I should have started a garden two years ago: it’s amazing watching plants grow. Here is a quick update of what is happening, mostly pictures. The picture above is a pole bean plant, starting to climb.
The leeks are starting to get big. This one is about 3/4 inch across. I’ll start pulling them soon, so I can thin them and enjoy the younger leeks.
The sprouting broccoli is starting to sprout. Since these are cut-and-come again, I think 8 plants is going to be more than enough.
The tomato plants are starting to grow. They are growing much faster than they did inside, probably due to the larger space.
The golden and red beets are ready to eat. The golden beets didn’t grow in the nice rows that the red beets did, but they grew just as well.
The pepper plants are growing strong. No fruits yet, but plenty of leaves, and a strong stalk too.
A young red carrot, and an orange carrot, almost read to eat. I pulled one a few days ago, and it was fairly short, so I’ll give this one more time to grow.
The carrot seeds that I planted a few weeks ago are also starting to come up, although not as abundantly as I had hoped. perhaps I need to plant the carrots more densely, since they don’t seem to all sprout.
The cabbage plants are starting to get big. You can see how the leaves are starting to fold in on themselves, forming the cabbage head.
Like so many other plants, only half of the swiss chard came up. The plants are doing great though, and I might re-plant some more seeds. Of course, I haven’t touched these yet, due to the excess of lettuces.
This is perhaps a quarter of the lettuce section: 16 square feet total, which is way more than I need. You can see a cabbage plant in the upper-right corner, trying to get some head-room.
Speaking of more than I need, four parsley plants was also excessive.
The zucchini plants are starting to spread out quickly. Because I’m trying to maximize my space, I’m going to stake the squash plants. As they grow, I’ll trim the leaves and guide them up the stake, allowing the leaves and fruits to grow at the end of the stake and above the ground. You can see one of the trimmed leaves, which left a neat hollow hole. The plant didn’t seem to mind, since it grew three leaves over the weekend.
I’ll leave you with some photos of the various flowers in my garden. The first is a radish flower, and the rest are from various plants in my European Mesclun salad mix. I have no idea what they are, but they are pretty.
Logan's Kitchen 