Hazy Sunday and garden crop gifting

 Wonderful mild weather today and for the rest of the week. Tipping up into the low 70's later in the week so spring is on the way for sure. Still getting nippy at night dropping into the 40's and low 50's so blanket still needed on the bed.

It looks more dreary than it is because that sky behind the naked tree is actually mostly blue not grey clouds. There is enough wind that the picture on the left was taken maybe a half hour ago and it's now completely clear in that direction, haze and clouds have moved off to the horizon.

Let's catch up with yesterday's visit.

 

Blazing sun yesterday which dried out the soil a good bit. The plants are loving the weather though and radishes will be coming up next as well as the romaine.

Yes indeed, this is the right season to grow radishes and then there's the cauliflower that's doubled in size. It's getting entirely too late for those and I might have to dig them up and pot them or just dig them up for the season. Those radishes though... getting mighty big.

It's funny how the radishes in the west bed were shaded more than the ones in the raised bed and actually look better. There are dozens of piles of worm castings around the carrots and cilantro, one lone radish toward the back of the west bed trying to hang on poor thing. You can see how I hacked back that one cilantro plant.

The easterly romaine in the raised bed is definitely trying to make a closed head and I checked the soil moisture and you can see it's still rather moist close to the surface. Yesterday.

Before and after watering. Definitely warm enough for the soil to need a soaking considering the lettuce seedlings are just shooting up like crazy now they need it. The peas though are starting to look a bit yellow toward the bottom, which is okay since it's getting to the end of the season for them anyway.

 I was able to get a picture of the lizard that skittered away as I got to the garden. I was way back so had to zoom in. This one is brown and could very well be a brown Fence Lizard considering the big black one that's also in the garden.Those radishes though....

The larger of the two romaine in the west bed I cut off and gifted to Layla who was out there as I was walking Rocky. I took him upstairs and brought down the little paring knife to give her the lettuce. She said that I'm welcome to any of her tomatoes and I pointed out the cilantro she is welcome to and the mint plant Dolores is growing as well. This is a true community garden where one persons bounty is gifted to another. She asked what the chives were and I told her they weren't bulb onions but milder and you use the tops. She is middle Eastern I think? Didn't know what chives were.

These carrots are so healthy and I can only hope that the roots are as healthy as the tops. The lettuces... they have literally doubled in size in a week. The warm soil and rain is just what they love and  I'm going to have to remember to plant lettuces in the early spring and cauliflower in the fall. Lettuces in the front then radishes and then carrots for maximum sun exposure. As long as the winter shadows don't shade them too much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am a bit concerned about the plants in the containers.  The rose and oregano are really yellow and the pepper is not looking good either. Hard to tell with the onions and the strawberry is just hanging in there. They are all struggling due to lack of nutrients and space. I rinsed out the kitchen scrap container and stupidly just dumped the water in the raised bed. I turned around and smacked my forehead figuratively realizing I could have used that to water the plants that really need it.

I need to repot them all but in what? I can't put them in any of the beds because those are going to get tossed and turned for the summer plants. The onions are long haul and need to be somewhere in the sun that's not going to be disturbed. Both ground beds and the raised bed need more soil before anything else can get planted. I just might transplant the pepper into the corner of the raised bed at the back after I pull the peas.

I don't know why I planted peas. I don't really eat them, they're a short term crop for sure and good for the soil but I don't use them in cooking all that much, not even for salads. I did use a couple of radishes in my salad last night which was tasty. But honestly, what else do you use a trellis for planting in the winter/spring? I think I'm going to just do the sweet peas next year and start them in December rather than October. 

The German Iris in that bed is blooming but none of the ones in the other beds are because the stupid gardeners last year hacked them all back. The bearded iris that's in the pot on the other side of that door only has two or three leaves left. I think someone cut or dug up the other parts of it because a few weeks back it had several leaves, albeit covered in whitefly. It would be a shame if neglect is the issue with it.

I also stirred the compost buckets as much as I could, after the clouds of flies dissipated a bit. Need to haul those out to an open spot and put a tarp down to really air it out. It was very wet close to the bottom of the buckets and I saw a worm or two and a snail so they're doing their jobs. Just have to remember to not include the snail when I need to use the compost.

I think I might pull a couple of the carrots or at least dig down and see how big they are on the thickets ones. Same with the radishes.

Impatient gardener is impatient!