Winter crops going in

We started putting in the winter crops, which means guys like this are going to have to get yanked soon.

I wish we had a lot more space because we have a lot of various kinds of peppers that really can still produce for many more weeks depending on weather. But we want to make room for the winter plants.

snow peas and mustard greens

Lettuce

more lettuce

I was really happy to see that Green Thumb had 6-packs that were mixed with 3 different kinds of lettuce. I wish they would do the same thing with onions.

Onions

One 6 pack is a lot of freaking onions, and if you want yellow, red, and white, well you would need a lot more space than I have.

Spinach

We’re not done yet. We still have to put in cabbage, celery, carrots, and garlic. I also want to put in strawberries. We’ve had strawberries the last 2 years, and they were good, but didn’t produce a lot.  I noticed that one of the other plots always had lots of really big red strawberries. I’m suffering crop envy! My wife asked what variety of strawberry they were using, and of course didn’t write it down. Anyway, I will find out what they are and pass it along.

African Painted Bugs

They are attacking! First it was gophers, then rabbits, and now African Stink Bugs.

I stopped by the local Green Thumb, and they recommended a product called Captain Jacks, which is supposed to be organic. We’ll see how it works.

I also was having a problem with my strawberries not producing much fruit.  They said it might be too much water, so I am cutting back on the watering and will see if that helps.  Stay tuned.

Why is my corn dying?

When we planted the corn it grew 2 to 3 times in height the first month. But for the last month it has stopped growing and appears to be dying.

You can see the green beans planted around the corn is doing fine.  It’s a mystery to me.

At least the zucchini is doing well.

Summer is here.

I’ve been busy as a…

and things at the farm are blooming.

We finally pulled all of the carrots, onions, and garlic.

You can see it looks like a big mess, but now it is all gone.  The lesson I learned this season is that the carrots, onions, and garlic were not ready to be pulled back in April when we wanted to plant summer crops.  We used too much real estate for these, which means late planting for more peppers, cucumbers etc.  Fortunately we added more space at the house to accommodate the extra crops, but will be able to plan better next winter when we plant.

Now my creative juices abandoned me, and I just couldn’t find a way to photograph 25 pounds of onions, or bunches of garlic and carrots, so I’ll leave you with this.

Seeds are sprouting and winter crops still going strong.

Seeds are sprouting except for the jalapeno.

Our last head of cabbage.

Spinach

Carrot starting to peek out.

Snow peas

Onions and garlic

 

Seems like no matter how much salad we eat the lettuce just keeps on coming.

Bolting.

Seeds

For the last year we have used plants rather than seeds.  The only exception was carrots which I’ve been told don’t do well when transplanted.  But last week I saw a presentation about starting from seed and thought I’d give it a try.  I collected seed out of various types of peppers, a Roma tomato, and a cucumber, and then I bought one of these.

 Jiffy 5718 Professional Greenhouse 50-Plant Starter Kit

Add some water and all those little peat pods plump up like this.

I put a few seeds in each pod and will cover for a few days and we will see what happens.  I don’t plan on putting anything in the ground until after tax day so these seeds have plenty of time to do their thing. I’ll report back if and when anything sprouts.

Where do you find seeds on these two guys?

Questions for the experts.

I have a couple questions that maybe someone can answer.

Why does our broccoli always turn out like this?

And this?

Instead of this?

This is the second year we have had this problem.

Can I harvest some outer leaves or will they be bitter?

My wife wants to leave it alone but I’m thinking why not eat some now.  I guess we’ll just have to try some.