garden update: april 10th

these photos were taken two weeks ago; i didn't plan on posting them because they weren't too exciting. for my reference and for those like me who love looking at any and all garden photos, i figured i'd put them up here anyway. plus the rain is keeping me inside today, so hopefully this will satiate me somewhat.=)

let's start with the peas. sugar snap peas make my mouth itchy, but the plants are so pretty and my niece alaina loves to pick and eat the pods right off the vine. i've had some issues growing those and tall telephone peas in the past, so this year i was determined to do it right. they were sprouted prior to planting to be sure they would germinate.

mel says to plant peas an inch deep and cover with a plastic cage. most of the seeds have sprouted, and when it stops raining, i'll go back and fill in the bare spots. to see what happened to the non-sprouters, i dug up a few. the seeds had roots but were rotted, and little white grubs were feasting on them. (i actually dreamt those grubs grew to be ginormous and were eating my wooden frames! aghhh!=)

a few pea plants that were sown march 21st are growing nicely. those seeds were planted without pre-sprouting and many didn't come up. i guess it's mother nature's way of helping me space out my harvests.=)

since these photos were taken, john has built another trellis for the 6x6 bed, so they'll all have something to climb.

"x" marks the spots where i threw in more pea seeds. there are just two strawberry plants from my first year gardening in the raised beds, and the rest are growing alongside the fences on both sides of us. all of the strawberry plants have pretty white blossoms!=) *fingers crossed the animals leave those plants alone*

we may have to make more chicken wire cages like this one.

kale sprout...

spinach sprout...

and our fig tree showing signs of life. now, just two weeks later, it's producing itty bitty fruit. reading up on fig trees, i learned this could be the spring crop, called the breba crop. we'll have to be sure to protect it from frost. the tree should also produce a late summer/fall harvest.

figgy was planted around mother's day last year. she produced some fruit but they all fell off before the chance to mature. so sad.  

photo from july 17th, 2010

when the weather clears up i plan to get more lettuce seeds sown. on the 10th i also planted mustard greens, escarole, sunset and tango lettuce. tiny little seedlings have emerged. seeing other gardeners harvest their greens left me impatient, so i caved and bought some transplants. we've had two large salads from the 16 plants so far.

this weekend i'd also like to plant my root crops (carrot, radish, beet) and chamomile. johnny made these handy little planting templates to help me. he also says he'll put my new potter's bench together soon. ain't he a peach?=)