Berries everywhere

Berries have been coming in almost daily. We get our choice of strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. While we may not get enough to make jam out of, it has been great seeing Pooka and Brother sharing berries for lunch everyday. Sadly, I think we are just about out of raspberries and blueberries for the season, but at least we got a good snack out of them.  Maybe next year we will get even more.

A small harvest one day of berries and peas. 

Purple peas

I honestly did not plan to have two pea posts back to back, but we have peas. The purple peas have come in and they are rather prolific. I will say we have not be disappointed with them since their flowers give a nice pop of color in the garden. Pooka loves having lots of colors in her life and this gives the added bonus of not being what you expect.

Peas on the plant with flowers

 I will say that sometimes the different color makes it much easier to find the peas than sugar peas. These peas are very much "Here I am" being in such contrast with their plant. . However, sometimes the dark color also hides it when it is buried in the plant.Here is a better picture of them with the plant.

Purple Peas on the plant

I have noticed these to be rather prolific. The very random cooler spell we are having seems to be helping them quite a bit. This is just today's harvest. We are harvesting the peas when they are still rather "snow pea" thin. Supposedly, if you let these peas get too big they get rather tough since they are more like soup peas. 

The harvest today

The color is very purple, which surprised me just a bit since they were suppose to be blue podded peas. I am curious that if I leave a few on the plant for more then a day or so to fill out if they will get blue or if they will stay this neat purple color. The kids have taken to eating them raw as a snack or as a side at lunch. I am glad this experiment has gone well and Pooka is already asking if she can plant some to take to school in the fall for her lunch. Although I will say Brother is not as much of a fan and is watching the sugar peas to come in.

Purple peas

A huge difference

This year we are planting two very different types of peas. The normal sugar snap peas that have yellow flowers. These are the flowers we expect to see, a yellow white flower that is cute but more a sign of food on the way. Pooka told me the other day that she observed the difference between these peas and the blue podded peas.

Picture from last year, See the white/yellow flowers

Imagine our surprise when the purple podded peas started to flower. The plants all have multiple flower colors and they are give a great pop of color. There were pink flowers on some of the plants. Sorry, Pooka just corrected me and told me the flowers are fuchsia. I guess I live in an 8 bit color world.

Pink and purple flowers

There are blueish purple flowers mixed in as well. The bluish flowers seem to be a bit more rare right now. I had a friend over recently and she said asked what pretty flower I had in the pots. She was shocked to learn it was actually a pea plant and said if I hadn't told her better, she would of thought I was just growing flowers. Of course, this friend is starting her own journey into growing food and knew I wouldn't grow flowers unless there was a good reason.

More pea flowers.

There are also some pretty purple flowers of their own. I will say it is nice to have a pop of color out there that will still bring us food in the long run. Here is to having peas in the near future.

Another shot of the pea flowers. Gotta admit they look great

It has begun

A week ago after school Pooka and I decided to at least get the pea seeds in the ground. Now this year, I didn't start them inside and take them out. We just put the seeds in the dirt. It will be nice in a few weeks when I can send fresh sugar peas and blue peas in the kids lunches for school.

Home of the sugar peas

We started with the regular sugar peas. Those we planted straight into the ground in the front back bed by the deck where we have had peppers and tomatoes the last few years. Upside is that the pea plants will put back some nitrogen for the soil.

Home of the blue peas

Next we planted the new blue podded seeds in the containers. I was trying (maybe ineffectively) to minimize the cross pollination. I know Brother and Pooka really want to try blue peas. The location of the pots will most likely be moved, but at least its started and ready to go. I need to figure out where they will be moved too, and we may plant some watermelon in a blue bin under the peas. I will have to see how things are progressing.

Observing the seeds

Now, to be scientific, I had Pooka stop and observe the difference in the two seeds. I wanted to see if she could find any difference in them and similarities. Pooka ran and got her magnifying glass and got to work. She said the blue peas were "a reddish color, less wrinkley and stayed a bit more round as well a bit bigger." The regular peas were "white and looked squished and wrinkled, and were still a circle." Now we wait to see the begining of the plants.

Thinking for fall

The last few weeks, Pooka and I have been wondering about what fall will bring. We know it will mean less tomatoes and peppers, but we are trying to extend our harvest of at least some of the veggies. Peas are one that have taken off this year and may do well as the temperatures begin to drop.

