Magnificent Kale

The kale is fast becoming the star of the new garden. It's grown fast and without complaint. I feared I'd killed some of the seedlings when I tried to dig them up and transplant while thinning the row. Nope. They survived, despite neglect (was out of town for a couple days and didn't water).

Kale doing great.

The tomatoes are giving me dirty looks every time I go down into the basement to water them. "Why aren't you transplanting us? Surely all danger of frost is well past!" Yeah, well, they're right. I'll try to harden them off this week then put them out next weekend. So quit nagging me tomatoes! The variety is exceedingly unimpressive this year - Cherokee Purple, a few cherries, and one measly San Marzano. I have a number of volunteers that sprang up around the zucchini, I may just roll the dice and see what I get.

Please be San Marzanos!

Soon I'll be in zucchini city. Here's number one!

First meal of zucchini!

Sure, he's only an inch long at the moment, but I figure by the end of the week he'll be the size of a baseball bat.

Also planted a row of cucumbers. All pickling. We have quite the infestation of anti-cuke bugs at the community garden, so we'll see if I get anything. I'll set up a trellis for them in the next day or two, before they get going.

Progress Report

I started plants in the basement a bit late, but I do have seedlings at this point. The bad news, I have all of ONE San Marzano. Tons of cherry tomatoes and Cherokee Purple. Not too many peppers and eggplants, but a few.

At the community garden I have garlic from last fall, which somehow survived the swampy conditions of the winter and early spring. I put in zucchini a bit before the last frost date and they're going strong. The surprise superstar of the garden is kale. Planted quite a bit, thinned and transplanted some, thought they would keel over, but they seem to have survived.

Kale post thinning.