Spring Harvest Recap and Summer Planting

 

It's great that I've had so many recipes going on that I haven't had any space for gardening posts, but I really want to brag about how it's going.

First, this was simply an epic year for artichokes.  Nothing can beat the deep watering of an exceptionally rainy winter.  Even the little one that doesn't get enough sun put out a couple of feeble buds near the end.  I may have actually grown an entire year's worth of artichokes, unless I go crazy and eat them all in a month.

My broccoli from seed put out two pitiful heads, but I grew them from seed!  It's empowering to know I can make something produce, even if it's just one lunch's worth of broccoli.  Even better, neither plant was infested with aphids, a problem I had before.  They did get those ugly green caterpillars that munched on the leaves.

All my celery survived.  I'm not sure that counts as a good thing.  It was certainly unexpected.  There's going to be a lot of celery with peanut butter, cream of celery soup, and tuna salad going on this year.

Last year, I let a regrown green onion go to seed.  This year, I'm getting consistent green onions from those seeds.  All I have to do is plant a little more whenever I pull a few, and they replace themselves in a month or so.  These won't go to seed unless I let them sit for a second year.  It's an onion thing; they're bi-annuals.

For the summer, I planted pickling cucumbers and a few kinds of tomatoes.  The ones from seed are struggling, so I did buy a couple of starts.  The kale is doing a little better in warmer weather, as is the sage.  It's still too early to know if the pumpkins are going to take off.  My next harvest is going to be the couple hundred boysenberries on the bush.  I'm going to be very happy about that.