the lettuce in the foreground is being eaten.  I think it is birds.

 

I put up a hawk decoy in attempt to deter some of the birds.  I don't know if it is working.

Fig Tomatoes!

Early Planting

I did this last year, but I planted tomato plants outside already!  I am not sure they will survive, and I am not in a hurry to have tomatoes, but I like pushing the limits and making mistakes.

To protect the tomatoes from frost, I surrounded them with a wall of water.  I transplanted two of my fig tomato seedlings into a 7 gallon container on the south side of my house.

Looks opimistic.

History of temperatures from the past 20 years indicate that temperatures should stay above the mid 20s.