General notes

1) We started our seedlings a little later than last year, they are looking good. Probably transplanting tomatoes outside in the next week.

2) Bed of lettuce and peas has been out for three weeks. We had them covered by a cold frame, which saved them for last week's late frost. But now they are free and exposed.

3) Yesterday (May 1) we planted peas and sweet peas near the trellises on the side of the house; radishes, kale, carrots and beets in the regular garden; and turnips in the new raised bed (filled with compost) we can't get turnips to grow in the regular garden, so we're hoping the raised bed is the trick. Last night it rained steadily for several hours, so if it is warm this week, those seeds will be popping!

August in a Bag

Tonight for dinner I thawed out some grilled vegetables from August. Onions, snow peas, broccoli, turnip, beets, carrots. It was amazing. It did take me back to summer on the deck. You can't get that grilled taste when you cook indoors. This will have to be a new summer staple. Grill all the vegetables and freeze the extras.

Lazy gardener

I'm not sure what happened to the last 5 weeks--illness and injury (both minor) have taken up some time, but that's no excuse, really.

The garden is doing pretty well. The tomato plants are huge and starting to flower. We have harvested some small carrots, beets and some bad turnips. I guess planting the turnips and hoping they'll grow isn't going to work. Perhaps I'll read about it before fall planting.

The peas are growing extremely well. Too well, as we are also getting about 2 lbs per week from our CSA.

So we seem to be retaining our title of Tomato Pros. And that is saying something, so I shouldn't complain. Or work too hard on the rest of it.

Our seedling set-up

Hard to believe these photos are a month old! This is the set-up on our enclosed front porch where we grow our seedlings. Which means we have a grow-light on in the late-night and early morning hours--I wonder if it annoys dog walkers and the paper delivery person. (I did not know until last year that the light retards growth--it keeps the plants from growing too quickly and getting "leggy" as they do most of their growing in the dark.)

Last weekend (April 18 and 19) we put in the first of our outdoor seeds: Peas, beets, carrots, turnips. We were also delighted to discover that Kale is a perennial--we have Kale coming up in a row in the garden and a few clumps in the front of the house. In a week or two we can harvest and add all those healthy vitamins to our frozen soups.

We had one spring day on Thursday (about 60 degrees) and up to about 75 on Friday. But today it has been raining and the temperature has been dropping so now it is 40 degrees. We hope it doesn't go much lower--the forecast says no. The seeds got a good 5 days of soaking, two warm days, and now they got soaked again. If warmth comes again next weekend, we should see sprouts.