Garden Update 2008
May 15, 2008 by cheaplikeme
Spring is here and things are growing!
We have a bunch of crops started. In fact, the first batch of spinach is just about done — ready to pick, cook and freeze.
Lettuce is going into salads.
Inside, our seedlings have taken off — scarlet runner beans, pumpkins, butternut squash, cantaloupe, and okra.
The peanuts, on the other hand, started out looking like a mold/mushroom/space alien combination.
Outside, we’ve had blossoms on our apricot tree, cherry tree and apple trees … but I’ve only seen two bees so far, so I don’t know if pollination is underway. It seems doubtful. Very sad.
Potatoes are just cropping up in one of our two containers.
We’ve got herbs coming along nicely, some self-seeded dill growing, and parsley that overwintered under the protective leaves of the frostbitten collards.
The peas … well, the birds ate them, and I don’t know if they’ll make it before it gets too hot.
And out of the six Napa cabbage seedlings Mr. Cheap set out under milk-jug cloches, just one is still fighting.
We’re getting ready to plant beets, arugula, bush green beans and a new batch of lettuce and spinach. In just a couple of weeks, we can install everybody else: Tomatoes, the seedlings mentioned above, Brussels sprouts.
What’s growing in your patch of Earth?
We put in a ton of strawberries and raspberries, some collards, several different types of lettuce, cauliflower, potatoes, some peas and some flowers. The herbs we planted last year are going gang busters as are our blueberry bushes.
We’re still looking for a house, where I will plant a garden probably next year. Then I’m going to grow whatever I can. Do artichokes grow here? I’m going to find out!
I have cats, I’m hoping they’ll be a good deterrant for birds. I don’t want to lose my strawberries!
Your spinach looks fabulous! We don’t have a garden but do get our veggies from Aqua Linda Farm C.S.A. I found that I love experimenting with the different greens they grow - kale, beet greens, mustard greens, collards. I used to steer away from them because recipes always seems to call for bacon. Just barely cooked spinach with pasta, onion and garlic, topped with Asagio cheese. Yum. I hear okra is coming in the summer C.S.A. Good luck on your garden! Hard work but well worth it.
@erin - Oh yes, we have strawberries too!
@jessimonster - I don’t know if the cats are a deterrent … we have cats in our yard a lot, but the birds still ate all our peas.
@ Daryl - We used to cook onions in olive oil until they are a little browner than we might usually like to give that darker flavor to greens that complements their bitterness, without bacon.