After a soak the chick peas went into a wet paper towel for three days. Sure enough, they sprouted nicely.
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| Chick pea sprouts after 3 days |
Pepper plants don't look super great, like they're struggling. I fertilized everything on Sunday. Warmer weather is on the way, so hopefully they will perk up.
My Jerusalem artichokes arrived. Got them from etsy of all places. Planted them in the bed down by the end of the driveway. Only got three, they were pricy considering how easy they allegedly are to grow. Very excited to see how they do. As you can see they are roughly the size of a cat's paw. Thanks for the assistance, Marceline!
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| Jerusalem artichoke tubers |
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| Chick peas soaking |
Been very rainy lately, so I haven't had to water much. It has been warm lately, though it's 54 F today. I've been doing garden work sporadically, mostly on the weekends when I have free time. Lots still to do, but I guess I should congratulate myself on what I've done so far. I made a list of remaining work to do last post, and since then I've planted the rest of my tomatoes in pots. There are still a few of them unplanted, mostly the smaller stragglers, maybe 5 or 6 plants. I think I'll plant those in the back side plot. A small plot currently with some peas in it. But the peas sprouted in two clumps, leaving space for a few tomatoes. I also put some tomato cages in with the peas for them to climb on. Also managed to find some Jerusalem artichokes on Etsy of all places. Today I may try to sprout some garbanzo beans. So four items checked off my to do list, not bad at all!
I decided to order some fabric grow bags to see how I like those. I basically have an unlimited supply of soil available in my backyard up by the tree line. I've dug out a rather deep hole where the compost heap is/was to fill up my various buckets. But I could easily do 50 times that much without it being noticeable. So anyway I ordered 10x 10 gallon fabric bags. Much cheaper than buckets. Haven't decided exactly where to put them, but probably some on the front porch, some on the back porch, maybe a few on the side of the house. I think I'll try to plant a variety of things and see how it goes. Beans for sure. Maybe some lettuce. Cucumbers would be nice to have.
I took a look back through previous years of the blog to see how Mays past looked. I think we're in pretty good shape this year. In a few previous years I was farther along with tomatoes and zucchini, but mostly behind where I am now.
Some pictures.
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| Kale in planter by the front door. Planted last year |
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| Volunteer tomato growing the front steps |
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| Potato bed |
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| Potatoes! |
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| Zucchini |
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| Garlic |
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| Tomatoes already flowering |
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| Peas. Suspect I'll get some but not a bumper crop |
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| More tomato flowers |
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| Growth in four days. Noticeable! |
Today was a bit of garden work. Cleaned out some of the vine in the rock garden. Crazy, it was fine last year and now it seems overgrown. The tomatoes there were mostly deer and chipmunk food, which was disappointing. I may see if I can just grow zucchini there. Deer don't seem to prey on zucchini as much.
Also spread some diatomaceous earth around a bunch of plants. It's been very wet here, I figure slugs will be out in no time. But nothing yet. They really crippled the zucchini last year. May put out some beer to draw them in.
All the peppers are planted now. They don't seem super happy. Maybe a bit of transplant shock, oof. I've got about 6 or 7 buckets that will be home to some tomatoes.
Tomatoes do seem happy in the patio wells by the driveway. That seems to be a great spot for them.
Planted some potatoes. Dug out one of the garden beds by the driveway. Two more are empty, I'm thinking sweet potatoes and beans. Another one has garlic, doing great. The last one has kale which overwintered and seems to be perking up. Also some garlic. I have no clue if it's some extras I planted or volunteers from the year before.
TO DO LIST
Just to start off, I have been making breakfast sandwiches to take to work quite regularly. For bread I use focaccia mostly, though occasionally Abreaducation white bread. Most days I grab a handful of raw or sometimes frozen spinach and cook it in a little butter until it's unfrozen/wilted. Then I crack a couple eggs in the pan and cover until it sets up a bit, then flip. After that I turn off the burner and put on two thick slices of yellow deli cheddar and cover again. This melts it nicely and doesn't overcook.
This years gardening got off to a decent start. I ordered some seeds and planted a few types of tomatoes and peppers. I figured I would start a few types, get some more seeds and start some other types. Well, it did not work out that way, so I have two types of tomato plants this year, Black Cherry and Sungold. I think I will be disappointed not to have a slicing tomato variety. And no sauce tomato either, though I could certainly make sauce from the two cherry varieties. One other benefit is that it seems like the prolific output of cherry tomatoes outpaces the chipmunks thievery. Did not get many of the sungold to come up. Only about 7 or 8 plants. But the black cherry plants went hog wild.
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| Black Cherry |
Also one variety of peppers popped up. I think it was "Highlander" a New Mexico green chile type. Got a few plants, not enough to go wild, but I'll hopefully have some.
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| Green Chile |
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| Basil |
The rock garden landscaping fabric mostly held up, but it's going to take some work to get it suitable for planting. Lots of vines grow in there. I think I'll plant zucchini there, deer seem less likely to eat that.
Have some peas sprouting up. I built a small raised bed out of the posts I tore down from the fenced in garden. That's got peas and strawberries surrounded by chicken wire. Something ate some of the peas that sprouted. Deer maybe. So I put up the chicken wire and that seems to have put a stop to the predation.
Got 8 tomatoes growing in the wells by the stairs in the front and a bunch of zucchini in the trough out front. Garlic in one of the raised beds by the driveway. Kale in another, and some kale in the little planters by the house. The kale all survived the winter, it was very impressive.
Also have some berry bushes that survived the winter in pots! Blueberries and serviceberries. Also some gooseberries that I transplanted out of the old fenced in garden before the landscapers cleared it.
So lots going on. As always, never quite get to all the things I want to do, but if I get half of the stuff I've gotten started it'll be nice.
