This morning I saw some tell tail tracks in the garden, and sure enough, I found they had done some damage. A bed of flowers got their tops niptboff and a bed of spinach got the leaves eaten. I was going to pick them today for the market tommorow.
I covered them and hope they will make a come back for later.
And then there is plenty of mangold and other stuff in the fenced of area and lettuce under cover to pick for the market.
Earlier and earlier every year, it doesn’t amount to much, but I try to get some early greens each spring.
One tray of eruca (wild rucola) and the other of spinach.
I thought of putting them out into a cold frame or such to see what happens, but then we have an old car on the way to the junk yard, and I got the bright idea of using it as a green house in the meantime.
It might work if it doesn’t get too cold and if the sun comes out sometime soon.
A friend at the farmers market last saturday said he was going to set his onions when he got home. My experience is that starting too early never works. Onions started later always seem to catch up (i don’t usually start until mid may). But with global warming and conducive weather, I try again.
So, 3 raised beds in the 2 vegetable crop circles are planted with red and yellow onion sets, with carrots and spinach in the rows between. It can’t do any harm, and I may get earlier vegs for us and the market.
The weeds grow dispite the dry weather. Now with a little rain they will virtually explode into existence and soon take over the garden.
The spinach is growing fine too, but the pigweed (Chenopodium album) looked so luscious, that I got busy and did some micro weeding and saved the pigweed for lunch – one of my favorite weeds.
It makes a wonderful omelette.
A new bed of vegetables.
I have to add new vegetable beds all thru the summer. Vegetables like fennel bulb, swiss chard, lettuce, radishes and spinach have to be regularly sown and planted out in order to keep a steady supply for the kitchen and the market.
This vegetable spiral is now completely filled out. I put flowers and green manure seeds in the remaining beds. The vegetables in the earliest beds in the middle are growing very well, very much thanks to the intermittent rain.
Altho the early radishes got eaten by bugs, there are a number of crops ready to take into the kitchen. Spinach is my favorite, and there is enough to freeze in for later use too. And now there are radishes under fleece coming up nicely.
timogarden 