Late April Update

Wanted to give a quick update of my garden:

Volunteer Flowers

This year I had 3 poppies come up.  I had spread some seeds a couple years ago, but some seeds must have been dormant and woke this late winter as I didn't remember any last year. I looked these up on Google and saw they are called "Peony Poppies".  They are also called Opium poppies!  These are very beautiful flowers. I intend to save a bunch of seeds again from these.

volunteer peony poppies

 A few years ago we grew some German Chamomile, and the cool thing is that every year since they have always reseeded themselves. Here are some from this year.  These are so pretty,and smell so wonderful.  We had some fresh chamomile tea last night from some of these.  When they first come up they are tiny plants, but have very distinctive foliage, so I recognize them, and weed around them. This year they grew mainly around my lettuce and spinach.

German Chamomile

Squash

My spaghetti squash is doing very well!  But what is really surprising is the amount of female flowers that have shown up first!  Usually with squash, the male flowers come up first, and then later the female flowers come. But this time I've had tons of female flowers, and just a few male flower.  But there are about at least 4 squash now that are pollinated and have set fruit, and more on the way.  

lots of female flowers on my spaghetti squash

female blossom

My acorn squash has not done as well.  I have three hills planted, but two hills are on a low area of the yard, that collects a lot of water during rains.  I think these got drowned out with the last heavy rains, because the next day after the rains, many of the leaves were wilted on many of the plants.

Most of this acorn squash is showing signs of drowning due to poor drainage in this part of the yard.

 The other hill is on a raised bed, so is doing much better.  Here is the plant, with a female blossom open. Like the spaghetti squash, surprisingly there are female flowers first. I am thinking this is because of the time of year and cool temperatures they experienced earlier on.

Regarding the SVBs (squash vine borers) I actually saw one resting on my pea plants, and killed the moth. But I have not seen any eggs laid yet. (I have been checking since I saw the moth last week).

Other Veggies

Here are my snap peas.  They have gotten very tall, and are producing well, but as expected, are beginning to get hit by spider mites, and also powdery mildew, due to the rain and wet weather.  Every time I plant these they get afflicted once the plants start producing pods. Must be that the plants get weaker focusing their energy on producing the pods. Also we are mostly in the lower 80s now... getting a bit warm for these plants.   I wish I would have planted more. They are so tasty, I always wish we had more. Next time I will hopefully plant 3x more plants.

sugar snap peas

 My tomatoes are doing pretty well, but don't look quite as healthy. I notice some of the leaves have a few spider mites.  I do have lots of ladybugs around, so I hope that they start attacking the spidermites too. There are a few tiny tomatoes forming on them now.  To their left are the sweet-pea flowering peas.  They should start blooming soon.  I really like them as cut flowers since they have a wonderful fragrance.

sweet peas (left) and tomatoes (right) in the back, behind the spaghetti squash

The onions are almost ready.  Some of the bulbs are about golf-ball size now

Broccoli still growing. But getting hit by aphids.  Some small flower heads have formed.

Early April 2016

Hello again!
Being early April, wanted to give an update of my garden.  It was a pretty mild winter as I said in my previous post.  Since my last post back in the end of February, we've only had a couple days that were barely below freezing.  I took a risk and planted some of my warm weather plants into the ground real early (the tomato and squash seedlings I had shown before that I was growing in pots). I'm glad I did because that let them get a great head-start.    I've only had to cover them twice, due to the threat of frost, but that's all behind us now.
There was one set-back back in the end of March.  We had a big hailstorm!  Some of the hailstones were quarter-size, and they really tore up my onions, spinach, and my spaghetti squash, and busted a few heads of cabbage. The other stuff was not hurt much fortunately.  Since then the weather has been very nice, lots of sun, and rain occasionally.

One thing I noticed this year is that as the aphids showed up, many of the beneficial insects I had towards the year of the season last year have been showing up in good numbers too!  I've seen lots of ladybugs and ladybug larva around, plus some hoverflies, and lacewings too. Its nice they have shown up early because last year it was a struggle with the aphids!

Below is a picture of the broccoli patch.  Last post they were just a couple inches tall, but now they are getting pretty big.  Still no flower heads forming, though.  Also the cilantro next to it has bolted already.  Right next to them are three "Popaver" poppies.  These came up by themselves (I had spread some seed early last year, but none came up then!). They are about the bloom.

Here are the onions I planted this winter.  I didn't mention them in my previous post, but they have been steadily growing since late January.  There are some garlic in there too, elephant garlic, from cloves I had saved last year.  These I also planted back in the early winter.   And some more broccoli plants mixed in among them.

Below is the spaghetti squash.  And behind them are the tomato plants.

 There are actually 4 plants, 2 per hill.   They got clobbered by the hail, and two of them, their stems broke or bent badly, but fortunately above the leaf nodes, so that the plants were able to develop the runners below as their main shoots. So these have fully recovered and have started growing very quickly now.   The tomatoes are the "rutgers" variety.  They have recently started growing pretty fast, and in fact, one already has a couple of blossoms!  I'm sure glad I've gotten such an early start on these.  With the tomatoes, its important to be able to get a good harvest before the heat hits in full force.  And for the spaghetti squash, to get a  good head start on the Squash Vine Borers, which usually show up late May.

Below is the acorn squash I mentioned last post too, the Table Queen variety.  I have 3 hills of these, and they are not quite as far along as the spaghetti squash but they are starting to grow pretty fast now.

My first spinach patch, which I started late fall last year, has bolted already, and I've let it go to flower, for seed-collecting. Since spinach seed have a short shelf-life, I like saving seeds for the fall or next spring.
Below is the second patch I started in February.  They took a hit from the hail but have recovered pretty well, and are ready for picking.

Right above the spinach above are the Sweet Peas.  They have been growing slower than the snap peas,but are doing well though.  I don't see any flowers forming yet, but I'm expecting some great flowers around early May, and will post pictures.  I applied some "Bayer Systemic Rose" fertilizer and insecticide/miticide to them, because since they are not for eating, and they get hit by spider mites often, I'm hoping that will let them last further into the year.
Below are the snap peas. They are in full bloom, and there are bunches of small pods beginning to form.  I need to provide some more support as they keep growing because they have surpassed their tomato cages.

The yellow flowers at the bottom are the turnips which have all bolted. We did get some very nice turnips, and enjoyed some greens too, but I've pulled out most of them except for a few plants I've kept for collecting seeds.

Below is another section of onions, and the third small spinach patch next to it.  And on the right is the catnip plant which survived the winter, and is growing very nicely now.  I've also noticed some new catnip plants around it too.

Here is the remaining Cabbage. It did very well,and we've eaten lots of cabbage. Most of what you see is the remaining plants, what has grown after the head has been picked. I'm planning to use these like collards, if they don't form small heads, or don't bolt. Some of the cabbage has bolted, and I've had to pick it and feed it to the chickens.

Will post again soon!  Happy Gardening!