The Garden on January 6, 2010 - Part I

It's time for another survey of the vegetable garden.

We've been enjoying some wonderful spring-like weather the last few days. The daytime temps have been around 70F, but partly cloudy.  It almost makes me feel guilty to say that, knowing what unusually frigid weather much of the rest of the country is enduring. Have hope, spring will come!

So here we go...

The experimental potato patch is doing better than expected. Some of the very first shoots got a bit frost nipped but they have recovered nicely.

The carrot patch is next to the potatoes. It's a pretty scraggly bunch this winter. Lots of stubby carrots, perhaps because of the mole that's been tunneling around in the area.

And the celery root patch is next.

I finally harvested one good sized celery root last week. A look at the tag indicates that I sowed the seeds last February! There's one more nice sized one ready to harvest.

And the giant scallions are getting bigger...

The Golden Chard seemed to appreciate the water bottle cloches that I covered them with. A couple plants are almost large enough to start harvesting a few leaves. I'm not sure if these will bolt this spring or not.

The Red Fennel is sending up new shoots from the bases of the plants. I harvested a lot of seeds from these plants and finally cut the stalks down just a few weeks ago when I noticed the new shoots.

The shoots are supposed to form "bulbs" that are good to eat.

Now that the amaranth is gone and the cutting celery is getting more light it's growing very nicely.

And, in another corner of this bed, the parsley is starting to bolt. There's still plenty of good leaves to harvest.

In the next bed, the peppers have seen better days, but not all of them are completely lost.

I'm hoping that the Pimento de Padron pepper plants will survive the winter. Some of the plants got zapped by the December frosts and freezes, but still have plenty of life lower in the plants.

The Padron plants on the back side of the bed are in much better shape.

And even have some blossoms.

And even a few peppers! It sure would be nice to get a head start on the Pimento de Padron harvest this year.

The beet patch is looking patchy. I managed to get some more Burpee's Goldens to germinate and have been rounding up the cloches to try to give them some TLC.

The Olive Leaf Rapini is coming along nicely. It needs a bit more thinning. Last year I had to protect the plants from munching birds, but am not having those difficulties yet this year.

Behind the rapini, under the bird protection flats, there are newly emerging seedlings of Monticello Poppies (thanks Christina!).

Golden Corn Salad seedlings are volunteering in this area.

I've been digging them up, separating them, and replanting them with more space between the plants. They don't seem to mind the disturbance!

That's it for the first two beds. I'll cover the other two beds in the next post.