Spring Bloomsdale Spinach

This is the Spinach I planted last September. Spinach can be a little temperamental to grow. If it is too warm or dry it wont sprout. It seems to be both day length sensitive and temperature sensitive, causing it to go to seed.The Bloomsdale Long Standing Winter Spinach, can be fall planted, and easily survives the winter temperatures. Here it is the middle of April, and it it already going to seed, but we started harvesting it the middle of march. So it has it's quirky lifestyle, but it is a great plant if you don't try to fight it's natural parameters. It also makes a nice winter cover and green manure plant when it is past it's prime.

Garlic and French GreyShallots

The garlic and shallots were planted late last October. Really they are very easy to grow. Basically you just have to keep them weeded. I am growing Red Janice garlic, French Grey Griselle Shallots (Allium Oschanini). I was gone at harvesting time last year and my son in law didn't know what the shallots were. I couldn't find them any where, and finally discovered that he had thrown them in a composter, where they cooked in the sun all summer long. But they survived the experience and this is my second year of my own line of shallots. I tell this story to point out that they aren't hard to grow and can take some abuse.

Trench Composting Manure, and Double Digging my raised beds.

I have been trench composting manure and double digging my raised beds since last fall. Double digging doesn't seem too popular in gardening circles right now. I am convinced it is worth the trouble, for maximum production in  quantity, and quality, and size of your vegetables. For each 4 square feet of room in my beds I have worked in two wheel barrow loads of manure. I am in the city so I can't compost it, above ground, both because of the odors it would cause, and the volume that I am applying. I bury each pickup load as it arrives. Even with the freshest manure there is no odor when I am done. I am starting to get some very good soil. This is my third season. It has been a little heavy going. Even though we have had very little rain, the beds are quite saturated with water. If I didn't have such high percentage of organic matter I wouldn't have been able to work them up. They say that the organic matter absorbs seven times it weight in water. No matter how hard the rainfall I don't lose a drop in runoff.

Sugar Snap Peas w Trellis

I planted some of these last December, and then filled them in with more seeds in early march. I set up an eight foot tomato cage for a trellis. I think I'll set up the cage next year in December, and then plant seeds around the perimeter. They vine and climb quite by themselves, with very little help. These are the original Sugar Snap peas, and are supposed to grow six feet tall. They are the non bush variety.

Calcots- Forcing onions

These are my Calcots onions that I have been harvesting. I will have them all pulled by May 1st. They will get hot too eat as the weather warms, and I am going to plant my peppers in their space. I tried to save money last fall by planting yellow onion bulbs instead of white onion bulbs. I don't think it affects taste too much, but it seems to affect the shape. They seem to end up shorter and more bulb like at the tips. The edible portion as you can see is about 12 inches. They are like green onion/ Scallions on hormones. People around here haven't seen any thing like them and were asking what do you do with them. They are very sweet, do with them as you will. It seems that each bulb planted produces about 5 Calcots harvested.

Semi Erect Blackberry Plants w Trellis

For whatever reason the pictures of my Blackberry plants are visited than any other. They are really quite easy to grow and maintain. This year I am only using leaves and straw mulch to feed the plants. Too much nitrogen and fertilizer stimulates the vegetative growth of the plants which really isn't necessary. They fruit off of last years canes. Each year new canes emerge from the roots. The trellis is composed of a post and cross tee at each end of the bed. You can see each side of the post has two parallel wires. One at about 18 inches and the other at about 5 feet in height. As this years cane growth occurs I will tie them to the support wires with cloth rag strips. So then this years berries will be produced on the right hand side of the picture and next years on the left side of the trellis. After the canes fruit and  begin to die back, you cut them off at ground level. When the new canes reach about five feet in height, you snip off the tops, and they will branch out a little. I keep these trimmed backed somewhat too. The plants don't spread by roots. If you want to multiply them, allow the canes to root tip in the ground or a container filled with earth. Plant them about 18 inches to two feet apart. The trellis keeps everything nice and orderly. They are a piece of cake to maintain.

My hotbed plants.

I started these plants in my manure powered hotbed about march 1st. So about seven weeks ago. All in all I had really good germination with about everything. The exceptions were with older seed, which affected the onions and some of the Cole plants. We had the warmest month of march in history, which apparently helped the peppers, as I had very good germination with them. The tomatoes have done very well also. The bed is four feet wide, and next year I am going to narrow it to three feet, to make it easier to manage. Yesterday I sowed eggplant, which I overlooked earlier, some black carrots from Turkey, Thunbergia, Evergreen onions, and various beets for a second crop. I think with this bed, I can start plants all summer long. I'm thinking about starting my melons and cucumbers in here as well, in peat pots. It sure beats plants all over the house, and they are used to the sun as well. Several days ago I transplanted in the bed leeks and celery.