Planting Time~ tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and seeds as well as hot weather

Tonight we had a great time in the garden.  The other day we spread a cubic yard of compost amongst some of the beds, with a really thick layer in the cold bed which is usually planted before we get the compost.  We are behind this year on peas, radishes and such, but some were planted today.  We did the White Hailstone radishes again this year, I think they are my favorite.  Carrots also went in the soil, I am not positive of the variety.  Iceberg lettuce and Ching Chang bok choy seed also went in.  As well as plants from the local cheap greenhouse, those were a four pack of Early Girls, I think eight Jalepenos, and twelve Cal Wonder bells.  We never seem to have too many peppers, so I am going to plant a lot this year.  I also did a four pack of Diva cucumbers and a four pack burpless variety as well.  I sprinkled the last of my multi-colored beets and hope the best, the seed is pretty old.

Many sunflowers are coming up from last year, I am going to transplant some of them to other beds.  We enjoyed looking at the huge plants and flowers and the bees and other pollinators really enjoyed them as well.  The front flower beds are such a cheery sight.  The Hyacinthia and many other bulbs were such a welcome to spring.  I am going to continue to plant a few more things in the beds so there are new flowers pretty regularly.  There are a few iris blooms that should be next and the lilies leaves are up and going as well. 

Unseasonably hot is the theme of the week.  Today was like 93 degrees, but it is supposed to go back down into the 70s this week with some rain thankfully.  I am not ready for that heat and I always enjoy the spring rain for the garden.

Asparagus, great investment ;)

Asparagus is something that takes some patience when growing your garden.  But it is so worth it!  Today I harvested our second harvest this year the first was a small one and todays was a decent bundle, enough for a yummy lunch with eggs from our chickens.  A little sprinkle of cheese and it was just delicious.

Cucumbers and lots of ladybugs

The first cucumbers of the season today :)  I think they are the marketmores from Azure, the one we ate was yummy.  We also picked strawberries, blueberries, yellow squash, zucchini we are growing for a friend, and basil.  The tomatillios are just going crazy still, just amazing how covered they are.

The asparagus has had asparagus beetles and we have done some picking of them off, but there have been bunches and bunches anyway.  Well today the asparagus is also full, even more so, of ladybugs.  The natural way seems to be working out well.  There were lots of ladybug larvae and mature bugs.  I moved probably a dozen or more larvae to other areas of the garden.  I am hoping with the squash bug picked and egg squashing and now the ladybugs we will win the battle with them this year.  I found some eggs on the crookneck leaves and did some squashing ;)

First Early Girl Tomatoes

Today we had the first two early girl tomatoes.  They were small and so very good, eating them was such a good reminder of what a tomato is supposed to taste like!  We many other green tomatoes scattered on all the other varieties of tomatoes we are growing, how exciting it will be when we are harvesting more than a couple at a time.

Ripe Cherry Tomato :)

Woo hoo, we had our first ripe cherry tomato and there is an early girl that is starting to turn.  The zucchinis and yellow squash are starting to get with the program.  Our one yellow squash has a whole bunch of little squash on it, probably at least a dozen.  I think I saw a tiny crookneck while I was weed-eating the path beside it's box.  I need to check that out tomorrow because they are best pretty small usually and grow quick.  Still getting chard and the kale is huge and not seeming threatened by the hot weather at all.  More blueberries are ripening and things are looking good in the garden ;)

Blue Berries

Woo hoo the first ripe blueberries today!  They are huge and taste amazing.  I should have taken some pictures before they were swallowed up, the size of grapes they were.  There are still more ripening, I will have to get some photos.

I can't think of blueberries without thinking of The Bigsby Show Muffin Man song.

Weeding, pruning, picking

I spent a good bit of time tonight weeding beds (manure was full of weed seed apparently), pruning suckers off some tomatoes, and picking a few things.  We picked all of the peas off of most of the pea plants, all the purples.  I also plucked a good amount of basil, maybe a little bit of fresh pesto tomorrow will be in the plans.  There are several small summer squash growing well, lots of strawberry blossoms again, more beets ready, some loaded blueberry plants, good sized green early girls and cherry tomatoes, huge nasturtiums, and many other beautiful things happening out there :)

Pretty beets and a bit more harvested

We got to harvest another great veggie from the garden yesterday, beets.  Mainly they were the fun bulls eye target looking Chioggia.  God is so creative!  Some things I grow just amaze me at the fun design or color.  We also harvested more chard, some lettuce, and lots more peas.  I weeded the small bed that had gotten out of control a bit with weeds and planted carrots, lots of carrots, little seeds and little boys don't always go so well together.  I cooked up the beets as well as the yummy greens and threw in a green onion I harvested as well.