Starting seeds

Today I started a bunch of things for the garden: Tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, and chard.

The green onions and leeks that have been out in the greenhouse are doing well. They'll be ready to set out in the garden soon.

I also sowed pak choi and spinach in the garden.

Feels Like Spring

I know it isn't close to being Spring, but the last week or so has given us a taste of things to come. We had several days of highs close to 60 and sunny. We even had lunch on the deck a few days ago.

Update on overwintered vegetables:
My fall plantings of lettuce and spinach are still there, and we've eaten many meals of them. However, we've had a fairly mild winter, so I won't expect that to happen every year. I still have some carrots left, mostly big split ones, but they're still good. The bok choi was good for a while, but it has now bolted. I left the plant to flower, hoping to entice some early bees. And we have seen one.

After some major pruning, the pear and peach trees seem to be fine and are close to blooming. With them being short now, I'm hoping to be able to hand pollenate them.


I started green onions and leeks indoors, and now they are in my greenhouse. Three days ago I sowed snap peas, but they aren't up yet.

First Frost

We had our first frost two nights ago. Nothing was totally killed, but I took out the basil and peas, both of which looked pretty sad.

The celery experiment is amazing. New leaves emerged within a couple of days, and they are now several inches tall.

When I took out the tomatoes, I saved about six of them to use as green tomatoes. I still haven't cooked them, but one by one they have ripened on the counter, even though they were totally green with no color showing.

An Experiment

I planted a long row of garlic today, as well as three large shallots. Recently I've been planting the root ends of scallions and they've sprouted and produced more leaves. So I thought I'd try it with leeks. I have three large leek roots, which I put in the bed, about an inch down, and covered them with soil. They each had some short roots that had been cut off. I also have a celery base, which I've read will sprout. However, it doesn't have any roots, so I put it in a dish of water to see if it will sprout.

Winter Garden

With our recent decision to sell our cottage in Tucson and stay home this winter, I've decided to try to plant some winter vegetables. It's a bit late, but I thought I'd try anyway, just in case we have a delayed winter.

I sowed mesclun mix lettuce, Red Kitten and Matador spinach, mache, and more bok choi and kohlrabi.

Starting Fall Cleanup

The weather has turned very fall-like with no prospects for any more warm weather. Today may be our last day in the 70s. So I pulled out the tomatoes, after picking any that were close to being ripe. I also pulled the aubergine, the cucumbers, and the peppers except for the Mad Hatter. The Mad Hatter peppers are still green, so I'm going to give them a little longer in the ground before I pull the plant up and hang it upside down in the garage. I'd really like to get some to turn red.

Last week I pulled up the melons and dug up the rhubarb. We just don't use enough of it to justify the space it takes. We've also pulled out all the strawberry plants. I'll start new ones next year in a different bed.

I've left the zucchini for now, as it still has some squash coming. But without much heat they may not make it. The plant really looks ugly, covered with mildew.

I still have snap peas, lettuce, and bok choi, which has been a great success.

Melon!

Yesterday I picked our first Athena melon. We had it for breakfast today. Boy, was it good! I had waited until it came off easily. If anything, it was almost overripe. Maybe the next one I'll try to get it a little earlier.