Varmit

Turns out that we have not been the only ones enjoying an early harvest in the garden. Our square foot gardens have attracted a critter. We lost two broccoli, 4 radishes, one cabbage and 4 lettuce to a grazer. So far I am just treating our little interloper like a funny companion and am going to try to co-exist. We have plenty of garden plots that he left untouched. With our succession planting approach, we still have a lot to harvest. He is safe for now.

We had a hot, hot, hot couple days last week. Those days rushed the yard to a deep green. The grass is lush, the azaleas are a deep pink, and the privet are a visual screen once more. The corn that we planted on 4/13 has broken through the surface. We are harvesting salad cuttings daily now. We are still harvesting asparagus daily, but we are down to 4 or 5 thick stalks a day. The remaining stalks are thinner than a pencil, so we are letting them grow to ferns in order to beef up the roots. I have been harvesting the stalks daily and putting them in a glass of water in the fridge cut side down. That keeps them fresh for a couple of days until we have enough for a meal. The spinach has been a real success so far this year. It is so lush and deep green. We have never had wonderful spinach. It has always been fairly spindly and a small producer. I think this year we are headed toward a much better crop. This makes me feel great, because some of the success has to go to the improved soil due to our compost operation. In most of the plots this is our second garden year, so the soil is much healthier and happier than in year one. The potatoes are also doing quite well. They grow so fast. I have already hilled them up once and will likely need to do some more work on them this weekend. Hilling up is the process of piling dirt/compost around them as they grow. I am told this is necessary because the potatoes grow along the stem, and need to be covered by dirt in order to mature.

The seed starter mix that I made is doing very well. I have brussel sprout seedlings popping up unobstructed by weeds. My approach of trying to burn the weed seeds in a mini greenhouse must have worked.

I planted 72 sunflower seeds in a flat last week - hoping to plant these on top of our large wall. I also planted about 20 seed starter lettuce seedlings inside last week, which have popped to the surface.

With daily small salad harvests we now sit at approximately 5 pounds of harvest for the year.