Garden Journal, Week 3

Some of my tulips are finally blooming. Somehow the tulips beat the daffodils in coming out of the ground, though usually the daffodils come several weeks before tulips. Last fall I planted about 50 in this little circle- all red tulips and yellow daffodils
My zinnia seeds sprouted in the seed containers last week. However I did not keep a good eye on the weather and most of them froze one night, so I just planted the remaining seeds into the flower bed. Oops. Same with the marigolds.

I took a risk this year and planted the tomatos a few weeks early since it looks like it will be good weather until May 1st, which is the traditional tomato planting day in this climate. This first plant is a pink brandywine plant, which ties with the lemon boy yellow tomato for first place in my category of best tasting tomato. I also planted some beefsteaks- which I have had good luck with before in terms of yield and taste, as well as a variety of others including one called "jetsetter" which advertised itself as a heavy bearer.



The peas finally broke through the ground. I used the method recommended by James Crockett of PBS's Victory Garden fame. I dug a shallow trench about 6 inches wide, and scattered tons of seeds into the trench all in very close quarters next to a short fence. As it gets hotter I will fill in the trench to protect the roots from the heat.


Here is a row of green onions just poking above the soil. We like green onions in our salsa, soups, and tacos. I planted them pretty close as I plan on using what I thin out over the next few months.

Red lettuce

Green lettuce

We planted a lot more carrots this year than last since we seemed to use all of what I planted. Plus, Lucy really likes them. I tried purple carrots along with the regular orange this year.
The onion sets are doing very well, as expected, since it would take a very smart person to figure out how to get them to do poorly. They seem to grow well in the worst of conditions, so I put these in the spot that gets the most shade since they seem to tolerate that pretty well.

These guys were going around the neighborhood saturday selling a lawn aeration service for 25$ for all the grass on your property, so I took them up on it, and cleaned up the back lawn. It now looks pretty nice and I hope with a little watering and fertilizer the Maggy-stricken parts will come back.
I love looking at my parsley. It's so green.
We've got this vine weed all over our property called kudzu (that's what Jenny thinks it is, though I've learned that real kudzu only grows in the southeast), and I actually really like it since it makes our fence green, and gives a little more privacy. It's very invasive, and I have to fight to keep it out of the garden, but I think it's worth it. This is a kudzu vine finally sprouting it's leaves.