Simple garden techniques described in details so anyone can easily follow through on their end while sharing ideas and pictures on how the garden is progressing through out the year.
More harvesting
Just some additional harvest today - because it was such a hot day I scrambled my plan on making salad and decided to make "chavel soup" so after few minutes sniping sorrel I had enough for it, which turned out to be about 10 oz in weight.
And while I was picking sorrel, I noticed that my asparagus was getting lanky and judging by Daphne's description realized that this is a female plant that will go into bloom. So I had no qualms about sniping it too for side dish tonight - additional 4 oz to add to my harvest total.
Since I planted 8 more asparagus plants in a new bed I won't feel too bad if this one won't make it.
Monday Harvest
This weekend was once again mostly planting, weeding and cleaning up garden, but I also got a chance to harvest some fresh greens. For our dinner it was nice to have some fresh scallions just off from the garden. I really need a better scale as this one shows it to be only 1.5oz and I thought it was more.
Also picked up lots of parsley because it's really overgrown and if I don't snip it will bolt. I'd rather have it dried and used in the kitchen - so 3.5 oz added;
Here is my first few stalks of rhubarb that someone from my work will use for a fresh pie. I'll wait until May to harvest more of it for my own pie - another 5oz
So overall we have 1.5+3.5+5= 10oz of fresh greens for first real harvest. My bok choi is almost ready to be picked so I think that might be my next harvest - stirfry!
Edit: Thank you Daphne for leting me use your script to keep track of total harvest!
Edit: Thank you Daphne for leting me use your script to keep track of total harvest!
Need advice
I'm ready to throw in a towel on getting any harvest this year. Between the deer, groundhog, birds and squirrels it was hard enough trying to get anything to grow and protect it, but now we have a family of 3 raccoons moved in last fall and this week they've been very actively visiting my gardens - both new and old side. And completely disregarding water sprinklers - just walking past it like nothing happened. We also have automatic light that comes on motion detector on the patio - no result. They come to the patio and help themselves to my greens. Then easily climb the fence to the main garden to help some more to my salads and dig out my potatoes and bulb. I'm getting very frustrated with this and yet I can't bring myself to call a trapper because I know he'll kill them and that's against my way of life - my second major occupation is to rescue animals - not kill them! Someone recommended covering entire top of the garden with chicken wire but that will make it very hard for my husband to get in and do anything inside - he's taller than the fence, and while I'm a shrimp and it won't bother me but he'd have to bend each time to get in. Not a fun idea from his perspective. So if anyone know of a sure-way to repel animals I'm all ears.
Aeroponics, lemons and tomatoes
My sweet hubby has been busy outside but he's also been experimenting with inside gardening. You probably seen my hydroponic setup that he designed and build himself after seeing something similar in the garden display in local area, but now he decided to add aeroponic set up - only 1 for now. Just to see how it works.
Inside the 5 gallon bucket's lid he drilled holes, then set up a holding netting and placed the seeds in the same foam squares that we use for hydroponic - one tomato, bean, carrot and some greens like bokchoy and salad. Greens did not do well but carrot, tomato and bean are doing pretty good. Bean is actually getting ready to bloom. It's not really clear in picture but there is some kind of a set up that sprays liquid every few minutes to keep roots moist and allows it to grow. So leave it up for engineer to come up with new experiment.
And speaking of experiments, I added two new item this weekend - two Meyer Lemon dwarf trees. They will grow inside of course as they won't survive our harsh winter. As you can see first one even has tiny lemons and full in bloom.
And second one is also in bloom but so far no lemons on it. They both smell so nice and filled up the entire room with the sweet smell!
I found them both in my local walmart when I went to look for ground covers. Now I just have to make sure they survive and grow properly with other tangerine and orange trees that I got in winter. This is a first year for me with citrus so I hope they'll make it. And speaking of surviving, seems Mother Nature decided for me on my mix up of tomatoes - they're all got sick!
Some are very leggy and thin, and some clearly show damaged leafs so I'm not sure if they'll make it. I'll remove them from the addition and put them on the enclosed porch and if they do make it I'll plant them outside without protection. For now I already started new batch of tomatoes - with different mix this time.
Hopefully this time they'll grow better - and yes, I did label them each. I still have half the tray that was not seeded so I'll add more tonight and will also add more peppers as germination on them was not very good. So let's hope they'll cooperate.
And speaking of experiments, I added two new item this weekend - two Meyer Lemon dwarf trees. They will grow inside of course as they won't survive our harsh winter. As you can see first one even has tiny lemons and full in bloom.
Just in time for Easter
Now the new garden has some pretty flowers just in time for Easter - lot's of planting and lots more to do but it's slowly getting there.
We added border to make it clean and easier to take care of the lawn and also makes in more eye pleasing.
Some of the plants that we placed got mowed down by deer overnight - star lilies are all gone, so we had to place a second water repellent to protect the rest of them. I don't want them to eat all my roses, blueberries and grapes that are planted along the fence.
Hopefully deer will leave my flowers alone so I can have some pretties blooming at one point. That pink bush is a ruffled azalea in the front and I hope it will keep growing - it really is very pretty in person.
It's good to be home again
For past couple of days I had to work on location and was away from home because commuting would have been insane, so I didn't get a chance to do anything this week in the garden. But today I escaped early and got home still with an hour of sunshine and just enough time to grab camera and take few shots. Just before I left I planted few hyacinths around new garden area but it was too dark by then to take pictures and they're still lovely today so wanted to share with you.
Hopefully next spring it will be just as lovely because I'm also going to add daffodils and more hyacinths in the fall to the area as well as transplant tulips into the area. And speaking of tulips, can you see this lovely color? It's just peaking through so I can't wait to see it really in full bloom.
And from this picture you can see I'll have quite a few of them soon! It's been really cold in the past couple of weeks so everything really slowed down on growth but hopefully these beauties will start going into full bloom soon.
More lovely flowers are growing under my pine tree, but I have no idea what happened to my protective netting that was draped over them. It's no where in sight and my hubby said he didn't touch it. Wondering if we had help from unfriendly neighbors. I'll have to fix something to protect them fast before deer destroy them completely.
And speaking of destroying things, here is one pot I thought I'd be replacing this year and it surprised me with new growth - my chives woke up! Now I know chives are perennial and they supposed to wake up each year but I completely neglected it all last year and didn't bother to feed it this spring and yet it's still growing.
I'd better move it to a better soil and give it a chance to grow if it's trying on its own so hard :)
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