Harvest Monday - March 28, 2011

Brussels Sprouts, Spinach, Piracicaba Broccoli, Green Onions

I'm still harvesting overwintered greens, the Brussels Sprouts and green onions are showing signs of bolting and I pull all of them.  I still have spinach, broccoli, and chard to harvest maybe for couple more times and the overwintered veggies will be finished.

Drop by Daphne's Dandelions host of Harvest Monday to see more harvests by other gardeners.

Learning to Grow Caper

My daughter brought me 2 bare root caper plants (unknown variety) from CA earlier this month, they started to sprout about 2 1/2 weeks ago, the small seedling in the white cup is a tiny broken stem.  I was curious to see if the soft stem can be rooted, it was dipped in rooting hormone, potted up in seed starting soil, kept warm and moist in the past 10 days.  Today I pull on the leaves and felt a slight resistance, it appears the stem has rooted.  Yay~~~ (more caper propagation in the future?)

The challenge is to keep these plants alive and healthy, the leaves look a bit anemic now, they probably can use some fish emulsion, I'll have to check out Michelle's Caper Obsession for more information on how to grow and care for these plants.  This is a school year for caper growing, I don't expect to "harvest" any berries from these plants at all, my main goal at this point is to keep them alive!  Wish me luck.

Early Spring Flowers in Our Garden

 Flowering Quince

Daffodils

Flowering quince and daffodil are first to bloom in our garden,

they usually show up about a week to ten days before Spring Equinox.

Daily Seedling Shuffle

Onions, brassicas, lettuces, Asian greens, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, beets, 

Alpine strawberries, edible chrysanthemum, and butterfly pea flowers.

Tomatoes -- Cherokee Purple, Green Zebra, Chocolate Cherry, Sungold Cherry, and Amish Paste.

 

Peppers -- 16 different varieties, mostly sweet peppers for making paprika powder,

there are 3 more (difficult to start) varieties in ICU not shown here. 

 Eggplants -- Fairy Tale and Malaysian, 

Little Fingers and Ma Zhu are not shown here.

 Beets -- Yellow and Red

Alpine Strawberries -- Red and Yellow

Ground Cherries

Transplanted crimson fava beans, I sowed some in ground 3 1/2 weeks ago, none have sprouted yet.

Seeds from Michelle, thank you.

Last year I tried to grow Alpine strawberries and ground cherries, none lived past the seedling stage due to various reasons, hopefully I have better luck this year, I really really want to grow some small fruits other than melons and cantaloupes. 

I started a bunch of Asian greens, the choy sum seedlings bolted, I'm not sure why, could it be long daylight or is it too cold?  Maybe they prefer sow in situ?  Couple years ago I had one good harvest of choy sum, unfortunately I did not recorded anything about the planting, duh~~~.

 

Piracicaba Broccoli with Mushrooms

I really enjoy growing and eating this broccoli, the flower head and side shoots are always tender and sweet, I've grown it through fall and winter, it tolerated our cold climate well, next test is to see how it behaves in desert heat.

Harvest Monday - March 14, 2011

Overwintered radish -- not worth the trouble, it's 1/4 the size of what it should be.

All greens again -- spinach, tatsoi, piracicaba broccoli, and a lone asparagus.

I know I shouldn't be picking the asparagus so soon, but I couldn't help myself, gotta snap one off.

Head over to Daphne's Dandelions host of Harvest Monday to see more garden harvests.

Asparagus and Peas

Oops! I wasn't careful and broke a spear.

 

Seeded Feb 18th, sprouted 6 days later on Feb 24th at room temp, no bottom heat.

Transplanted on March 2nd into large container.

Nine days after transplant, March 11th.

Thank you Michelle for the Sugar Magnolia Purple Flower Pea seeds.

Thanks to spring like weather I'm working the garden again, yesterday I removed some straw mulch to check on the asparagus bed and was pleasantly surprised to see new growth poking through the soil.  Last spring I planted some 2 year old crowns, this is first year asparagus for me --- does it mean I can harvest every other spear this year or I should wait until next year to harvest?  I'm confused.

I've always direct sow peas outdoor,  this time I decided to grow seedlings indoor and transplant them later, after checking with some experienced gardeners they all told me they've done it one time or another, one gardener said she grows pea and bean seedlings indoor every year due to short growing season in her area. 

Three weeks ago I took the plunge --- sowed some seeds outdoor and some indoor, there's no sign of germination from the outdoor seeds at this time, but the indoor seeds were up and growing fast in no time.  The first two pea seedling pictures were taken on the day of transplant, and the last photo was taken this morning, I'm happy to report the peas did not suffered from transplant shock or stunt growth, that means I'm ahead of the game by at least 3 weeks. 

Harvest Monday - March 7, 2011

Tatsoi, Spinach, Carrots, and Brussels Sprouts.

Overwintered Jade Cross Brussels Sprouts

Tip burn, January was too cold despite double layers of frost blankets.

Maybe there's a chance it will continue to grow after the dead leaves are removed.

Overwintered Piracicaba Broccoli

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions host of Harvest Monday to see more garden harvests.

Signs of Spring

Bulbs popping out from the ground, flowering quince 

is always the first to show off its color in our garden.

Closer look.

Please Help ID This Bug

This bug was found in Thailand (name unknown), 

do we have anything bug similar to this in the states?