In the Field

One very rewarding thing about our hobby farm is the fact that things just sorta grow when left to their own devices.  It's nice to see the sun, earth and rain, with little bits of hard work from last fall or even before, slowly and methodically converting into green plants that we will be consuming, preserving and selling.  The asparagus continues to produce - and the small new shoots of the recently planted purple variety are also poking up through the soil now too.

The rhubarb plants are also making a statement this year.  Full and lush leaves are supported by the red stalks that make terrific desserts (and some folks - like me - even enjoy just chewing on their tartness).

The garlic planted last fall is growing at a pretty steady pace now - about 90' worth of plantings - and I think only 2 cloves failed to survive the winter...  that's terrific.

The rows of onion sets we put in are also all sprouting up now too.  Half of them are planted close together for green onions this summer - the other half of each variety are spread out for larger onions to be harvest this fall and stored for as long as they last (as in getting eaten!)

The peas are all up a couple of inches now - time to get the second more heat resistant planting in.

The potatoes we planted - some red and some Yukon Golds (the seed potatoes were a bunch that sprouted from last years harvest) have also started to show some leaves above the dirt.  It won't be long before I'll need to hill them.

The transplanted raspberries are all going strong - even putting up new shoots.  Which is great to see.

AND - the cold frame is full beyond full - plants are going crazy in there - which is great.  Of course that means there's a re-potting of the tomatoes into 1 gallon pots on the horizon.

I really need to get some greens in, radishes and chard - in addition to some of the other spring plants that have hardened off in the cold frame (cabbage, kohlrabi, broccoli)

Comments

[Jeph]

I've got a two-in-one thing going on - my broccoli plants have new shoots/leaves coming up from their bases. I think I'll call them broccotatoes? (Or, I could call them "uh oh - it seems I didn't dig up ALLLLL of the Russian fingerlings last year AFTER ALL!)

Right now I'm busting off the stalks as they grow up from the ground. Maybe I'll just leave them in place and see what happens. Sure, you're not really supposed to grow potatoes in the same place in consecutive years, but I don't think I'll INTENTIONALLY be growing potatoes in future years anyhow...

Sounds like you guys should be all set with your onions and garlic. No matter how many I plant, and it seems like "oh so many!", they just don't seem to last very long once it's time to start using them.