Both gardens

At Reed

Greens again
Pinched flowers from the arugula & kale. Finally thinned my turnips and got a big bag of greens out of it.

New plantings
In the area that was planted with basil & collard green seeds, nothing ever came up. Too cold I guess. So I turned the soil again and planted new basil seeds--"lune basil," same variety. I also moved two volunteer calendulas into the same bed along the edge.

Tomatos
In the same bed as my other tomatos, I turned the rest of the soil and planted two tiny tomatillo seedlings. They may not make it. Also planted a heritage tomato--zebra stripe, or something like that. I saved the seeds from a plant I grew last year.

Squash
In the hill formerly containing delicata squash seedlings, which were probably eaten by slugs, I planted new delicata squash seeds. There are three hills of them. I also put in two hills of acorn squash seeds.

All of the effort at the garden resulted in a very minor sunburn, one of the very few I've ever had. Took about four hours in the intermittent sun.

Back on Caruthers Street
Still in the mood to garden (or actually having nothing else to do), I gardened at home. I mowed the grass and did a little edging with a shovel.

Sunflowers
The first sunflowers I put in along the fence next to the parking lot are doing quite well, but none of the others have germinated, probably due to cold & rainy weather. I decided to put in more seeds, since I have an extraordinary overabundance of them. I put in some "Mammoth" sunflowers (Martha Stewart brand!), as well as some Italian white ones (also Martha Stewart).

Basil
Basil seeds never germinated. Planted more in the same spot, but a different kind.

Mystery weed
I have been mowing around a yellow green plant in our median for a while. I just like the way the leaves look. Finally, I just decided to move it into a bed. Figured the contrast of colors would be nice. It's hardy and will do okay in the shady end of the flower bed.

Otherwise
The irises are all done blooming, but now there are calendulas and California poppies aplenty, as well as red climbing rose. My marigolds in the tin cans are flowering nicely and still darned cute.

My chards at home are also going to seed. I may eat them all soon. Next to them, my Rose Finn potatos are coming up.

More of everything

At Reed

Greens roundup
Well, my Bok Choy was a washout, and the tatsoi was really small and starting to go to seed; so I pulled it all up. (Cook some greens with it later, along with kale.)

My threee kales, which are all quite large, are trying very hard to go to seed, but I keep trimming the buds. One of them was looking very sorry, and I decided to go ahead and cut down most of it. Ate the leaves with the tatsoi.

Snow peas
Though they're only 9" high, my snowpeas are already producing little pods. I picked six or seven.

Potatos
The first bed of red potatos is going crazy. The plants are already over a foot high and very healthy, despite the poor soil in that location. I read somewhere about piling dirt on them progressiveely as the potatos grow, and they'll put out a new set of spuds between the layers of soil. So I attempted to do that.

My Rose Finn potatos are just beginning to sprout as well. I'm more interested in those, mainly just out of curiosity.

Everything else

The elephant garlics have scapes, or that is to say, big buds and are ready to flower.

My various tomatos are surviving, if not exactly thriving. I think they need sunshine, which we havn't had a lot of lately.

Still no carrot sprouts.

Raspberries are doing surprisingly well. There are some flowers.

Guerrilla gardening update

Gardened in the rain again, though this time at home on Caruthers St..

Zucchinis
I put in two zucchini seedlings in the front, both of which are likely to die. One is too small, the other is broken, though still miraculously surviving.

Dill
Also, I planted a good sized dill plant that was in the free area at Reed. I put it in where I'd previously put dill seeds, which have not sprouted.

Guerrilla gardening
Out side out fence, along the edge of the parking lot next door, my calendulas are doing well, and I noticed that the Mexican landscapers have killed weeds, but left the flowers. It's encouraged me to plant more stuff out there; so I put in two more calenduals, as well as relocated some purple cosmos from the bed in the median. So far, all is well.

Sunflowers
My sunflowers that are on that side, next to the parking lot, but inside the fence, are taking off. Some of them are 9" high. No other sunflowers have sprouted, however.

Iris
There is just one iris blooming right now, and that may be all we get. None of our many irises did well, though the leaves certainly look healthy.

Strawberrries
Our few little strawberry plants are starting to set fruit, and it's exciting to see. I'll only get a handful, but still...

Fruits
In fact, all over town, fruit trees can be seen with baby fruits on their limbs. Pears, apples, plums, & figs are all off to a good start.

Wet wet wet

Despite the threat of rain, I rode out to my garden at Reed. The weather can't make up its mind lately. One minute bright & sunny. Cold & pouring rain the next. Been like that for days. So of course I got soaked.

