Giddy About Onions

I had just about given up on the onions I had planted last Fall to over winter as I had not seen much growth... until now....It's funny how you can walk through the garden and not see something right in front of your eyes. I was planting cilantro seeds in bed 2 yesterday and didn't see this until today... see photo below.

Some of the onions in bed 4 are bigger than my index finger.

Also walking through the garden today I spotted this...

The acorn squash is bearing fruit.

Keep your eyes open.. you will be amazed at what you see.

Harvest

When I returned home from a girls weekend away the first thing I did was check on the garden. Sweet Husband took very good care of it while I was away.

Photo below: On Sunday I was able to harvest 1 small head green broccoli, a little bit of purple broccoli, 1 yellow squash, a hand full of strawberries and 1 zucchini. Totaling just over 11 oz's



Today was all about the greens. A basket full of spinach weighing in at 8.5 oz's and the rest of the arugula weighing in at 3.5 oz's

I planted some lettuce and carrot seeds when I got home from work today to take advantage of the rain we will have this week. Now if I can just keep the squirrels from digging up the seeds. I was thinking of hanging a bird feeder in the tree they climb down to get into my yard as a deterrent since nothing else seems to be working. Maybe I can fill them up with seeds so they won't need to look for food in my beds. At this point I'm welling to try just about anything.

Information Overload!

I know you all have been dying to know what I'm growing this year in my small space. So grab your favorite beverage, sit back, relax and enjoy.

As I was going through the photos I took for this post and making a mental list of everything I have growing in the garden right now I could not believe how much I have crammed into a 30 by 28 foot space.

Photo below: Bed 1 also known as the tomato bed. The tomatoes are starting to flower but I have not seen any fruit yet.



I have six tomato plants in this space. Two each of the following...
Back - Heirloom Brandywine
Sides - Peacevine Cherry
Front - Ropreco Paste

Photo Below: Next to bed 1 under the lemon tree is early potatoes.



Photo below: Bed 2 has a mix of spring and summer crops.

Lettuce - Sea of red cutting lettuce, Red Sails and Sweetie Baby Romaine.

6 Spiking Purple Broccoli shown in photo above.

Cucumbers - 2 Persian Baby shown in photo above.

2 English cucumber.

2 Satsuki Madori Rare. I planted seeds in the bed about two weeks ago. Two are just now sprouting.

2 Sweet Maketmore. The seedling's are not growing very much but the weather has been on the cool side for us.

Also planted in bed 2 are onions, garlic, 2 cilantro, 6 green broccoli.

Photos Below: Bed 3 is planted with...

Red and Yellow Bell Peppers

Lettuce - Arugula, Heirloom Merveille de Quatre Saisons (head lettuce)

14 Sweet Basil.

Photo below: Carrots - French Baby (babette) and Crispy French (Bolero Nantes)

Photo below: Summer Squash - 1 Crookneck Sunny Supersett and 1 Zucchino Fiorention.

Photo below: Bush Beans - 8 Blue Lake, Bountiful Stringless Snap and 4 Rolande

French Filet

Photos below: Bed 4 is planted with...

12 Mini Bell Peppers

16 Red Onions

16 Pole Beans - Kentucky Wonder and Emerite.

Baby Spinach

Lettuce









Photo below: Bed 5 is new to the garden this year. I planted Royal Acorn Squash which I will try to trellis so I have room for a few sweet potato slips. To the right of the bed I have a small strawberry bed and to the left I have two potato bins one with mid season crop and the other with main season crop.



Photo below: Bed 6 is the smallest of all the beds at just 2'x3' 6 square feet. Planted with thyme, chives, lettuce and spinach.



I also have lots of stuff growing in pots around the patio as well.

Photo below: Ginger Root



Photo below: 2 Columnar Apple trees.



Photo Below: Day Avocado.



Photos below: Banana





Photo below: A new banana pup. This photo was taken a week ago. I was walking through the garden after work today and saw a second pup. Is this a sign that the mother stock will fruit this year? I hope so!



Photo below: Nectarine tree and Raspberry canes.



Photos below: A very busy bee on the raspberries





Photo Below: The Nectarine was not pollinated very well this year. With just a few fruit sets and leaf curl to boot.

Photos below: More strawberries.

Photos below: Herbs...
Sage



Rosemary

Thyme

Oregano

Mint



Garden View...

Photos below: A little wild life...

A pair of California Blue Jays have picked my morning glory to nest in this year...

I get a kick out of watching the male jay chase the squirrels out of the garden.

Photo below: Humming Bird.

Haven Update May 1 2010

Haven Family House Garden

I spent a few hours at Haven this morning with a young man who needed some community service hours for (high) school. We put down some decomposed granite between half of the raised beds. We also installed tomato cages and planted some summer squash and more pumpkins to replace a few that didn't make it from the last planting.

Below are some random photos I took today. Click on photos for a larger view.

Pumpkin Hill now has water.

Photo below: Tomatoes.

.

Photo below: Summer squash.

Photo below: Strawberries and it looks like someone planted some basil in there too.

Photo below: Bell peppers.

Photo below: The lettuce will need to be harvested soon.

Photo below: Plums.

Photo below: Fruit trees.

Photo below: I think this is an apple tree.

Photo below: The picnic area is looking much better.

As for my garden... I'm brewing a batch of compost tea as I type this. It will be ready tomorrow. The patio furniture is out and I will be enjoying a glass of wine sitting out in my garden tomorrow afternoon. I have some more seeds to plant and I'll take photos of each beds.