Homemade pizza

Red onions and oregano from the garden, spinach and goat cheese from the farmers market = best pizza ever?

Peas!

On Saturday, while I was watching the Saracens win the rugby premiership trophy, my wonderful wife was out in the garden tying up our pea plants.  This is the first year I've grown peas and I didn't do enough research to know that they had to be trellised.  She tied them up to stakes and harvested some that were ready.  Pictured above, our son is inspecting his future dinner.

Weekend work

It's not the most glamorous part of gardening, but this weekend I had to tend to some bushes that had gotten out of control.  They were threatening both our house and our neighbor's driveway.  We're lucky she hadn't called the law yet.  There were weeds and vines growing up through all four of the bushes on this side of the house.  I tried to get into them and cut the weeds off near the ground.  I'm sure I'll have to have another go at these in a month or two and then again in the fall so that they will be nice and compact when they flower in the spring.  I was tempted to get rid of them entirely and use this area for gardening until I saw their flowers this spring.

Weekend project

Over the weekend, I got around to a project I'd been needing to do for a while.  I had hoped to compost all of my yard waste, but the larger branches just weren't breaking down.  Maybe if I had a wood chipper it could've worked.  Anyway, instead of a compost pile, I had more of a brush pile.  It's not just the ones you can see.  There are layers of branches underneath layers of leaves and sod. 

On Saturday, I just moved the problem.  I pulled all of the branches out and made a large brush pile in my yard.  There was actually some great compost underneath some of the branches.  Anything small enough was left to be part of the compost pile.  On Sunday, I bundled up all of the wood and put it out at the curb.  Supposedly, someone will be by to pick it up.  I guess living in the city isn't all bad.  Of course, if we were out in the country, I could've had a great bonfire!

It was important to get this pile taken care of so that I can continue to compost leaves and green growth from my yard.  There are a couple of areas of bushes that seriously need trimming and now I am free to attack them.  Instead of composting all of the leaves, though, I am going to use some to mulch around existing plantings to keep the soil from drying out.

An unexpected morning

I had an unexpected bit of work before breakfast (and coffee!) this morning.  While I was adjusting the straps that hold the plastic cover on my small greenhouse, the wind caught it and tipped it.  Fortunately, I was right there and was able to keep it from falling over, but most of my seedlings fell off and partially (many, completely) out of their cups.  I was able to find and re-pot all of them that were viable (I had already lost a marigold, a jalapeno and four chias from drying out this week, and I discovered that my basil clone was not making roots at all).  Now, I have to wait and see how many survive this significant root trauma.

Since they all got mixed up, there is a little pepper confusion.  I know that the four largest are jalapeno and that all of the ones with red stems are cayenne.  That leaves three small seedlings with green stems.  One of them is a jalapeno and the other two are cayenne.  The marigolds are so small, with tiny root systems.  I think they're the least likely to pull through.  One of them looked broken as well.

I plan to move the greenhouse against the fence, where it will have support on one side.  I will also weigh down the base and lash the shelves and their supports to each other.  I wasn't planning on doing that today, but I suppose I can just add it to my list.

Plantings

Wednesday may have been my biggest day for planting yet this year.  Not only did I finally get my okra seeds in the ground, I also planted out the basil and pineapple sage that survived the winter in my closet.  The chia sage were not looking great (maybe I left them in the cups too long?), but I put the six best out in the "cottage garden" area.  In the picture above, you can see the five chiles that I also planted in the garden.  I think they're the African bird peppers (piri-piri), but they could be jalapeno.  I didn't label the cups they were in.

Okra and squash

I finally finished preparing the ground for my okra and zucchini!  I should have had them planted weeks ago, but tearing up grass is tough, particularly with limited time available for doing it.  The mounds in front will hold zucchini and the three rows behind them are for the okra.

A new greenhouse

My parents recently gave me this four-shelf greenhouse.  I left a thermometer in it all day yesterday and all night.  It's staying warmer and more humid than the environment.  I want to be cautious, but I believe it will be a better situation for my seedlings than the closet, so I went ahead and moved them all out.  The top shelf has the chia sage, jalapeno and African bird peppers.  The second shelf is all cayenne and the third shelf has marigold and a basil clone.  On the bottom, I put the basil and pineapple sage that survived the winter.  The closet is empty and there's still plenty of room left in the greenhouse.  I think I'll start trying to clone the forsythia soon.

Weeds?

These are some "weeds" that I have allowed to grow in my garden this spring because they looked interesting and possible useful.  I was hoping someone could identify them for me.

"Cottage" seedlings

Some seedlings are starting to sprout in my side garden.  I should have been more careful when I planted them, so I'm not exactly sure what's what.  I think the first one above is either larkspur or nigella.  I believe the second and third are bachelor's buttons and calendula.  The last one could be cosmos.  I've grown poppies before and they had more of a fern-like appearance as seedlings, so I'm pretty sure they've not sprouted yet this time.

"Magenta Spreen" lambsquarters

I felt a little silly ordering seeds for something that's basically a weed, but it is pretty.  I can't wait for it to get a little larger, so I can try it in a salad.  You can also cook it like spinach.  In my last garden, a similar plant that lacked the magenta center grew wild as a weed, but it wasn't in my new garden.  It's in the same family as quinoa, amaranth and spinach.