Spring Harvest

I got sidelined by a knee injury and ignored the garden for a week.  It's fine now as long as I don't forget and kneel on it.  I still have to wear a support for some activities, but it isn't quite bad enough to see an orthopedist.  Or I'm in denial.

Meanwhile, the artichokes hit their stride.  All but one put up its central bud.  I even made a YouTube Short on a whim, what I jokingly call my post for the year.  After eating more than usual fresh, the rest are getting steamed to freeze the hearts.

Two of the broccoli never really caught on.  I got a few little florets off them and some leaves, but it's time for them to come out and make room for tomatoes.  I didn't expect to get 13 starts out of the 12 cells I planted.  Need to find somewhere to put them all.  Leaning toward a row of pots against the wall behind the Pond, as the native soil is all sand and clay.  Also need to hit up Home Depot for trellis fencing to hold them once they start to climb.

Some of the chard is already starting to bolt, just when I was getting into the flavor.  This variety kind of tastes like less-sweet beet greens.  Time to harvest more often and freeze it so I can have a break from the kale this summer.

Parsley needs to be harvested and dried every couple of weeks if I'm not using it enough.  The stems are going in the broth bag.  Growing your own herbs is an under-appreciated bit of gardening that can save you a lot of money.  The seed packet cost about $2, which I make back regularly.  Fresh parsley is stupid expensive, while dried flakes are cheap.  I'm terrible at growing fennel bulbs, but I can get years of anise seed from a single plant.  Most herbs can be grown on a window sill.  Even if you don't have room for a garden, anyone can put a few pots of herbs in the kitchen.

My little turnips look like purple radishes.  They're adorable, and doing better since I thinned them.  I'm going to succession plant in the eggplant pot.  Eggy isn't doing well.  I cut back the dead branches to see if it rebounds, but I'm keeping my hopes realistic.  Bummer is that I can't put a tomato in there until next year if it's suffering from a nightshade disease.

I need to plant basil.  Down to my last jar of dried from two years ago.  Hope it isn't too late for it to catch on.  We still have over a month of moderate temperatures before summer kicks in, and I can put it where it only gets morning sun.

Onions are doing well.  I've been succession planting in the pot at about the rate I'm using them.  I still have onion pesto; lesson learned.  Garlic should be ready in a couple of months.  I had to put the cilantro in a tomato cage while it makes seeds, so I can have freshly ground coriander.

The new additions to my gardening routine are things I should have been doing all along.  First, I bought fish fertilizer.  It's a concentrate, and stinks up everything, but I definitely don't feed my plants enough.  Trying to remember to do it at least once a month.  Then, I picked up a bag of redwood mulch.  My idea of mulching so far has been chop'n'drop, where you just let whatever you trimmed off the plant compost in place.  I'm hoping for weed and moisture control in the Pond.  For the front patch, I'm adding the hope that it composts into the dense soil to condition it.  I've been fighting that area's tendency to compact for over 10 years.

Once I lose a few chard and the rest of the broccoli, I'll have a better idea where I can put more tomatoes.  The poor tray of starts really wants a home.  I might have to put some of them in the landscaping out front before they die, even if others make it into pots.