New season 2015

Started on April 18 with cleaning. Sowed peas, spinach, onion sets on May 2. Completed greenhouse on May 6 and sowed seeds on okra in it, seeds of marigold outside.

Treasure hunt!

The potato plants are finally dying, which means it's time for treasure hunt!
Dug out 6-8 plants for around 13 pounds of potato. Also got all my onion out - most are quite large, and did not want the others to stay in the wet ground for too long lest they rot. The total harvest is ~56.

The gladioli bloomed! Got beautiful red and white flowers. One flower stalk on the red plant broke, but some flowers still bloomed on the broken stalk. Thankfully the plants have two flower stalks. Reading tells me that it is not uncommon for heavy flower stalks to break, especially when the weather has been as rough as it has here. Speaking of stormy weather, the okra are still at home because the past few weeks have been cold. Am looking for a sunny stretch to get them out.

The zucchini plants have grown much larger in the meantime. And many tomatoes have come out, all green as of now. But the rains have bent some of the plants despite their supports. The beans on one side have grown quite tall, and are beginning to flower, but the later transplants are still looking small. Maybe the cold weather stunted their growth. The spinach were finally pulled out last week (mid July) for one last delicious meal. The peppers unfortunately contracted some kind of disease during the last long spell of rains. The flowers withered away without fruit and the leaves turned black near the edges. I ended up getting just 3 pepper pods. I decided to leave the plants there, after two weeks they look leafy and slightly better I think. I hope they flower again.

Goodbye peas, hello zucchini and okra!

6 July 2014
I was welcomed back home with four little zucchini seedlings! I think the four should be comfortable in the space there.
The tomato plants have a lot of spotted leaves on the lower branches. Maybe the rains and lack of air circulation did that to them.
Spinach still growing, but leaves are smaller, and they have not flowered yet, like many of the coriander plants.

8 July 2014
Time to take the pea plants out. They are not giving out any new leaves or flowers and are beginning to yellow out. Will clean up that patch and put some beans in. Got four beans growing at home now. Also got five okras at home now, thanks to P. Will transplant them soon.

Harvest and more

18 June, 2014: Pods begin to appear and develop. Another bean from the new batch sprouts! 

22 June, 2014: Bountiful harvest! The peas are so sweet when fresh! But lose their flavour in a day if kept in the fridge. Leaving outside lets the flavour last longer. But it is perhaps best to freeze immediately if not used. What I thought was a wild carrot turned out to be a weed, with a beautiful flower! So I let it stay.

24 June, 2014: Four home sprouted beans transplanted successfully! Also noticed what look like tiny buds growing on the peppers.

28 June, 2014: Noticed the first set of flowers on the tomato plants! No sign of pepper flowers yet. Removed two coriander plants that had flowered and put in some more seeds to keep the supply steady. Also started six zucchini seeds today near the pea plants so that they can use the nitrogen. Unfortunately, they are right next to the potato plants on the other side. My hope is that I can harvest the potatoes soon. Starting some more beans at home to replace the pea plants.

Shade, basil and beans

Had nothing to do in the garden today (15 June). Noticed that it was terribly sunny and hot and that the coriander next plot had bolted. OK, maybe it was time. Anyway that made me build an afternoon shade for my spinach. I hope they survive for a while longer. I do really like how they taste. The shade still leaves much of the coriander out in the sun for now.

In the meantime, only one of the original bean seeds sprouted (lower left corner of collage). I think the soil was too damp and cold for the others, and they probably rotted. So I put a few more in the soil in the middle of last week, and started four at home on the 14th. I also started one basil at home on the 14th. I have another one which P gave me. 

Potato blooms

Came back home from a trip to find potato in bloom! Realised that I might be a little late, so started hilling my potatoes. 

The rest of the garden is looking good. All the transplants are doing well. The plants in the coriander patch are now unambiguously coriander. Spinach plants are providing tasty leaves regularly. And the first pods of peas have begun growing out of the flowers! The onion tops are slowly showing signs of going brown - should be time to harvest them soon. The lone bean has survived and now has quite a few leaves. I planted a fresh row of seeds near this one hoping these will come out. Did not pre-soak them in water this time. But it rained last night, so the seeds as good as got soaked.

Coriander (Cilantro) and transplants (2 June 2014)

The first flowers are out on the peas! Exciting! Also noticed a few seedlings on the 31st of May on the coriander patch. Couldn't rule them out being weeds. Yesterday, tiny true leaves with the characteristic jagged edges started coming out. Looked like tiny fists unfurling.

Transplanted three peppers and four tomato plants yesterday. The peppers looked sturdy but the tomatoes had wilted from being in a closed car for too long. Happy to report that this morning they all looked to have settled in their new home. Lots of water and sunlight must have helped, and the temperatures were not too harsh either (74 high 46 low). Was a little concerned about the low, but I had been exposing them to the cold for about a week now. Encouraged, I transplanted four more tomatoes today.

Put up a wire fence around the plot yesterday to keep away rabbits and other bigger critters, which I suspect ate up my cauliflower transplants. 20 gauge 2 inch hexagonal mesh wire held in place by wooden stakes and 20 utilitech zip ties.