Holy Smokes, The Asparagus has awaken!

This week's blog discusses overall progress and growth. Everything is greener, the seedlings are bigger and starting to show their true leaves, and the greenhouse is nearing its first harvest of microgreen thinnings; but the exciting news this week: The Asparagus shoots have begun rising. They have been growing about 1/4-1/2" per day. I've spotted around 12 spears so far, with more popping up every day. Since this is only the second year growing the asparagus in this location, we are not supposed to harvest them yet, to help establish a strong deep root structure. I've decided that it can't hurt to cut a few spears to make a small meal. We should be chowing down on some fresh young asparagus early next week.
(Click on the pictures for bigger image)

The asparagus isn't the only thing waking up for winter hibernation. The roses, blueberries, and blackberries are sprouting their buds; the first sign of Spring growth. The parsley(biennial) has begin growing leaves after its winter dormancy.

The seedlings are doing fantastic. The strongest performance award is going to the tomato plants. Those suckers are germinating almost 100%, and are growing quick and straight. I'm going to try and transplant every last tomato seedling, including the ones that must be thinned out. Those hairy fibers you can see on the stalks will turn into roots if kept moist, so i will simply cut the thinnings off with scissors when ready to transplant.

In the greenhouse, things are looking good.. and tasty. Deb and I have decided, when we thin out the plants that are very overcrowded, we are going to make a micro-green salad. This may happen this weekend. The lettuce, brassicas(kale, collards, brussels, etc.) and spinach are all running into one another in competition for sunlight and root space. This is a good problem to have, since the most tasty and tender of greens are the young ones. Other greenhouse news; the artichokes and celery are finally sprouting. The peas are starting to get their climbers, and are beginning to attach to the fencing. There are several pots of assorted annual flowers started inside the gh, all beginning to sprout.

Last week I spotted mole holes in the raised beds at the small garden. Apparently, Spring brings about hungry moles feeding their young. Moles do not eat veggies or plant roots. Moles eat grubs, which eat plant matter. Moles are not necessarily bad for your garden, except they often accidentally burrow through plant roots. The other problem with moles; voles(small ground burrowing mice, that love tasty plant matter) often use mole tunnels to get to your vegetables. Last week I sprinkled an organic-approved mole repellant on the raised beds. The repellant consists of castor bean oil. Castor beans and their oil is toxic for humans to consume. The smell is highly offensive to ground burrowing rodents, so monthly applications pending no big rain storms, can keep them away. I also ordered two ultrasonic mole repellers. These ground probes emit a sound that travels about 30 feet in each direction through the ground. The 3 C batteries last about 18 months. Each probe cost me $15 bucks plus shipping. One is at the small garden, and one is at the big garden/greenhouse. So far I have not seen any new holes appear. 

---

Total produce count for the year:

1/8 lb dark greens

1/16 lb micro greens