Green season on a cloudy day

It's cloudy and windy so it's a good day to work in the greenhouse, where it's a perfect 70 degrees.  I picked some weeds, and thinned more lettuce. I finally picked some spinach today. Each spinach plant got 1 or 2 leaves picked off. The baby spinach is super tender and will make a great mixed green salad. In addition to spinach, I also picked some immature miner's lettuce, and some mache(corn salad) greens that had overwintered. The total produce count today was about 1/2 pound of yummy leaves.

The strawberry plants in the greenhouse are beginning to flower. I have been plucking the flowers from the smaller of plants, but I'm letting the bigger plants go to fruit.  Speaking of flowering strawberries, I noticed many flowers on the wild strawberries around the yard. Those viney weeds you may not even notice produce miniature strawberries about the size of a blueberry. Here's a website that I found that talks about wild strawberries: http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Strawberry.html

Many of the seedlings from our living room have slowed growth, so I put them in the greenhouse. I'm hoping the increased sunlight will get them growing strong again.  The space heater keeps the temperature above 50 degrees at night, so there will be no frosts to worry about. Under the low tunnels I had experimentally transplanted a few cucumber and borage plants. The frosty nights got them. I guess the low tunnels are still not storing enough heat to get them through sub freezing nights.

 Above: Flowering strawberry plants surrounded by flower seedlings(left)

 Above: deer tongue lettuce(left), a tomato plant(center), dill(right)

 Above: carrots(left), Peas & Miners lettuce(right)

 Above: Closeup of miners lettuce(left), flower seedlings(center), lettuce with an onion backdrop(right)

 Above:deer tongue lettuce(left), strawberry flowers(center), the low tunnels & greenhouse(right)

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Total produce count for the year:

1 handfull wheat grass

1 1/3 lb dark greens

1 3/16 lb lettuce

1/8 lb spinach

1/8 lb miner's lettuce

1/16 lb mache (corn salad)

5/8 lb micro greens

1/3 lb arugula

2 asparagus spears

Radishes for dinner!

Deb and I made it over to the greenhouse today around 10:30am, and found it at a comfortable 62 degrees. By the time we left about an hour later, it was up to 80. We thinned out some more lettuce and greens.  Today's bounty was about a pound a quarter.

Check out the picture below to view our cute baby radish greens!

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Total produce count for the year:

1 1/3 lb dark greens

1 lb lettuce

5/8 lb micro greens

1/3 lb arugula

2 asparagus spears

Thinned out some lettuce and greens

I Harvested a nice salad Tuesday. It was a combined 3/4 lb. of both lettuce and baby kale/cabbage/broccoli/kohlrabi.

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Total produce count for the year:

1 lb dark greens

1/2 lb lettuce

1/4 lb micro greens

1/3 lb arugula

2 asparagus spears

More produce was produced.

We tested the first asparagus. Since it its first year of return, we should not have eaten any of it. We couldn't resist. We each had a spear sauteed with our fried eggs this morning. It was mighty tasty and tender.  Next year, we can enjoy a true harvest and meal of fresh asparagus.

We found a broccoli plant that survived the winter. It is now just started to grow some florets. I'll post pics as soon as the head emerges.

One of the rhubarb plants emerged from the root bulb.  I have to keep remining myself that rhubarb leaves (even though they look delicious) are toxic to eat.

Four of the kale plants overwintered and are producing very large leaves already. Today we harvested 1/2 pound of Ragged Jack kale leaves to add to our Indian chickpea crock pot for dinner.

We also cut about 1/3 pound of arugula leaves. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them. Arugula is a strong tasting green. I'll poke about on the net and see if I can find a good recipe to dull down the sharp taste.

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Total produce count for the year:

5/8 lb dark greens

1/4 lb micro greens

1/3 lb arugula

2 asparagus spears

Harvested more micro greens

Total produce count update. Harvested some more micro greens to thin out the early crops. One more thinning in a week should do it. Everything's doing great! Will post pics soon.

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Total produce count for the year:

1/8 lb dark greens

1/4 lb micro greens

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. 

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Total produce count for the year:

1/8 lb dark greens

1/16 lb micro greens

The first produce of the season

It's March 1st! The farmers markets aren't going yet, but I am eating fresh local produce tonight. From the small garden, I picked some overwintered arugula, kale, turnip greens, and mache(corn salad).  It's not a huge exciting meal, but there's something special about the first home-grown eats of the season.

One of the goals I had in mind when I started this blog is a tally of all the produce grown by Deb and I.  Today will be the first addition to this count; 1/8 pound of greens.

In other news, the self watering bucket planters project has started. I decided not to mess around with fittings at the entry and exit to each bucket reservoir. Instead I simply ran a garden hose through each bucket and drilled an 1/8" hole in the hose. When the water reservoir fills, the overflow just below the soil bucket will release excess water.  The trick to this system working is that the lower bucket must have a waterproof seal around the hose entry/exit.  I have used marine grade silicone sealant to seal the gap. On the outside of the bucket I will next use foam insulation, the kind you use around windows and doors to stop air transfer.  The foam insulation is glue that expands and finds any possible leak, then hardens.

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Total produce count for the year:

1/8 lb dark greens