Thursday, May 20, 2010

May Garden Update - What's Growing

potted potatoes
I thought I'd do a post on what's been growing reasonably well in my garden lately. As you can see, several of my potato plants have reached the rim of their pots. It's time of add more potting soil and some straw. When all is said and done, the pots will be overflowing with straw.

brassicas and onions
Several of my beds are starting to fill in a bit. This one alone has broccoli, celery, cauliflower, Rhubarb chard, an artichoke plant and onion sets. What can I say...when you have a limited amount of growing space, you try to squeeze in as much as you can.

celery
I never bothered to thin my celery seedlings before I set them out, which is probably why they're aren't bigger at this point. I will thin each bunch down to two plants this weekend and harvest the thinnings to use in a soup.

Red Sails Lettuce
I'll start harvesting my Red Sails lettuce in a week or so. I'm really excited! All I can say is that we've been dying for some homegrown lettuce.

florence fennel
Finally, I only have 3 Florence fennel plants this year, but I've been enjoying watching them grow. This is my first time growing fennel. They're really interesting in appearance and smell divine. Thanks again Dan for the seeds!

20 comments:

  1. Fennel is such a pretty plant! I don't know how you can refrain from harvesting some of that lovely young lettuce. You have more patience than I do obviously!

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  2. I like how you plant different vegetables together in one bed. It looks so much interesting with different colors and textures.

    That fennel does look pretty. I always thought fennel needs warmer climate to grow.

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  3. Thomas - Your garden looks great. I like how you have tucked onions into corners everywhere. I did the same thing, using every square inch of garden space.

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  4. I like your fennel. I can practically smell it from here!

    My Red Sails are doing horribly, I did a second sowing in a different bed, hopefully these babies will make it- I really liked that particular lettuce last year. Yours look so good!!!

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  5. Kelly, I cheated and purchased lettuce transplants. My lettuce germinated horribly ao I'm gonna try again as well.

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  6. Wow, everything is filling in quite nicely. I love the patchwork of interplanting throughout your garden. What a great way to make use of every square inch. Very impressive, Thomas.

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  7. Everything there looks great! Those potatoes in the pots are really coming along nicely. Your Florence fennel looks good too. I decided to skip it this year, now I'm missing it! There's only so much room to grow things.

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  8. You might want to plant some extra of that great fennel for the butterflies, it's a favorite food of the larvae, mine are covered with about 30 caterpillars at different stages of growth, I can't wait until they morph into beautiful butterflies! Those tubs look so festive! And, jealous of that celery, too hot to grow it here!

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  9. I was lucky with my lettuce and spinach transplants that I started back in the winter. They are the one thing that has been producing wonderfully!
    I'm waiting to see the final results from your spuds in the bucket. I have a friend who is growing them kinda with the same concept except in burlap bags..

    Have a good weekend!

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  10. This is my first year growing fennel as well. I love the way it looks in the garden.

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  11. Everything is growing so well. Those potatoes are leaping out of their pots. And I caught a glimpse of your garlic - it's almost the perfect size for sampling green garlic, if you can bear to pull up a stalk . . .

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  12. With lettuces there is no need to pull the whole plant. We just take the bigger leaves from each and they'll keep producing new leaves for continuous salads and sandwiches. Once they flower they'll be spent but till then keep 'em going!

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  13. They all look so good, Thomas! I'll be waiting for your post with the potato blooms. I love their color and shape!

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  14. We grow several fennel plants every year and this year is not exception. They are about 18" tall right now and growing rapidly. In fact, we harvested one small bulb last night to add to our salad. When they flower they attract all manner of bees so they are a wonderful addition.

    We've been harvesting our red leaf and buttercrunch lettuces for several weeks now.

    Love the potatoes in buckets. We're not much in the way of potato eaters but I wonder if this would work with other root veggies.

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  15. Everything looks good Thomas, waiting to see how your potatoes progress.

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  16. Thomas,
    Everything looks so wonderful and delicious! I can only hope to experience half the success that you seem to be having :-)
    Keep it up!

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  17. I'm always squeezing my plants in too. I'm always trying to figure out ways to get more out of less space.

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  18. oh, such beautiful beds! I haven't started yet (we still had a night frost last week) but will this coming week. Your beautiful garden beds have me sooooooo longing for my own!

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  19. Thomas,
    looks great! My potatoes are filled to the top with soil. Curious about the straw. Also did not plant fennel , however have heard that it can inhibit other plants from growing like black walnuts can. Do you know if this is true?

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  20. I really like your pretty potato containers.

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