The Pollen is Fallin'

Mid to upper-sixties in the garden this morning, with mostly cloudy skies ... and the green dust of pine pollen floating through the air.

First, fill in spaces left by unsuccessful germination of seeds:
~The radish row had a big gap. I planted more Early Scarlet variety. This later planting gives the added benefit of spreading out the harvest.
~Only one row of beets (the middle) germinated well. I planted two more rows, one on each side. Trying Ruby Queen variety this time.

Picked my first red radish yesterday.

Red Russian - the last to bolt

The end of the winter kale season has finally arrived. We sure have enjoyed fresh kale salads and tender cooked greens. I harvested a tub full of the Red Russian variety and cut the last bit of the Curly Blue Scotch variety. The aphids had settled in and were quite prolific on these mature plants. The row of Red Russian was hardest hit. The reason? I believe the aphids came over from the raised bed "next-door". Last fall, aphids had taken over the sweet potato plants. When I pulled up all those plants the aphids moved over to the first row of kale they came to ... the Red Russian. The next row, lacinato kale, had a few aphids. The row furthest from the sweet potato vines? Almost none. All three rows growing in the same bed. No worries, though. Those bugs can't compete with a little soak in cold salt water and will not interfere with the edibility of the greens.

I put up a string trellis to support the sugar snaps as they grow. I don't know why I didn't first remove the hoops from the winter row cover system! Oh, well. Just another good reason to spend time in the garden.

Potatoes, after all!

The potatoes we produce in our garden have alway been very delicious, but I've been disappointed in yields. I had decided not to grow potatoes this year. Fate had other plans ...

Our friend, Chris Diggs, master gardener from Washington, gifted me with some seed potatoes. Two varieties:

• Huckleberry Gold - medium-small, round to oval tubers with purple skin and yellow flesh. Resistant to common scab and verticillium wilt.
• Ozette - a prolific fingerling potato with thin tan skin and creamy, flaky, light yellow flesh. An unusual number of deep eyes for high yields. Excellent flavor, good storage. From the Makah tribe in NW Washington.

I like the "prolific" and "high yield" parts! The potatoes got tucked into their "lazy" bed this afternoon. For more about "lazy potato beds" see my post from March 2009 .

Is it too much to ask? full rows of sugar snaps?

Last month, I direct-seeded two rows of  sugar snaps. Many of seeds did not germinate. So, this past weekend I soaked some seed to be SURE they would germinate. Almost every seed DID sprout! I planted them this afternoon to fill in the gaps of those rows planted on February 12.

I had a few extra pea sprouts. I would hate for them to go to waste, so I planted them at the base of the cedar "tee pee" garden sculpture.

Walla Walla Onions

Courtesy of our friend, Chris Diggs, and straight from Walla Walla County, Washington. These are big, round onions with sweet, juicy flesh. Like other onions, they need consistently moist, well-drained soil. Regular fertilization recommended. Best grown in "the north". We'll see how they do in my southern garden. The starts were a bit banged up when they were delivered. I hope they'll bounce back quickly.

I planted two rows that I will encourage to grow to maturity, and one row in between that I will harvest as green, "spring onions."

Filling out that bed: a dense row of salad turnips down the middle, with spinach, lettuce, and arugula taking up the left side.

Island Garden

My raised bed garden looks like an island in a sea of straw, evidence of the tilling, raking, seeding, and spreading Rouse the Spouse recently accomplished toward a more perfect lawn. The birds have been enjoying the mother-lode of seed!