The Modern Victory Garden

Harvest Monday                            

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   It’s fun to see what everyone else is harvesting from gardens in so many different regions.   Check it out and join in!                             

The harvests are picking up as the weather has finally moderated and the day length continues to increase.   The harvest is mostly various types of greens but I did have two parsnips that I pulled on Saturday.   They were in the prior year bed and apparently had been missed when I removed all of the overwintered parsnips.   The lettuces, kale, pac choi, swiss chard, and chinese cabbages are all producing nicely, but the spring planted spinach is unfortunately absolutely dawdling.   I am getting concerned that by the time they finally get some decent growth on, the longer days and increasing warmth will just rush them straight to bolting.   I hope I am wrong, but the probability is increasing with each passing day.   At least I have a good stand of swiss chard to stand in for the spinach.   Here’s the harvest pictures for the week.                                           

Harvest totals for the week of April 25th through May 1st (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Chinese Cabbage 0.50 lbs
• Kale 0.25 lbs
• Lettuce & Greens 0.25 lbs
• Pac Choi 0.50 lbs
• Parsnips 0.25 lbs

Total For Week 1.75 lbs 

Total Year To Date 14.50 lbs                                     

Eggs harvested this week – 32                                    

Finishing Up The Spring Planting          

I have a commitment next weekend that will keep me out of the garden, so I took advantage of the lovely weather we had this past weekend to just finish up the spring planting process.   On Saturday after taking care of some errands, I planted up the Precocious and Bodacious corn starts.   I have better luck starting corn and planting them out as transplants because it gives the plants a jump on the season.   I could not direct seed them that early due to cold soil but indoors they germinate and grow quickly.   Corn grows so fast under the ideal conditions of the indoor grow lights, that it is not very long before they simply must be put into the ground due to lack of room for the roots in the cell packs.                         

On Sunday morning, I planted up the rest of that bed (next to the corn) with bush beans (Royal Burgundy) using my 6-inch planting jig.    I then planted up the cucumbers and the melon plants in the vertical grow bed located in this back section of the garden.   I may be pushing it with the cucurbit family planting them on Sunday but they desperately needed more root room and I think they were adequately hardened off to make the move.   The weather forecast for the coming week is for mild with some rain and then a warming trend on Wednesday and Thursday.   Hopefully these plants will settle in and not be unduly stressed by nighttime low temps.   Similarly, I planted up the zucchini (Partenon), pumpkins (Small Sugar), and winter squash (Early Butternut) in the retaining wall bed.   I also had some dill starts that I planted up in that bed as well.   I also planted up the long vertical grow bed in the side garden with pole beans (Blue Lake) and dried beans (Pinto) and then seeded the front sections of that bed with parsnips (Cobham Improved) and carrots (Mokum).                              

The last thing I took care of on Sunday was to plant out the basil (Mammoth) and peppers (Lady Bell) in the containers in the greenhouse.   These plants were definitely ready for more root room.                    

The greenhouse is unheated but stays quite warm from passive solar.   I shut it up in the evening to retain and hold heat and then open it up in the morning to allow cross ventilation.   The automatic vent windows always open up when it gets warm, but when it really warms up the side windows and doors are opened to provide greater cooling.   Hopefully the peppers and basil will settle right in and not be set back for too long from the move.                    

At this point, the entire garden has been planted with the first spring/summer crops of the year.   The workload lightens up considerably from here on out - at least until the mid summer harvest peak kicks in!   Routine things like weeding, watering, pest management, and daily harvesting are now on deck, but the heavy lifting work of the spring bed prep and planting is now behind me for yet another year.                

I hope you had a great weekend in your garden too.                  

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener