Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Spring Garden Tour

garden 5
I just thought I'd update everyone on some of the things I had growing in the garden at the moment. In no particular order:

mini white stem bok choy
My mini white stem bok choy is already starting to bolt. I wonder if they are still edible.

wild strawberries
Here are some of the Yellow and Red Wonder wild strawberries I started from seed. I wonder if they will produce any berries this year.

strawberries
Speaking of strawberries, about 90% of the runners/crowns that I transplanted from the old garden last fall survived the winter and are beginning to flower.

raised bed 4
Red Sails lettuce interplanted with some white onion sets...Florence fennel in the bottom right...parley, sage and thyme in the top right...snow peas top left.

raised bed 3
Yesterday, I finally made a pea trellis out of old branches. I still need to make a couple more.

raised bed 2
My mini Napa cabbage is getting huge! I hope they don't decide to bolt...Red of Florence scallions in the bottom left.

raised bed 1
Pictured: white onion sets, Pirracicaba broccoli, several varieties of cauliflower, celery and Rhubarb chard. I have these veggies planted throughout my garden.

garden 2
Behind the broccoli are snow peas and Fava beans interplanted with even more onions.

garden 1
In the foreground are more cauliflower interplanted with leeks.

garlic
The garlic is getting HUGE!

early tomato
Finally, I think I forgot to mention that I transplanted 9 of my February sown tomatoes a week and a half ago (Siberian, Black Krim, Cherokee Purple and Sungold). I planted them pretty deep with all but the top few branches snipped off. Into the hole went some compost, a good amount of slow-release organic fertilizer, bone meal, a bit of Epsom salt and some crushed Aspirin and calcium tablets. As you can see, they are starting to flower. They're pretty slow growing at the moment. Hopefully they will take off as the weather warms.

27 comments:

  1. Wow! Everything's looking great there, Thomas! I wonder if I can ever achieve even a quarter of what you harvest per year! You're a great inspiration to me for vegetables. Thank you :)

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  2. As usual, it looks great! Man....your garden always looks so good....

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  3. Beautiful, Thomas! You're putting the rest of us to shame ;-)

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  4. Your garden is really filling in! My pac choi bolted too recently. I just picked it all, the taste seemed the same. I just clipped the flower stalks out. Have you every tried any of the Chinese flowering broccoli?

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  5. Garden looks beautiful; I can’t believe that tomatoes are already flowering.
    I love how you are planting onions everywhere.

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  6. Your garden looks great! Keep it growing!!

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  7. Still lovin' those Bustello cans. They're just perfect.

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  8. Everything looks great Thomas. Thanks for the garden tour.

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  9. Everything is gorgeous, and so well grown! It is hard to believe your garden is just one zone warmer than mine. Of course, you have such excellent help! ;-)

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  10. Everything looks wonderful! I love seeing the entirety of a garden, it helps visualize what you have going on so much better, and it looks like you have a regular mini-farm! Your tomatoes will be great, mine took off like crazy about 3 days after being buried deep and put into their permanent locations.

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  11. What fabulous-looking garlic!

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  12. What a beautiful working kitchen garden! The plants all have a lovely deep color which speaks to good health and vitality. The pea patch looks particularly robust and the tomato starts seem to be quite content with their new home. Well done!

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  13. Your garden is looking great, I love the mini napa cabbages, we will be growing something similar this fall so it is nice to see how yours look.

    Lots of flowers on those strawberries, I can't wait to see how your wild ones do.

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  14. Looks absolutely fantastic, Thomas. The tomato hole recipe is quite the collection of, er, stuff. Can't wait for another update.

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  15. I am so jealous! Even though we don't live that far apart (MA to VT) there is a huge zone difference.
    I've been following your blog for months and I really appreciate your efforts and time. I love reading your blog:)

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  16. Thomas,

    Was the cabbage and lettuce under a cold frame? They're so big! And you're so much farther north than us!

    Anna

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  17. Wow, that is one intensive garden you've got there Thomas!

    Susan
    http://susan-chicdaisy.blogspot.com/

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  18. To echo some of the other comments - WOW! Everything looks absolutely brilliant. If my new plot ends up being half as beautiful and full of life I will consider it a success!
    Keep up the fantastic work!

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  19. I used to plant my tomatoes deep until I realized that the soil is much colder down deep. Food for thought.

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  20. They all look so nice. My brassicas are all under a row cover so the garden looks silly and white. It works, but doesn't make it all look very nice. I'll have to pull off the cover sometime this week and see how things are growing.

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  21. Everything is looking great, Thomas! I especially love the pea trellis!

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  22. It all looks so fresh and green, just gorgeous. We're psyching ourselves up for winter down here - nice to have a reminder of what to look forward to. Happy gardening.

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  23. Thomas, your garden looks beautiful! Those plants love you. ;)

    By the way, I have come to the expert for a question re the Choy Sum seeds you so graciously sent us: should they be developing yellow blossoms already?

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  24. Beautiful garden, you've been busy.

    About those bolted Asian greens bok choy, choy sum, etc. EAT THE FLOWER STALK, that's what we feed our small children their "first green" because the flowering part is the most tender, sweet, and delicious, we adults fight for the flowering tip, it's the best part of the bok choys, that's why there are specially bred bok choy call "choy sum" or "yu choy", or specially bred kale "gai lan", it's all about the flower stalk.
    Eat the flowering bok choy, of course you don't want to wait until they are too old. Best time to pick is when they just starting to set flower buds.

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  25. Oh, looking excellent ! I'm definitely envious.

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  26. Thanks for your comments everyone.

    Dan, I grew some flowering broccoli last fall. It was really tasty. I'll take a chance and cook up these bolted bok choy when I get back home.

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