Oh Well

      Two days ago I was in a clean up mode over at the park garden.  I was proud of myself for cutting down a lot of seed stalks, including the various blue colored chicories that had seemingly run their course.  After all, I probably still had seeds in packets and had never tried to store those little seeds.  All of this done early in the morning before the sun was very high in the sky.  So the barren seed stalks went onto the compost pile.
      Lo and behold, when I hit the park yesterday morning, I was surprised to find this sight on top of the pile:

       I think I won the "Prettiest Compost Pile of the Day" award with this one.  So I should be a little more observant next time to make sure a plant has run its course before whacking off its top.  These little blue flowers do attract a myriad of small bees and wasps, many assumed to be beneficial.
       I have always admired the wild blue corn flowers that grow freely by many roadsides, but had never been successful getting them to transplant to my home garden.  The red stemmed dandelion is actually a chicory, and in addition to its beauty and delicious edibility, puts on this nice flower show when it is done.  I expect to get more greens to regrow from the base as the weather cools in the fall.   

Veggie Starts

Plant me, Please

      Sometimes things actually work out too well.  Like when you plant lots of seeds and most of them come up!  Then grow on to when they should have been in the ground last week.  So now every day I am trying to put something in the ground.  To make way for the next wave of warmer weather seedlings.

Broccoli and Purple kohlrabi, 4/18/11, Bellevue

Broccoli in with onions

      Here it is only the middle of April, and I already have an overcrowded garden.  I walk around the garden looking for spots that some plant can go in, knowing that something else will soon come out or at least won't cast too much shade.  So these two plantings are squished in pretty tightly in a bed already planted with onions.  I think they are OK on the companion planting idea.

Purple Kohlrabi, 4/18/11

 

Back yard greens, 4/18/11

      The two frilly looking plants in the lower left hand corner are Tango lettuce from Fedco Seeds that overwintered without protection!  So did the parsley at the bottom right.  What would those do with only minimal protection?   The row right of the Tango lettuce is Tango starts and the four little seedlings next to that are Thick Stem Chinese Mustard.  The last three seedlings are Red Stemmed Dandelions, quite attractive and tasty too.  Well, at least out of the porch and into the ground.  The back yard garden gets a fair amount of shade from the large pin oak, so many of my greens seedlings should do fine there.

A few planted

From porch, 3-18-11

        Some things in this flat were ready to plant.  The frilly Tango Lettuce is quite hardy, and was planted in front of Little Marvel peas that just went in.  The Pak Choi in the bottom right hand corner went to fill some holes in a cold frame bed at the park.  The top right hand corner section is Red Stem Dandelions which will go back home, as a patch is doing nicely at the park.
        The remaining four six packs on the left are two packs of Early White Vienna Kohlrabi and two packs of Pacman Broccoli.  They went unplanted into a holding cold frame to get some more size.  After a nice day of weather yesterday in the mid seventies, the weathermen are teasing us with the possibility of a snow storm mid week.  Most planting plans just hit a major slowdown till things settle down a bit.  With a low projected of 31 tonight, the glass will go back on the frames this afternoon.  Spring.  Fits and starts.   George