Coming Along Nicely

I was a little traumatized by our fall garden. Things grew much slower than I expected and I think we got a few leaves of lettuce before the hard frost after spending $40 dollars on plants and $60 for the green house.  To my surprise most of the plants (not perennials) came back to life after the winter.

Lettuce in the center is new, but corners of picture have celery,  bunching onions,
purple onions and nero kale from last fall.

I figured things would grow as slowly now and that bugs would be a formidable foe.  But they haven't been bad.  Some natural slug poison pellets have done the trick and we'll see if the moth traps keep most of the apples worm free.  Things are really flourishing and I've been so surprised because I don't know what I'm doing.  Apparently I underestimated Brian and the fact that his family usually kept a garden growing up.

First thing we could harvest this year, rhubarb in April

It has been fun watching him.  All Winter long he was thumbing through the seed catalogues (enticed by the exotic varieties), looking at planting calendars for Utah, and starting seeds.   We used a basement closet with a grow light hung, seedlings (tomatoes, peppers, herbs, strawberries that didn't work) were gently spritzed several times a day, a fan was going to ward off mold and to strengthen the little stems. If it was warm enough and sunny on a late winter/early spring afternoon he'd carry tray after tray upstairs and outside to the sun. As for the heartier plants, if the calendar said you can plant broccoli seeds March 15-April 15th it was done March 15th.  Ever since thing were planted outside first thing in the morning he heads out there, even if he's rushed for work and as soon as he gets home from work, he changes and goes out to check on the plants.  They are doing so well I can't believe it.

Main Garden: radishes, peas, onions, carrots, lettuce, leeks, beans, swiss chard,
herbs,arugula, tomatos, peppers,  beets

Onions, lettuce, carrots

Leeks, chard, tomatoes, arugula, beets

Beans

From this morning's garden check he brought back a couple of dragon tongue beans that I "have" to take a picture of. 

I wonder if we get more excited about these things than normal people.  I got happy when I realized that one of our little tomato seedlings is almost as big as the few that we bought at the community garden plant sale a few weeks ago.  It's all thanks to the rabbit poop, I've found she's actually good for something.  Eating our weeds and turning them into instant fertilizer.

We brought them in last night since some random cold front was dropping
temps to the low 40's

And we've planted things all over, wherever a spot of dirt gets some sun. Beans along the fence under the grapevines, tomatoes where tulips used to be, potatoes, zucchini, and pumpkins back by the rabbit, and broccoli with asparagus where the grass doesn't meet the fence.

Luckily the garden interests both of us and it's not a chore for one of us.  Weeds, not bugs, are our battle.  When we moved in the two main garden spots were overgrown with weeds and rock hard from being walked on.  A few hours a week we're weeding or I'll work on the pumpkin/zucchini patch that is littered with small rocks.  It's a lot of work, but I have the time and feel it's productive.  Maybe picking up gravel one by one isn't that productive. Hmm... The kids love it too. Eating a pea, pulling up radishes, finding a strawberry that the birds didn't get first.

At one point I had the kids fighting over radishes
at the dinner table,  they made me proud.