The Modern Victory Garden

On Saturday my in-laws were here on a visit and we spent the entire day at the Viking Fest celebration in Poulsbo. We had a great time and got too much sun (we are all a little pink!) and essentially nothing was done in the garden other than watering the tomato patch before we headed out for the day.                                

Today (Sunday) was devoted largely to the lawn-reseeding project. I will not regale you with how that all went except to say that I have a hard time putting so much energy and time into a purely ornamental garden project.   We did manage to finish the reseeding this afternoon and so that "to do" item can be checked off the list!                                                                  

This morning before we got started on the lawn project, I did get some garden work accomplished. The brussel sprouts, mid and late season cabbages, and the last round of lettuce starts - all needed to get into the ground. I found some open spaces here and there in the garden to plant the last of the lettuces, as I did not have a specific bed area open for them to go into. The mid-season cabbage ("Primero") was planted where the shallots were previously located.  I harvested the last of the shallots this morning to open up the space.  I put the late season cabbages ("Steins Late Flat Dutch") next to the "Butte" potatoes and the brussel sprouts ("Diablo") went into 2 of the 3 sections that were holding the overwintered spinach patch.   I pulled up the overwintered spinach that is going to seed from 2 sections leaving 1 full 4'x4' section that will be allowed to continue producing seed for collection.  I added a layer of finished compost to the opened up areas, spread a thin layer of organic all-purpose fertilizer, and then worked it all into the top few inches of soil.  I also took the broadfork to this planting area to aerate it.  After the bed was prepped, I planted out the brussel sprouts. Each plant got a copper collar for slug protection and a stake for later support when they grow very tall and are inclined to lean. Here's the bed after it was finished up:                                                                                   

While I was out in the garden I took a picture of the kohlrabi, which are starting to have their stem areas swell.  I think kohlrabi is such an interesting plant - it sort of looks like a little sputnik!  They are quite tasty as well as entertaining to look at.              

The elephant garlic is really getting big as well. The bottom most leaves are turning yellow. When all but the center leaves are died back then it will be time to pull them and dry them out.                       

All in all, it was a very productive day with most of it related to our front lawn project. I am truly hoping to have a less frantic pace for the coming long Memorial Day weekend. I am anticipating that I will need to blanche and freeze some spinach next weekend, so that will likely be my big project for one of the three days.   Other than that, no big items are planned and I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend.                                                     

I hope you were able to get outside this weekend and work in your garden too.