The Modern Victory Garden

I had hoped to get the shingles installed on the chicken coop roof Sunday, but the weather was raining off and on, which made it a poor choice of a day to try and do a roofing job - no matter how small!   The plastic sheeting has done a good job keeping the roof sheathing and coop dry, so it can wait until this coming long weekend for me to do that last step.   What I did get done on Sunday was the final harvest of the big spring spinach patch.   A few of the plants were starting to bolt, so it was time to cut the lot of it and blanche and freeze it.   Here’s the patch before and after I did the harvest.                                           

This is the big plastic laundry tub/basket that I half filled with the harvested spinach leaves.   There was over four pounds of spinach from this cutting.       

I did a post last year about how I process spinach for freezing so I won’t go over all that again, but you can take a look at that older blog entry HERE.                    

The weather has returned to cool and damp and seems to be stuck in that cycle.   The warm weather crops are kind of stalled out for the most part as a result.   I have been keeping the tomato beds covered under a tunnel of clear plastic and it seems to have helped as the plants are getting more husky (despite the chill) and several varieties are blooming at the moment.   The greenhouse plants are doing very well too.   However, the cool weather crops are thriving in this overcast and cool/wet spring.   The current main lettuce patch is a patchwork of good eating.   This is Super Gourmet Blend lettuce, which is my favorite mix.                                 

The other lettuce champion is the container planting of Merlot lettuces (seeds from Dan). These have turned out to be a superior cut and come again lettuce – buttery sweet taste, brilliant color that dresses up the salad bowl, and I have cut this down hard at least three times now and look at the lovely new growth it is sporting!                                            

The peas have stretched well above the top horizontal trellis support.   It is next to impossible to see in the next photo, but the plants have the first pea flower buds starting to open.                                        

The other crops doing brilliantly in this prolonged wet, overcast, and cool weather are the broccoli, kale, and cabbages.   KitsapHeidi posted a question about growing cabbages in the discussion forum – so I thought I would post a picture or two of the Savoy Ace cabbages, which may answer some of her questions. The plants have lovely large exterior whorl leaves and are just now starting to grow more inwards in the interior - shaping up to what will eventually be the formation of a head.                         

Looking forward to the coming three-day weekend.   The weather is supposed to be a tad nicer, which is good since I have some minor chores to attend to in the garden, and a chicken coop roof to shingle!