Soon to be peas and beans

So the last few weeks, Pooka and I have been begining to think of getting the sugar snap peas, the green beans and the carrot seeds planted. Most have begun to sprout.

Another group of carrots

The pak choi is doing well, and we will be transplanting it soon. Then we will be restarting the spinach and the lettuce again. Daddy and I even agreed to go to the nursery and buy some more broccoli plants to get in the ground so we will have plenty of broccoli. If it is anything like last year, the broccoli lived past when the snow had begun to fall.

Getting filthy

On Saturday, Daddy and I had to finally admit the potato plants were dead. I admit I was more the a bit nervous that we would find nothing. Brother on the other hand had thoughts that he would have enough potatoes he could sell them to the grocery store.

Dead potatoes

May I just say the word filthy comes to mind when digging these out of the bags. I swear I still have dirt in my hair, no matter how we tried to extract these things. However, the best method we came up with is to have Daddy hold the bag on the side of the bin we were putting the dirt into.

Sitting on the size of the bin

 Brother, Pooka  and I  (mostly brother and I since we didn't have enough space for all of us) would then reach in and form a bit of a cavern in the bag looking for potatoes. The dirt would fall into the bin and we could be sure we were pulling out all the potatoes as we went.

Cavern of potatoes

We didn't have a great crop, but we had over a 1 pound of blue potatoes. they are about the size of baby potatoes at the grocery store (you know, the ones that are $3.99 for a lb and a half) so that is what we priced it against. I think next year we will have to pay a bit more attention to what we were doing, and Brother is still excited to eat them. I was about to call it a failure, but Daddy said "since we got at least one meal out of it, not to call it a failure but a learning experience and isn't that what this garden is for, to teach the kids and us." Point taken

Our potato crop

What are we going to do with the all the dirt that came out of those bags? Daddy had us empty into this old plastic bin that was in the shed. After looking at it, (and not wanting to have to carry it back into the shed) Pooka and I decided to plant a few more sugar snap peas in it and let them grow. We will be sticking some wood in it to make a small trellis, and then letting them grow onto the deck. This way, the dirt isn't just sitting around and we can put some nitrogen back into the soil so it can be reused next year for something.

Reused and reuse and reuse

Lunchtime

In a bit of a rush, but I wanted to show you all what I am taking to work for lunch tonight. Everything was grown in Pooka's garden and she said I could take the second cherry tomato "since you haven't tried them yet. They are delicious."

Homegrown carrots, peas, beans and cherry tomato

I know using plastic bags isn't the best answer, but the kitchen is still in process of being rebuilt and we don't currently have a sink for dishes. I added a store bought cucumber to make sure I get enough. I am waiting impatiently for ours to come in. Hopefully I bought my last sets for awhile.

Cucumber is getting there.

Getting There

The harvests are getting bigger. On Friday, Pooka and I harvested these yellow squash from her yellow squashes from her mystery squash plant. They are fairly small still, but I heard if you harvest them smaller they are less seedy and taste better. That's the hope. We haven't had a chance to try them yet since we lost the kitchen this weekend. We are planning on trying them today.

Harvests

Pooka was so very excited to see that first yellow cherry tomato. I barely got pictures before she was jumping in and eating it. She said it tasted wonderful and is hoping for a purple cherry tomato next. I told her we will see. Brother also had a handful of blueberries in there. Those lasted about as long as the cherry tomato.

Reaping the rewards

Today my kids are merrily eating their veggies at lunch. Not just store bought veggies (which they love to eat anyway) but veggies grown and picked and washed by them. I was torn on what to make for lunch and then we saw these hanging on the pea plant.

Peas are calling

After a bit more looking we also found some green beans.  The kids both asked if they could try their carrots. They are still on the small side for carrots, but we called them baby carrots. They both asked if they could have the greens off their carrots and I told them to try it. Brother was not a fan, but the ever adventurous Pooka loved it. I am thinking of putting the rest of the greens in a salad tonight for dinner, but only time will tell if we get that far.

Yummy Lunch

Round 2 planting

I can say I finished our second rounds of planting. Last Friday, Pooka and I started a second batch of carrots as well as some spinach. We were doing so much with the spinach that we had cut it back a bit to far and it was starting to struggle.

 

For the carrots, we had always planned to try and do a second set a month or so after originally planting them to extend our harvest. This was more like 2 months, but hopefully it will give us more carrots to eat throughout the summer. Now to just hopefully start really getting to see the rewards of our plantings.

