My heirloom tomatoes are starting to sprout

My summertime lettuce is looking good.  I can't wait to see what it will look like in a few weeks when I can finally put them outside in the covered square foot garden.  The snow was just starting to melt and we got 2 more inches last night.  I'm not convinced it will be an early spring unless the ice melts on the reservoir before my son's birthday.

 I thinned the bok choy down to 2 plants.  It survived a trip to the elementary school in the hands of my littlest.  When he reads for 20 minutes he gets to fill out the Read Around the World folder.  Each continent and a couple of the oceans are represented.  There are 15 twenty minute sections for each. After that is completed they write down 5 facts and draw 4 pictures to go with the facts.  Then he gets to create something to represent that continent or ocean and present it with 5 facts about the subject.  

We were talking about the bok choy and how it originated in Asia and he got all excited and asked to bring it for his report.  He printed off a list of facts about bok choy and shared it with his class.  For each report he gets something and then at the end of the year he gets ice cream and all the toppings that go with each continent or ocean.  Daddy has volunteered to help that day!

Back to my plants: My blue Kale has sprouted and will be thinned soon.

And last of all, my heirloom tomatoes are starting to sprout.  When I save the seeds myself, I'm always a little worried.  But they always sprout.  The 5" peat pots are holding up well too. 

Well, Mambo has been sitting quietly on my shoulder for quite a while.  I think she needs some flight training.  She loves it! So here we go...

Cold weather transplants

My cold weather transplants are doing well.  The bok choy is looking great but I'm starting to think I started it way to early. Last year I grew the mini bok choy and it didn't do well at all.  So this was just an experiment.  It already looks better than the other did. I only grew one pot because I am thinking that  fall is going to be the best time to plant these.

I'm also growing broccoli for the second time.  The first time I grew it from some transplants my mom gave me. She didn't even know what kind they were. And the heads of broccoli were full of caterpillars, little green caterpillars.  I couldn't even eat them because I wasn't sure I had found them all. So this year I will be growing broccoli under a net covered hoop.

From Anderson's Seed and Garden:

Super Dome hybrid is a tremendous yielder of very large, extra fine quality heads on nice compact plants. More broccoli, larger heads, more weight - these features add up to more goodness, flavor, and nutrition for everyone who enjoys broccoli. It will do well in the late fall, winter, and early spring. Super Dome is resistant to downy mildew. 58-60 days to harvest.

This variety is early to mature and has a mild flavor. Large buds cover dark green domes that average 8” in diameter. Packman is a heavy yielder that withstands the heat unlike many other varieties. This allows it to be planted later in the season if needed. 57 days to harvest.

They also have a nice selection of organic seeds.

The first Harvest of 2012

This is the very first thing I have harvested this year. Correnta Spinach

 I'm getting used to the floating row cover and my veggies are doing well shaded under it.  The black PVC hoops are the perfect height.  And with the amazing amount of butterflies I am glad that my cabbages and such are protected. Anything that doesn't need to pollinate to grow can go under it.

And here is my second harvest of the year.  It is the first time I've grown baby bok choy. And you can see that the stalks are pretty skinny but it was starting to bolt.  Maybe now that I'm not having to baby a lot of the stuff under my grow lights I can dedicate a little time to studying up on how to do a better job at growing these. 

Today I weeded between my tomatoes with my parrot on my shoulder.   Once he decided to climb on my head it was time to send him inside with my children. We got 3/4 of an inch of rain on Friday in just a few hours which is rare around here in the high desert so I didn't get the rows tilled that are full of weeds and haven't been planted.  I did put some nitrogen on the corn patch.  I'll till before it rains again next week and then plant the corn - popcorn - and if it doesn't grow, I will not plant corn again. If you live nearby please tell me who to buy sweet corn from this summer.

Harvest Monday - March 5, 2012

This is my garden on Friday - looking west. Most of the snow fell in one night.

This is my garden last week:

And here is a pretty photo of the long shadows in the winter Friday morning.

March 1st I spent the day planting seeds for peppers and heirloom tomatoes because Hot Peppers take 12-14 weeks before they can be transplanted outside.  Sweet Peppers take 10 weeks around here. And once I take all of the cold weather veggies outside and away from the sprouting station I will transplant the sweet peppers into 9" pots.

I brought the seed starting mix in from the garage in the 5 gallon bucket.  Then I added water and used my spade to add it into the pots.

 I planted 12 jalapenos, 12 bell peppers, 4 serrano peppers, and 2 cayenne peppers. 

I'm also going to try growing Baby Bok Choy this year.

And in these 6 inch pots I planted heirloom tomatoes which also take a lot longer to sprout and they are pretty slow growing.  I collected the seeds from last year.  This year I purchased seeds for Cherokee Purple which I've never grown before but I've seen that it's quite popular among gardeners.  While I absolutely adore eating Pink Brandywine tomatoes, I do love bottling tomato juice and making my own crush tomato sauce with roasted garlic (my mouth is watering).

Not quite sure why I started my romas.  huh. Early Girls will get planted the first of April.

I purchased the 3 inch peat pots in a pack of 22 for $1.50

Check out Daphne's Dandelions for more great garden ideas!