2022 Starts

12/15/2021: Planted papaya seeds, from a papaya from the grocery store.

12/20/2021: Planted pomegranate seeds, from a pomegranate from the grocery store.

Both sprouted well. 

1/15/2022: Planted a number of peppers. These are always slow to sprout. 

1/15/2022: Started some cuttings from a lime tree. These did not take. 😢

1/20/2022: Finished pruning all the pepper plants that are over-wintering. Nearly all of them are in good shape. 

1/28/2021: Planted squash and cucumber seeds. Martini cucumbers sprouted very quickly.

1/28/2021: Planted various brassica seeds. Broccoli is first to germinate. 

2/5/2022: Planted a few tomato seeds. Yeah, it's too early, but I'm excited for spring. 

2/5/2022: Planted yellow onion seeds. These are later than I'd like. 

First of May

Just a few photos to document the state of the growing things as of the beginning of May.

 

Greenhouse is doing pretty well. Lost a lot of pepper starts this year just from trying to do too much. Still had some successes.

Also kept about a dozen pepper plants from last summer. Nice.

 Fig tree doing well.

First tomatoes of 2021 on the left. Last tomatoes of 2020 on the right. It was my goal to cross this year's harvest over last year's like this. Fun.

I discovered these starting trays this year, end of April. Magnificent! Too late for the peppers, but just in time for pretty much everything else. Spectacularly useful. Nearly all the plants in this year's gardens will have a start in one of these trays. 

 Rhubarb is doing great. Peas are getting started.

Salad is getting a start. We caught scrub jays eating the young plants, hence the screen. Had real trouble finding actual Romaine lettuce seeds. We have Swiss Giant romaine variant, Red Romaine and the prettiest: Trout's Back Romaine.  

Asparagus starting nicely. Still needs another year or two before much harvesting.  

Garlic on the left, onions on the right (Walla Walla sweets and Red). Some Swiss Chard left over from last year for the chickens. 

Growing a lemon tree from a seed from my own lemon tree. 

Growing a kumquat from a seed. Got this one from a grocery store. 

Overview: early May in the garden.

In the Garden, April First

The first week of April was very much Spring like. T-shirt weather, lots of sunshine. I cannot help but garden.

 

Half a bed of garlic, half a bed of WallaWalla sweet onions. With some kale/chard for chickens at the end.

 

Broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi. They're doing great! 

  Lettuce and carrots, both from starts.

 Going to have loads of rhubarb.

I've discovered that the Scrub Jays really like eating the baby pea plants. So we've protected them.

Getting the tomato patch ready for tomatoes.
Exciting.
(Only six weeks to go. . . )

In the Greenhouse, April First

Just an update: what's going on in the greenhouse.

Tomatoes, Last Year & This Year

Well, this was my goal this winter. 2021 tomatoes on the vine before 2020 tomatoes were done. 

These are the last (so far) blossoms on the 2020 tomato plant in the greenhouse. There are maybe a dozen flowers across the plant. 

This is a yellow cherry tomato.

And these are the very first blossoms on the first tomato plant of 2021. 

In all fairness, I don't know what kind of tomato this is; it's a weed that sprouted among the earliest hot peppers from very early this year. 

 

(Well, it might be a Brandywine.)

Midwinter, Early March

I admit. I'm really looking forward to Spring.

A guy down at the greenhouse shop said that he was was starting his brassicas mid-January to put out into his garden mid-February.

I thought I would try that. 

Well, the brassicas did survive, but barely. I'm not impressed. I forgot how much the bugs (and apparently birds) like brassicas.

So I thought maybe carrot starts would do better in the garden this winter and then other things.

 

And the bugs aren't overly fond of carrots.

I started these indoors, same time: mid-January. Transplanting them outdoors a few at a time since mid-February.

They seem to be thriving. Nice!

 

On the other hand, I've been harvesting last year's carrots all winter long. Pretty yummy.

And now, second week in March, the rhubarb is beginning to come up. Nice.

New Growth on Old Plants

I'm surprised this winter by how much new growth is popping out on the peppers and fuchsias from last year. 

 

I was expecting them to die. These are reportedly annuals. They're clearly not dead.