This morning, I harvested the spinach on my back porch. We have had a couple of warm days (in the eighties), and it was starting to bolt. Tomorrow, it will be in the nineties, so time to harvest. In total, my two 12-inch containers yielded 190 grams (6.75 oz.). Not bad. It will be a nice addition to our dinner tonight.
One of the two containers has a parsley plant in the center, and I am adding nasturtium around it. In the other, I planted some tiny Iceland Mix poppy seedlings. It is my first time growing poppies. They are supposed to be difficult to transplant as their roots do not like to be disturbed. Fingers crossed.
Forgot to post my first real harvest of the year (May 11). A handful of rhubarb, which I turned into a strawberry-rhubarb compote served over vanilla ice cream for dessert. So good!
I just love the view from my third-floor back porch in May. The cherry blossoms are fading now (they were an incredible sight for the past two weeks), but our lilac and our neighbor’s dogwood are glorious. And the scent!
View from my back porch
It has been a super slow start to the gardening season, and other than the shallots, I have not planted anything in the plot yet. Because of a water leak, we still do not have water in the community garden. I do not trust the weather, and I am not schlepping gallons of water several blocks down to the garden. But my seedlings are ready; they are practically bursting out of their little containers. Fingers crossed the repairs will happen this week.
Spinach
Meanwhile, my container plants on the back porch are very happy. The spinach (two containers) really took off, as did the radishes.
Radishes (and parsley). After the radishes are harvested, this pot will hold two parsley plants and one basil.
My lettuce mix never germinated, so I transplanted one of the three Salanova Green Butter lettuces into that container. The other two will go in the plot. The seeds were old, so I unfortunately only got three seedlings out of the handful I started. Over the summer and into fall, the salad container will have Thai pepper, Thai basil and flowers.
Happy little container Salanova Green Butter lettuce
It has been an excruciatingly slow start to the season. Such a cold and rainy spring so far, which after this long and cold winter is especially hard. So, things in the garden have been slow to come up. I did not plant peas this year, and have not started anything yet in the garden plot. But both, the garlic and the rhubarb are coming up nicely. As are the grape hyacinths and a few tulips, which have yet to open.
Garlic
My dining room table is full of seedlings. I thinned the basil seedlings on March 30th and plan to re-pot tomatoes, Swiss chard, sage and thyme this weekend. I will also start hardening off the snapdragons. The kale has been living on the porch full-time for about a week now. This weekend, I also plan to plant my shallots and start my cucumber and squash seedlings.
Seedlings jungle
The radishes and spinach on my porch are coming up nicely. I had started them on March 30. Because it was so cold (we even still had a few frosts), it took them a while. On April 21, I also started leaf lettuce mix in one of the big containers.
It has been a long, cold and snowy winter, and things in the garden are just starting to emerge. The rhubarb is looking healthy, as is the garlic. Yay to new beginnings!
Today, on this raw and rainy early spring Sunday, I started my tomato seedlings. As usual, I went for a mix of early, mid-season, and late tomato varieties. This year, I am growing some favorite heirlooms and some new-to-me disease-resistant hybrid varieties as I had a lot of issues with some mysterious (fungal?) disease last season. I started two each of Stupice(early), Mountain Sunrise (early), Ailsa Craig (mid), Marmalade (mid), Galahad (mid), Dr. Wyche’s Yellow (mid/late), Caiman (late), Purple Zebra (late). I also started four Mountain Magic and two Peacevine cherry tomato plants for the communal flower/vegetable bed.
Hot pepper seedlings(with basil seedlings in the background)
This winter has been brutal. The record cold temperatures we had in December and January and several major snowstorms (the last one – the historic Blizzard of ’26 – just yesterday) make me long for spring. My seedlings have all sprouted. First was the thyme, followed by leeks, snapdragons, sage and peppers. The marigolds I sowed on February 20 are also sprouting, and this morning, I saw the first kale seedling (also sown on February 20) making its appearance.
I started my first seedlings today – leeks, sage, thyme, snapdragons and two kinds of hot peppers (Thai and Tennessee Spice, the latter was a freebie from Sand Hill Preservation Center, and I have no idea what that pepper even is). The leeks and hot peppers are for myself, the snapdragons (mostly) for the communal flowerbeds, and the sage and thyme are for the new community garden at the Mildred Haley Housing Development in Jackson Square. They are currently undergoing a redevelopment, which will include creating community gardening spaces, and I will start seedlings (flowers and herbs) this spring for the borders of that garden.
Not looking like much right now but I find it most exciting: Seeds all tucked in, under grow lights and with a heat mat to warm the soil.
This afternoon, while the biggest snow storm in four years was howling outside, I cozied up inside with tea and seed catalogs and made plans for the upcoming gardening season. I ordered seeds for disease-resistant tomato varieties from both Territorial Seeds (Galahad and Purple Zebra) and High Mowing (Marmalade, Caiman, and Mountain Sunrise), and shallot sets from Fedco (Roderique). I still need to place my order for herbs, flowers and some vegetable seeds with Sand Hill Preservation Center, which needs to happen soon, as in mid-February, I will need to start my first seedlings. Dreaming of spring 🙂
PS. The Baker Creek catalog is a piece of art. Such a pleasure to browse.
18 inches of snow
Update: On January 28, I placed my Sand Hill Preservation Center order via snail mail. I ordered Tuscan kale, Altaglobe radishes, herbs (sage, thyme, lemon basil), and flowers (Petite Mix marigolds, snapdragons mix, Alaska mix nasturtium, Iceland mix poppies plus Polar Bear and Oriole zinnias).
