Thursday 25 April 2013

SPRING GROWTH UPDATE

SPRING GROWTH UPDATE

Since it has been about 6 weeks or so since my last posting I guess it is time to show a few pictures of how things have changed.  To compare you will have to look at my March 6th posting and how much growth in what seems like no time at all!

Not much doing in the large bed, chives growing and a couple of volunteer potatoes but that is all.


The strawberries have bushed out nicely and are in bloom.


I am blown away by the amount of growth the raspberries have produced.  Shoots came out from under the raised bed and I have dug up probably 3 dozen or so and given them away.
 

 The Egyptian onions (AKA Walking Onions) have done  amazingly well and are forming the onion clusters at the end of the stalks.



 Bush beans - yes, just TWO!  Last year we had so many beans we couldn't keep up with them and gave away bags of them.  This year I decided to go the other way - the "Royalta" or purple bush bean is so prolific that two plants will give us enough beans for a weekly feed or two.  Also I will be planting a couple more spaced out a bit so they come on when these start to get tired.  Not sure if this is necessary as the plants produced right until frost last year.


 What was very small lettuce has mostly been eaten with just a few plants left.


 These are plants started in home-made newspaper pots - I put 2 seeds in each pot in hopes at least one will survive.   One has 2 growing and they will both grow to a good size in not many weeks.


 Last posting showed a few raspberry canes pushing up under the landscape ties and into the greenouse.  They were barely visible in the last picture and are now about 2 feet tall.
In the foreground is a strawberry that was a runner from the ONE plant I put in the greenhouse last year.  Between the strawberry and the raspberries here you can see another plant.  It is a gift someone gave us in return for some plants we offered on "Freecycle".  It is Oregano, and it is growing like a weed!  I have already given 5 or 6 plants that were branches that touched the ground and rooted.  Smells like pizza!


 Looks strange - but this is the subs of lettuce that we have harvested.  You can just make out the little green shoots - I am hoping the shoots will develop into more lettuce as it should grow back quicker than from seeds or seedlings.


 In the foreground are some "Sweetmeat" squash from seed we saved.  The last squash from last year was finally cut up and eaten about a month ago.  In the background are 3 tomato plants.  One is "Celebrity" and the 2 far ones are "Early Girl",  both varieties do quite well in the greenhouse.  When buying potted tomato plants you sometimes find 2 together in one pot.  If you are careful you can separate the 2 and get 2 plants for the price of 1...


Just HAD to give you a close-up of the developing strawberries.  We are eagerly looking forward to the first of the crop in a few weeks.