Park Garden Update, 4/1/2012

      The first of April is here, and already my garden at the park is full to overflowing.  It will be a challenge to be able to find room for the warm weather veggies.  Though in another month, a lot of the cold weather veggies will have had their day, and be ready to be pulled.

Cold frames open, 4/1/2012

Arugula frame

Assorted lettuce and tatsoi

      This cold frame has various lettuce plants that need a good picking.  The cell packs at the bottom have most likely been cut down by slugs.  The pack at the top with the single leaf was a five pack of purchased kohlrabi starts.  I was going to put them in the ground today, but the voles left just this one leaf out of the two packs of five that I had.  The voles are becoming public enemy number one.  The packs along the top are leeks, obviously not a favorite of the voles.  Maybe this garden should be all onions, garlic, and leeks.

Garlic on left, collards, transplanted garlic

Parsnips

Cardoon and garlic starts

Blooming cole volunteer, spinach, Beedy's kale, and Chinese mustard

Harvestable Egyptian walking onions

Fava bean row

Overwintered artichoke

Overwintered arugula and tons of potential garlic

Overwintered red russian kale and leeks

Overwintered Tango lettuce

Still waiting for the podded peas to sprout

Back Garden Update, 2/1/2012

      Here we are into February!  The winter has been about non existent so far.  That is no complaint by me.  Although it seems I would not have needed the cold frames, only the real hardy kales and collards appear edible if not under cover.  Other things may be alive, but not appealing.  But the cold frames have been productive throughout the winter.  And now the day length is past ten hours, which will increase production.

Feb 1st:    Day length:   10 hrs, 11 min 
                Sunrise:         7:10 AM
                Sunset:          5:21 PM
                High Temp:    67 degrees F      Low Temp:    46 degrees F

Don't be fooled by those temperatures, the high should be in the low forties (41 average at this time).

Wooden Frame, 2/1/2012

      The mizuna mustard that was transplanted a couple of weeks ago is doing quite well.  Some of the transplants from last fall have died.  I had left the transplants on top of the soil for a couple of weeks, probably killing the outer roots.  Then when put in the cool ground, they probably never developed a good root system.  Had I not been lazy and planted them immediately, I probably would have done a lot better.  Or if I had divided the lettuce and potted it up to develop good roots, I suspect I would have had better transplant success.  In any case, the above frame has been yielding good pickings for salads.

Trex frame, 2/1/2012

Trex frame, left side

      The mustard greens in the upper left corner were lifted from a path at the park and have transplanted quite well.  The thick stem chinese mustard to the top right has been doing much better in cold frames than the patch left unprotected at the park.  There are a couple of head lettuce that should be harvested. 

Trex frame, right side

      The pak choi at the top has died, and some of the minutina in the bottom right corner don't look good.  Don't know why in either case.  The tatsoi however, is doing great, and needs to be thinned out.

      These red burgundy onions rescued from the compost pile at the park had begun to sprout on the porch.  Black aphids were multiplying on the green sprouts.  So they have been planted to an outdoor bed.  The cold exposure will put a major hurt on the aphids.  Each onion should sprout multiple plants which can then be separated and replanted.  I don't know whether I will get bulb onions from that effort, but I will certainly get lots of scallions.