28 April Weekly Update

Transplant casualties.

We lost one of our Amish Paste tomato plants to voles – they chewed off the roots and the plant wilted – and one of the tomatillo plants partially broke near the base of the plant.  I think it just couldn’t hold up to some windy conditions we had.  I stood it up and piled soil around it in the hope it might grow new roots since it wasn’t completely broken off.  Time will tell.  Later in the week those dang voles also got one of our cucumber plants.

Cilantro for Juicing

Leeks

Mound of Kale

Mustards & Cilantro

Greens & Parsley

Parsley, Cauliflower, & Cilantro

Radishes & Asparagus

Pickings were: kale and mustard (the large mound of kale in the picture is the leaves from the last two overwintered Red Russian kale plants which have now been removed; later in the week we also removed most of the overwintered purple mustard), parsley and cilantro (multiple times; removing almost all of our overwintered cilantro as the last picking), asparagus, a few small radishes, the overwintered leeks, and another head of cauliflower!  (Although this head of cauliflower was not nearly as large and perfect as the one we got last week).

We’ve been fairly busy in the garden.  The removal of overwintered stuff meant that more Spring crops were going in.  We seeded 2 zucchini seeds in the space the cilantro had been in.  Hopefully they’ll germinate since starting them in the basement last month failed dismally.  In the space the leeks had been growing, we seeded winter squash – both Long Island Cheese and Pennsylvania Dutch Crookneck.  We also filled in some of the lettuce squares of types that didn’t germinate well with the seeds of other types of lettuce that are doing well.  I think I’m going to cull some seed packets soon…  Of course, after we remove plants, we work the boxes well and apply fertilizer so it’s *work* to get these tasks done!

Another big Cauliflower

The growth rates on the potato plants is impressive; they grew over a foot in the past week.  And three of our Spring-planted broccoli plants are forming the beginnings of a head!  I hope they’re able to produce decent heads before it gets too hot for them.  We started hardening off our pepper plants on Saturday and plan to plant them out later this week.  I keep looking anxiously at the places we seeded last week (various beans) but so far, nothing has broken ground.  Earlier in the week, I was delighted to see that our third overwintered cauliflower has formed a good sized head!  Three producing cauliflower plants is a first for us!

Asparagus Box

Azaleas in Bloom

Spring Cauliflower Plants

Celery Patch

Dill

Garlic Box

Hardening off Eggplant & Butternuts

Irises!

Marjoram & Sage

Pea Flowers!

Potatoes

Red Cabbages

tomatillos with Seeded Zuchinni

Garden

 

Tags: Garden, North Carolina, Orange County, Southern, Spring