Kind of weedy

This happens when you go away for a couple of weeks (although I did get some help in spraying, no weeding occured).

But this was a couple of weeks ago. Things are now better weeded and generally under control. Most everything is pretty late this year. Cucumbers might just be ready to begin, and the tomatoes are just starting to form. On the other hand, the garlic looks like it's ready (a week or two before it normally would be) and the onions are already falling down. It's kind of a crazy year.

And I am afraid the fig tree had it. Last winter was just too much.

Baby spinach

The winter hung on this year, and so the early crops didn't do well. Not much germinated for a long time. And then the lettuce never did. I finally gave up on it.

We now have some small kholrabi, chard, and kale plants. Don't know how well those will do. But the spinach is beginning to take off. I thinned it out and got enough for some nice spinach salad.

Strawberry flowers!

And what comes next?

Late onions

Finally got in 60 onion plants. This has been a strange spring. I would have planted the onions a couple of weeks ago, but it was going to snow, and I didn't want the dry plants to get frozen. Maybe it would have worked, but I figured I would avoid trouble.

I've now got the tomatoes and peppers seeded and germinating. I hope, anyway that they are germinating. Nothing is showing yet (I thought spinach showed up quickly, but maybe the cold weather slowed things down.

A new year in the garden starts off with a bang

Between this year's constant snow and storms, and work being done (or, worse, not being done) on our entrance deck, I really didn't get around to getting outside to the garden until today. I looked up my plans, and realized that--surprise!--it's March. So I managed to plant most of the cool weather seed crops today. That includes kale, chard, kholrabi, and spinach.

Chard seeds (on the left) and spinach (on the right)

This year I bought most of my seeds from Seed Savers Exchange, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised by oddities. Still, these are the largest spinach seeds I've ever seen. The chard seeds look large as well, although this is only the second year I've planted chard. 

I kept away from putting out the onions. Because it looks like another storm is on the way.

Peas!

The snap peas have done very well. The plants are now up above the support (that means they are more than five feet high) and producing. Here's today's quart:

Plus I'm still getting raspberries. This is much later than I usually get significant amounts of raspberries. It's now too dark to pick them in the evening---in the past, that meant I was home too late. But now I'm working at home, so I can take off a few minutes and pick them during the day. Wonder how long the pollinators will continue to be active.

Also got some figs. If this year is any indication, next year's fig crop should be quite large. We can only hope.

Hot peppers and cooler weather

It had to come. But we had a remarkable run of hot weather in mid-September this year, and that kept the hot-weather crops producing. I'm still getting tomatoes, for example. But the past couple of days have been cooler, and I'm beginning to think it's the end of most things.

Still, it's been nice while it lasted. Lots of hot peppers, for example. Enough tomatoes for tomato sauce for the winter. And I'm still getting enough raspberries for my cereal every other day. I do like raspberries.

Not everything has worked out, and I need to make a full accounting soon. But enough that I have to think of this as a successful year, even after the cool start.

Update: Here's the picture--over 1 lb of hot (but not so hot) peppers. They went into the dryer.