Slugs
All the water has made my greens very happy. Unfortunately, the slugs love it too. I thinned out the arugula rows, and in the process killed, without exageration, hundreds of slugs. I ended up with a big bag of arugula that I'm afraid to eat. I made a little sandwich with some of it later, and opened the pieces of bread over and over again to make sure there were nothing sliming around in there. For the next two nights after as well, I dreamt about slugs.

Choys & Sois
I also weeded the bok choi, which resulted in teh discovery that, actually, there were only weeds. There was very little tatsoi to speak of either, and most of those were about to flower, despite their tiny size. I may just pull them all for a stir fry.

Turnips
My turnips are really doing well, too. They are in serious need of a thinning. I pulled one because it looked like it was getting very big, and there was an adorable little turnip on the bottom of it! I was so excited.

Kale
My big siberian kales may have to be pulled out soon, since they are not producing many good leaves anymore and seem determined to bolt (go to flower).

Saw a couple more chard seedlings. Otherwise, everything is mostly the same.

Catching up

Out of town for a week. It rained here the whole time, and by the time I got back, the weeds had gone crazy. Had to catch up on weeding and planting new stuff.

At Reed
Other than lots of weeding, I planted an organic tomato start I bought at Daily Grind (59 cents!). The variety is "Willamette", and it's a medium red slicing tomato. I put it in the spot where I'd previously put a roma tomato I started from seed. Slugs ate that one (though the other Roma was untouched).

In the same bed, I dug the rest of the soil in preparation for planting tomatillos. At the end of the bed, next to the isle, I put in a row of seed potatos (variety "Rose Finn Apple") that someone had left in the free area. Interested to grow some unusual plants, so why not Finn potatos?

The delicata squashes I planted were all eated by slugs; so I have to start over again there.

The turnips & arugula are going crazy and need to be thinned soon. Bok Choi & Tatsoi are not doing as well. The transplanted chards look like they may survive, plus I spotted three teeny tiny chard sprouts from the zillions of seeds I planted. The transplanted chickory also looks like it's making a recovery.

All of the beans I put in the large corner plot on a whim have sprouted and ate three inches tall.

The poptatos have gone crazy too, and I hilled them, that is, piled more dirt on top of them to encourage more setting of roots.

The snowpeas are getting large enough to start climbing.

No sprouts yet from the basil, collards, or carrots.

The volunteer daisies in the perenniels bed are three feet tall and full of blooms.

At Caruthers Street

My potted seedlings are all doing well. The hot thai peppers have sprouted in profusion. All of the tomato varieties are moving right along, and I have another zucchini sprout, though those are growing slow enough that I may just go buy a start.

No sunflower seeds have sprouted in the back yard, which may be due to the rainy weather. Looks like there may be some money plants growing though.

Planted another red slicing tomato at my house in the front harb/veggie garden. It's an "Early Girl" variety.

No coleus, basil, dill, oregano, or chive sprouts, dang it.

Some irises are blooming, as they are all over town.

Reed round-up

Since I was going out of town for a week, I had to get some stuff taken care of before leaving. So, at Reed,...

Roma tomatoes
The Roma seeds I planted in yogurt cups had almost gotten big enough to put out, but not quite. However, slugs were beginning to kill them when they were left out overnight, but they were too big to be left in & get no light for a full week. So I figured that I might as well plant.

I stuck two in the ground at Reed and gave two away to Evan's roommate Chris.

Delicata squash
These seedlings were also just about large enough to plant, and for the same reasons as above, I put in two hills of them, with two plants per hill. I'm not very optimistic about these or the tomato seedlings, but I'm ready to let nature take its course.

Beans & Peas
My snowpeas at Reed are beginning to take off. The odd purple beans I stuck in around my plot for novelty are beginning to sprout, which was pretty fast. The seedlings were already large enough that I got confused at first that they were some kind of weed and pulled one out.

Greens
The turnips & arugula are springing up so fast that I'll soon have to pull some seedlings to make space. The chards that I scavenged from the neighboring plot don't look so hot, but two small ones will survive, while a large one may not. Looks like theres no action on the chard seeds nor the collard, basil, or carrot seeds.

Mystery bulbs
Leaves from the bulbs of mystery that I put in the perennials bed are popping up through the soil. Cant wait to see what they are. The irises that planted at the same time seem happy and are getting ready to bloom.

Potatos
They are all poking through the soil. Seem happy.