 

We did manage to get some peas and green beans in the corn pot as well. Hopefully the 2 of the 3 sisters works well. That is the hope anyway. We will have to see.

Food glorious food

It is official. The garden is producing.

Pooka's and my morning walk through the garden showed signs of food starting that was more then just leafy veggies.

The peas are going great. In this picture alone, you can easily see 3 but the plant has double that. We are just waiting for them to fill out and we can pick them. We could pick them now as snow peas, but I know both kids love sugar snap peas better.

The green bean plants are producing as well. They are smaller in size, but seem to be happy in their spot. We never seem to get enough for a side of just green beans, but we do get enough to have them as a nice snack for the kids, which I am always willing to let them have.

Here you can see a tiny little tomatillo growing on the back of a flower. If this keeps up, we will have tomatillos coming out of our ears. I think Daddy is as excited as Pooka is for them.

Here is a tiny little cucumber on our tiny little plant. I figured it might take longer to get cucumbers, but the plant is growing and apparently making cucumbers. This is a family staple around here.

Tomatoes. Thats right, I found a tomato on one of the tomato plants. I do need to go through and prune the suckers off the tomatoes (After I re-read how to) but its good to see we are already getting tomatoes. Hopefully we won't be waiting till the last minute to get them like last year.

Transplanting, transplanting.

That is all we have been doing of late. It seems that I am constantly dodging rain drops while I run outside and try to get a couple of plants in the ground or bigger pots. Sometimes I come in not looking too worse for wear, othertimes, I am pretty sure swamp thing would be a relation.

Pooka's new strawberry plant

Pooka has had plenty of time to enjoy digging her holes. She has named and counted every worm, and makes sure they all go back into the holes. And to her credit, she has hung in there, although I know planting 8 plants at a time can be a bit challenging for a 5 year old who would rather find some way to exercise "to get more energy."

Tomatoes and peppers all done

However, through all this, the regular broccoli and the cucumbers have been planted, all the hot peppers and tomatoes are now in homes. The tomatillos and the beans and the peas are settled in. The eggplant, some squash, zucchini and the mystery plant are getting comfy in their new pots.

Mystery plant all settled into a new home

While we still have some things to plant (the sweet peppers, a couple more squash, and about 8 new herbs) we are getting there. That is something to remember when you are dodging raindrops to plant, or when you sit on the ground and hear it go squish. Plus the more I plant now, the less I need to water. Mother Nature is taking care of that.

Squash in a recycling bin

Potatoes, Peas and onions oh my

I just thought I would give an update of some of the things going on around here.

The blue potatoes are doing really well. I am actually thinking about hilling the first bag already and am waiting just a bit on the second bag because it still has one smaller plant. Brother is so excited that his potatoes are doing well. Daddy even admitted that if this works, we may build a bigger bag/tower to put potatoes in next year.

The smaller of the potatoes

The peas are growing great. They are still rather small, and some are just now sprouting, but with all this rain, I am expecting a bit of an explosion on peas. I did get a stick in the ground yesterday between storms for them to start climing. Then I will tie it to the trellis on the deck so they can grow up it. We also got the ground around them mulched yesterday, so we are getting somewhere finally.

Peas before I gave them a stick

The onions were mulched as well. It looks like something tried to eat one or 2 of them and decided they didn't taste very good. The bit they bit off was laying next to the onion. It also looked a bit like they had been walked on, but the new mulch should help that as well.

Onions freshly mulched

I do have a set of tomatoes that I am trying to harden off correctly. That plus the 3 pans of seedlings I have been carting in and out of the house daily onto the front porch which is a bit more sheltered. So far they seem to be handling it quite well. I sadly still have tomatoes that are in dire need of transplanting. At least the garage is clean now so Pooka and I have a place to do it. Brother's homework assignment exploded out there for a few weeks.

Hardening off tomatoes

At school on Tuesday, Pooka made a raingauge at the local Kids Discovery Museum. She put pebbles at the bottom so it wouldn't fly away into the neighbors yard. Pooka really likes having her own rain gauge. She says "it's really fun, all you have to do is take a bottle, cut the top off, and then put measurments on it and put pebbles in it and scotch or duct tape the top on upside down. And it doesn't matter what kind of tape you use, just really strong tape. It is kinda hard to get the water out without getting the pebbles out." We got our own rain gauge the day before and hers is fairly accurate.

Rain Gauge by Pooka

 Now to hope for good weather so we can get some work done.

