Overnight growth of asparagus
So. If you read last week’s post, you know that our asparagus bed was a wasteland of dry dead crowns, enough to make us worry. Have no fear! By Wednesday, we had 14″ high asparagus spears. We have harvested them three times now and have been adding that day’s fresh harvest to whatever meal we’re preparing. Grow asparagus, you won’t be sorry.
Long asparagus in the corner
The sudden transition was a shock, and a delight. I haven’t been so amazed in years and years. Over and over again, the garden makes us feel happy and young.
Yummy asparagus
More broccoli trickled in this week, and a couple carrots…. if 7-8 lbs of carrots is a couple carrots. I’ll be canning carrots today, will try to remember to shoot a picture or three. This is approximately 2′ x 6′ of carrots. And I have been reminded that we have 1.5 boxes seeded in carrots at this point. The ones we seeded 2/25 have started germinating!
Dribs and drabs
Carrot Harvest!
Last Sunday we planted out our broccoli and cauliflower starts. I keep swearing that we’re not going to mess with these cauliflower any more, but I guess we will until we run out of these seeds. We ended up with 2 varieties of broccoli with 4 plants each, and 2 varieties of cauliflower with 2 plants each. We also transplanted kale, collards, and mustard starts. Everything has responded well, but that’s not surprising because we’ve had 80 degree days. If the weather gets any more weird the sky will turn purple.
We were going to remove the three overwintered broccoli plants that are really just trying to flower now (we have three more that aren’t so eager to go straight to the flowering) but we noticed a couple of bees at the flowers and decided to leave them for the bees until we actually need the bed.
We re-started a variety of tomato and pepper plants that did not germinate the first time. Some of our pepper varieties have had very poor (or no) germination. Maybe the seeds are getting old. The Amish paste tomatoes also have a low percentage rate.
We also started more leek seeds – our leek germination has been terrible. Does anyone have any leek sprouting experience they can share with us?
We unmulched the garlic. The garlic is growing in leaps and bounds this year. The leaf mulch we remove we blend into other beds.
The brussels sprouts aren’t. Instead of a solid mass or a stalk with thingies, we just are getting massive leaf growth. We haven’t had much luck with these things in a couple of years now. I’m hoping we quit trying along with the cauliflower. I strongly suspect that this environment needs a modern hybrid to grow these things – or we’re doing something fundamentally wrong.
We’re prepping the potato beds. On Tuesday we’ll cut any large chitting potatoes into parts and then move all the potatoes to the basement. On Thursday, the Dark of the Moon, we’ll plant them after work.
Seedlings in the basement are doing well once they germinate. The tomatoes and tomatillos in particular are getting Large. Peppers and squash are developing nicely.
Carrots once again!
Tags: Garden, North Carolina, Orange County, raised boxes, root crops, Spring, Victory Garden, Winter
Food Garden Kitchen 
March 18, 2012 at 3:22 pm |
You are so far ahead of us. Having 70+ temp, itching to put some seeds and seedlings in the garden as the soil sure have warmed up, but it is only mid-March and we still could get snow, chances are slim but it is possible. Our last frost date is early May.
March 18, 2012 at 4:11 pm |
Our average last frost is April 15 so the things we’re planting outside right now are frost-tolerant veggies. But with the warm winter we’re having, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the last frost has already happened.
March 19, 2012 at 8:52 am |
Your harvest of carrots is impressive and congratulations on the asparagus bed coming into production. I really enjoyed having asparagus but the bed I had did not thrive so I ended up pulling it out and planting something else in that location. I should try and find another spot that is a good candidate and try again. I used to have no problems growing them in central Washington but the climate and more acidic soil in coastal western Washington is not as appropriate for them.
March 19, 2012 at 9:20 am |
Beautiful carrots! I’m itching to put things in the ground but for now, I’ll have to stick to the hoop houses (our last frost date is in late May). Happy planting!!!
March 19, 2012 at 9:29 am |
Loads of carrots there, lovely. I’ve all but given up on broccoli, if it wasn’t for the pesticides I would have long ago. But we seem to persist beyond logic. 😉 One more try, right?
March 19, 2012 at 11:43 am |
A beautiful harvest, carrots are great this time of year!! Ours are just about done we have a little less than a half of a bed left and I need to get them harvested soon to make room for other crops!
March 19, 2012 at 6:53 pm |
I have a hard time with BS because of our weather, our falls don’t seem to be cool enough but I’m going to try again this year.
There are different varieties of broccoli, some are good for winter and some are better for spring/summer, ditto cauliflower, so you might try some different ones or talk to your seed supplier.
Peppers like to be a bit warmer and drier than tomatoes for germination. But they are always slower than toms.
March 19, 2012 at 10:07 pm |
What a nice carrot harvest! I just planted asparagus and can’t wait to have my first spears.. gardening definitely teaches patience… ’til then I will admire your asparagus and dream of that first spear!
March 20, 2012 at 7:07 am |
What a lovely harvest of carrots! I have never had any luck with Brussels Sprouts either. Cauliflower can be tricky too. It usually does well here with the exception of last year due to the extreme early heat waves.
I will also be re-sprouting some of my pepper seeds due to low germination. It must be their age. As far as leeks go, they seem to take forever to get going. I always end up sowing more and then they all seem to come up at once.
March 21, 2012 at 12:41 am |
That’s a LOT of carrots! Your harvest looks great.
Lynn