Rain, Rain...

The April showers seem to have missed the memo that April is over.

This is the fifth day in a row we have been having rain.

From what I can see out the windows, Swiss chard, cabbage lettuce and arugula in the pool bed are loving it.  I'm hoping that when the sun finally comes out, I'll have a huge growth spurt like Granny.

So what I have been doing you ask?

Dangerous things!!!  I've been surfing iris websites for the passed three days and imagining how I can squeeze in a few dozen new ones, dangerous thinking...

Harvest Monday- May 7, 2012

Harvest Monday  is hosted by Daphne's Dandelions.  It's a great way to show off your harvest and see what everyone else is picking.

The weeks harvest was mostly greens, with a bigger radish harvest.

'White Icicle' and 'Zlata' radish.

A sampling of the 'Siamese Dragon Thai Green Mix'.

Baby lettuce and Swiss chard.

'Scarlet' spinach.

About one pound of spinach, most of the leaves are huge.

A representative sized leaf from 'Giant Nobel'.  Most of the leaves are now growing to this size in a week!

I did not harvest any arugula this weekend.  I'll be saving that to pick through out the week.

Today in the Garden- May 6, 2012

There wasn't much sun this weekend, but the temps were in the low 70's with a constant breeze. 

The Potager is starting to take off!  Cabbage, Asian Greens, lettuce escarole and Swiss chard seem to get bigger everytime I look at them.  The carrots even decided to grow a little.

Top half of the front bed.

Shallots, escarole, Swiss chard and daylily seedlings.

Lettuce from 'Wild Garden Mixed'

'Full Heart Batavian' escarole.

'Golden' and 'Lipstick' Swiss chard.

The carrots are getting their first leaves.

'Pixie' mini cabbage.

The back bed filled with greens and peas.

The spinach patch.

Mixed Asian greens.

The back bed, peas, lettuce and beets.

More lettuce was planted, this 'Ruby' and 'Gentilina' lettuce will help hide the ripening tulip foliage.



The bearded iris continue to delight the eye.

A clump of an ancient iris that I rescued from underneath a lilac the first year I moved here.

'Amethyst Flame' this was one of the first Iris I bought in the early 70's.  I'll always have a soft spot for it.  It won the Dykes Medal, irisdom's highest honor the year I was born, 1963.

'Amehtyst Flame' close up.

'Gnu's Flash' a very unusual boken color iris.  You may recognize it from my avatar.

The dappled willow in all it's glory.  With the burning bush gone, this is the view from my kitchen window.

In Defense of Arugula

It's always something.  Our esteemed Granny mentioned in a recent post that she tasted it for the first time and was not that happy with the taste.  I was quite surprised reading her comments, most of them agreed with her.

I LOVE arugula.  It is the green I look forward to all winter.  I am growing four varieties of it, and will most likely pick over a pound of it this weekend.  Granny has 3 plants.  I must have over 300!

My heritage is Sicilian.  When it comes to greens the motto is "the more bitter the better!".  Lettuce was for wimps.  A good salad consisted of arugula, escarole, curled endive and catelognian (dandelion) chicory.  Lettuce was used very sparingly.

You also must realize that also I grew up eating squid, conch and octopus. Maybe my palette is skewed, LOL!!! 

If you want a truly nasty green, let's talk about radicchio...

Harvest Monday- April 30, 2012

Harvest Monday is hosted by Daphne's Dandelions.  It's a great way to see what others are harvesting from their gardens.

The spinach is still going strong, but I did notice the red stemmed spinach is starting to bolt.  I should still get good harvest for two more weeks.  Then the spinach comes and tomatoes and pole beans will go into it's place.  I did not even pick any lettuce this week.  Their was so much of the other greens I didn't even miss it.  I don't have a scale to weigh the vegetables, but the spinach was easily over a pound and the arugula pretty about a half pound.  A half pound is a LOT of arugula.

'Zlata' radish, they were supposed to golden yellow, but actually they are light yellow, still very different.

'Siamese Dragon Stir Fry Mix' from Baker Creek Seed.

Red stemmed 'Scarlet' Spinach.

Green spinach, of the three varieties, 'Giant Nobel' is my favorite so far.

Arugula.

Temperatures are supposed to be in the high 60's to mid 70's this week.  I'm looking forward to a growth spurt from the lettuce, cabbage and escarole.

Ed's Dirty Little Secret

Before I divulge this secret you need a little back ground.

When I first starting developing a mania for daylilies I joined the E-Mail Robin of the American Hemerocallis Society.  Back in 2001 this was a very lively and outspoken group comprised of other "maniacal" daylily people, from noted hybridizers to newbie's.

If you weren't careful about what you were posting, you'd wind up engulfed in "flames".

Sometimes the threads would stop just short of a hair pulling match.  I loved it!

Fast forward a decade later.  Our own sweet little Granny mentioned using Miracle Grow and got "flamed".  I was shocked. 

Now, before I admit my secret, I'm putting on my "flame proof helmet".

I use Miracle Grow.

I use the potting mix and the fertilizer.

I learned gardening from my mother, she swore by it.

Used correctly it is a good product. 

I had a group of stunted seedlings that after a month had hardly grown.  As an experiment I repotted some of them into 3 oz cups of Miracle Grow.  In less then two weeks they quadrupled in size.

Lettuce and escarole revitalized.

'Ruby' lettuce.

'Gentilina' lettuce.

'Full Heart Batavian' escarole.

The tomato seedlings were not stunted, but really took off when they were repotted into the mix.  These are in 4 inch pots.

'Victor' tomato.

'Silvery Fir Tree' tomato.



Let's clear up few misconceptions.  Miracle Grow is owned by Scott's.  Scott's is NOT owned by Monsanto.  Using this product in no way goes to help fill Monsanto's coffers.  I know it's not organic, but what I produce by using it is much safer than what I would buy at the super market.   Remember all those great flowers from last year?  They got a dose every other week.  I stand by my results and what I learned from my mother.

I'm So Behind...

... in starting my flower seeds.

In previous years my two light units would be bulging with flower seedlings with the few vegetable seedlings jostling for room.  This year my stands are nice and roomy.  The only flowers that I've started are geraniums, petunias and zillions of sweet peas.

Maybe this is my midlife crisis?  When I visualize my future beds I know see the colored foliage of lettuce  and basil, balls of color from bush tomatoes and peppers, yellow and purple beans glistening like jewels. 

Not to worry though, this week I will be starting some quick growing annuals, zinnias, marigolds, salvia, four o'clocks and alyssum.  Accents or the edibles in the beds :)