Harvest and Happenings in the yard ......for the week of May 22

First off, I got to harvest Spinach this week!  Yay!  One of my favorites......yum.  Also harvested Mustard greens from the volunteer plants, that grew from the plants, that went to seed last fall.  I also got a few red lettuce leaves for the sandwiches.  Lastly, I got to harvest asparagus not once....but twice!!  So we are off to a wonderful start, I think.

Spinach overwintered

Spinach from seeds

Mustard greens volunteers!

Spinach and lettuce

Spinach

Mustard greens

Asparagus harvest #1

Asparagus harvest #2

For everyone else's harvest, head on over to Daphne's Harvest Mondays.   These are a few pictures of new growth and development in our yard.  All of the plants started indoors are still inside!  I was looking forward to transplanting atleast some of the flower plants outside this weekend, but the weather has not been very co-operative.  It has been raining on and off all day long.  I'll try to work on them this week. 

Plants basking in the sun

Crabapple tree starting to bloom

Daffodils

Hosta

Peony plants

Yellow asiatic lilly plants

Zestar! apple tree blooming for first time.

Flowering Almond

Asparagus.....first of the season!

I was working in the garden and didn't even notice this.  Look very closely.........

You can see two asparagus spears which are quite long, but it was just a coincidence that I spotted them!  I had planted two year old roots last spring and was delighted to see the spears so soon in the season.  Asparagus is one of the earliest harvests of the season, but it still caught me by surprise......

First 3 spears of Asparagus.....

There were only 3 spears that could be harvested at this time.  But I do see more spears poking out of the dirt...  For other harvests of the week, head on over to Daphne's Harvest Mondays........

May flowers ...... and some seed plantings

Magnolia

Hyacinth

Tulips

More Tulips

Forsythia

Plum(fruit) flowers

Cabbage plants were planted outdoors this week and so were the red onions(from seed) and also the bulbs.  Some of the seeds got planted this week - white radish, carrots, orange beets, zucchini and yellow squash. 

Tiny onion transplants

Also planted a pound of 'Rose Finn Apple' Fingerling potatoes.

Fingerling potatoes planted in the container

If weather co-operates, more plants will be transplanted outdoors in the next week or two.  Since the plantings, there has been a rain showers now and then, so hopefully all the seeds will germinate!

Purple Asparagus and Potato planting....load of cow manure and another finished raised bed!

Ok, I'm posting this atleast two weeks after the actual process.  That being said, I love reading everyone else's blogs and don't get around to writing my own.  However, I'd like to document what I've done and so this is an attempt to keep track of my own work.

I saw this packet of Purple Asparagus and had to buy it.  My last attempt at growing purple colored ones failed miserably(none sprouted!)  But I do have atleast 15 of the green ones ranging from 3yr olds to 1 year olds(Ofcourse, they were 2yr old roots to begin with).   I didn't have much space, but attempted to get all of them into the ground.  Here's how I planted them.  Dug a hole about a feet deep, spread some asparagus fertilizer and mixed in the soil, placed the root and covered it with 6 inches of soil.  Watered well.  Once it sprouts, I will add another 1-2 inches of soil and then gradually keep adding soil until the hole is covered. 

The next thing that was planted in the third week of April was Yukon Gold potatoes.  I grew them last year and used up half of it.  The other half was still in the basement and to my surprise started sprouting this spring, so I decided to use it for this year's planting.  I planted them whole, in a plastic container with 2-3 inches of soil and will keep adding more dirt as they continue to grow.  The potato stem should not be exposed to sun and potatoes actually grow out of the stems which is covered in dirt.  So longer the stem, greater the harvest.

This year, I got a trailer full of well composted cow manure from a local farm for my garden.  I'd like to see if they make a difference in the harvest.  Usually, I get leaf and twig compost from the local recycling place, but wanted to try something different this year.  Since we've had cold and wet weather, shoveling the manure was not an easy task.  It was a slow process and took a few hours for me to get it into all my beds. 

Speaking of beds, the second of the raised bed was finished last week and both of them are now set up in the garden.  I still need to get more soil to fill up the beds, which I am aiming to finish by this weekend.  Weather is now in low 60s and night time temps around 40s.  Maybe a good week to get plants into the garden........

Garden Pictures.....in April

I haven't really planted much outdoors in April.  Weather has been rather cold and we've just had a few days in 50's.  Most of the starter seeds have grown into seedlings awaiting their turn to bask in the sun.  I've also noticed white flies around the leaves of butternut squash on both sides and ofcourse they've also moved onto tomatoes, melons and most other veggies.  After researching online, I sprayed them with a mix of rubbing alcohol and water.  Seems like the white flies number has substantially decreased, but they are still visible on some leaves.  I'll just watch and squirt them every now and then. 

Tiny spinach, mustard greens and peas, dominated by grass(:

Garlic planted last fall

Peas planted during St.Patrick's day. Part of it hasn't germinated.

Chives - regular and garlic

Front yard

Tulips - partially eaten by bunnies

Forsythia

Eggplant seedlings

Cabbage seedlings

Marigolds and dahlias

Tomato seedlings

Butternut Squash seedlings

Sweet 'n early cantelope and Sugar baby watermelon seedlings 

Peppers

First (Measly) Harvest for 2011

Chives!!  Garlic Chives and regular Chives are perennials in our region and they've come up already!  I was able to harvest some of both and use it on baked potatoes over the weekend.  I had started these chives a year before from seeds and they've been continuing to grow on their own since then.  I'm not really sure what else to use these for other than drying them.  We mostly use them to season potatoes over at our house.  Head on over to Daphne's Harvest Mondays to check out other harvests for the week.

Starting the Transplants..

Last two weeks, temps were in 40-50s and finally the snow has melted, but sun peeks out only every other day!  My seeds have sprouted - most of them anyway, and some seedlings were getting bigger and needed to get into larger containers. 

Butternut Squash - seed saved from grocery store squash!

Brandywine tomato plants

Transplant work in progress!

Work done so far.  There's plenty more to be transplanted in the coming week!

Since it is still cloudy and cold most of the days, haven't really bothered to go out and do much gardening.  Hopefully, will get started in a few days.  My dh has still to work on the other raised bed.  I'm hoping to get the compost and manure once both raised beds are in place.  I did manage to clean out dried twigs and leaves in the front yard garden.  Tulips are starting to come up.  Garlic is doing well.  I can see some spinach sprouts and mustard greens sprouting in the garden.  I will post more pics when you can actually see them in the pics!