Lots and lots of updates

In the last few weeks, we have had alot of projects start, but I think its time to tell you how they are going.

A couple of weeks ago, we had cut the ends off some green onions to see if we could regrow them. While we did have to get rid of some that didn't look so good, we did have a couple of green onion cuttings that are growing like mad. Pooka is so excited that they are doing so well.  So maybe that is one internet rumor that works. I did cut a few more ends off another set, so those got droppped in the cup too. The more the merrier at this point and all are showing signs of growth.

The green onion experiment

In Febuary Pooka and I stumbled across a clearance herb kit. It was a nice kit and grew nicely at first, then the dampening off/gnat problem got to them. They seemed to do okay until I stopped watering them to combat the dampening, and then the rest of the plants really took off, and I kinda forgot about them. This probably would of worked if I had not forgotten about them. Black thumb scored there. However, I am going to retry putting seeds in this container in a few days after I get some of these plants outside of my house.


Oops, they got forgotten

Pooka's Easter bunny egg flowers are doing okay. So far only the two snap dragons and a pansy have sprouted, but we are watching the others closely to see if they do okay. Pooka found a red watering can at Target in the dollar section that we are going to transplant the flowers (or just regular seeds) into once they get a bit bigger. She is so excited to just have flowers, something I don't share. If I am going to do the work, I want to EAT the darn things. However, it makes her happy and it is not going to take up much space.

Pooka's flowers

Finally, the peas, oh the peas. How I am not sure what to tell you. I planted the plants outside, and they didn't keep dying, but they haven't really seemed to come back. Add to it the last couple days of rain and pretty harsh winds, and its just there. Monday, Pooka and I saw our first sprouts from the Pea seeds we put in there. Maybe there is hope for them yet.

Can you play spot the Pea sprouts?

Time to start getting plants outside.

On Monday, I was getting slightly concerned that our pea plants were not doing as well as I would of liked. They were starting to look a bit sad. The only thing I was able to think of is that pea plants produce nitrogen (which is why they make a great rotator plant). I had been silly and planted our pea plants in potting soil that has nitrogen in it. This was a case of me not thinking real clearly and I was afraid they were dying from nitrogen overdose.

I decided Monday to hedge my bets a bit and Pooka and I had to go out to the store anyway, so we picked up some sugar snap pea seeds. We planted our seeds in the bed Monday. Turns out, after I did some reading that pea plants can handle temps being 20 degrees or warmer. (I have since learned to research a bit better before I go throwing seeds in things. At least till tomorrow).

Pea seeds have been planted.

So the pea seeds Pooka and I threw in the ground Monday and watered. It was nice to be able to work in the actual beds even if it was a bit muddy.

On Wednesday I decided to move the pea plants themselves outside. It was so nice to empty a pot for once. While digging our holes, we found a few worms. Pooka asked that I be very careful because she didn't want the worm to get hurt because he is good for our soil. She even went as far to say "Thank you Mr. Worm for all your work in my garden." She even asked if I could make sure I put the worms back into the ground gingerly so they would be safe.

Hello wormy.

After protecting Pooka's wormy friends, we put the pea plants in the dirt. They did look sad and I am not at all sure they will make it. I took a bit of insurance and put a few pea seeds in the hole with them. Now to wait and see what happens. Pooka really likes eating sugar snap peas so I hope she at least gets a good snack out of them.

Everything in the ground

Spring surprises

It seems we have finally found the begining of spring. The air outside is 54, the sun is shinning the snow is finally melting away and we have plants out in the sun.

Plants enjoying the spring sun

This is only some of the pots and the ones that have been in and out a bit. The peas may even go in the ground as soon as Monday. Turns out those guys handle cold better then I thought, so might as well get them in and let them go to town.

Lilacs are alive...

The larger of the lilacs is happy and budding away. We knew this one would be strong and happy. The littler ones seem to have had a harder time with the winter, but I still hold out hope they will come back.

Strawberry are still with us

I went out front to check some things there and found that our strawberry plants had survived the winter. Not all are unscathed, and some had a nice coating of dead strawberry leaves but they looked really good.

Even the seeded strawberries are alive

I was even surprised that the baby strawberry pot we planted last year still had some signs of life with green leaves. Its only one or 2, but I am wondering if we can nurse it along and keep it. We did lose brother's strawberries as far as I can tell, but it is still early enough, I will let him pick something else to put in it. Who knows, maybe he will try blueberries or something.

Welcome spring, we have missed you.