What's growing on....

Ok... this may be a bit long but the weather has been absolutely gorgeous and from the extended forcast it looks like its here to stay.

Last year I took a different approach with growing basil. Continuing with the theme of  trying new things, this year I am trying to propagate cuttings from my hydroponic plant. So far so good. I hope to have a full blog post on this after I plant this out.

I made a new garden bed on this sloping section of my yard. At the bottom near the fence I have started planting my asparagus (which have long roots and are good for soil retention). I want to use the top of the garden bed for herbs.

Here are the herbs I've been collecting for this new garden bed: Left to Right: Lemon thyme and Lavendar (my son purchased these two from his schools plant sale... love this kid, he knows what his Mom likes), malabar spinach (ok not a herb this will go in my keyhole garden), tarragon, marjoram, broadleaf thyme (also known as Dodda Pathre in India), and curry. My plan is also to add a arp rosemary, english thyme, and egyptian walking onions (all of which can be perennials here in Zone 6).

 This is a highly neglected rosemary.... I'm hoping to transplant and  prune it...right now its looking pretty sad.

My local nursery was selling mature FLOWERING hardy kiwi plants for $150.... that inspired me to put some more energy into getting these hardy kiwis to flower.  I will get these to flower!!!

 Raspberries are trying to invade every possible space... I really should weed these more. I am sure I will pay the price later when I have to pull them out.

 You probably can't see them very well but my reliance grape plants are sprouting.... long story short. I moved one grape vine here last fall. (This area gets much more sun). Anyway the vine wasn't sprouting, so I ended up getting a second one from home depot.  Well now I have two sprouting vines that are too close together. Oh well... I am sure I'll regret this later but lets see what happens.

Planted out my chillis yesterday. Hopefully with this heat they will take off.

This is the other half of my chillis with two malabar spinach vines (or mayalu  (मायाळू) in Marathi)  growing in the back. I think the malabar spinach will like this location so much better since it has a tall trellis to grow on.

Not the best picture ever but here is my tomato lineup: Mighty grape hybrid, Sungold cherry, San Marzano, Oregon Springs, Red Rose and Kelloggs Breakfast. I am growing them in grow bags this year.  Yes they will be moved, they are not going to stay this close together.

Eggplant, so far only two. I'll probably squeeze a few more in when everything is planted out.

Comfrey.... I love this plant... it really worked out as a great fertilizer last year. My son started a batch of comfrey tea a month ago. Lets see how that works out... I am trying to avoid purchasing any more fertilizer.

These are my Snap peas that I am growing in my keyhole garden. They need to be trained up the trellis but otherwise they seem to be doing fine.

I have a ton of strawberries this year. The birdnetting is up but the birds have figured out a way under the bird netting.... I guess I'm going to have to anchor down the edges. I actually found a bird in the netting yesterday but I also wonder if the chipmunks are eating them? We'll see. I am nearing the end of my rope when it comes to strawberries. Not worth the fight in my opinion.

My daughter's fairy garden...its still a work in progress ... she grew whatever flower seeds she could find in my stash... so the little seedlings in the middle are nastratiums, Probably not the best thing for a fairy garden but oh well.

 This enormous sage plant is one of the first plants I ever bought years ago. I've let it go wild and it really has taken over this shady spot in my yard. I need to prune it. I suspect I'll have lots of little baby sage's when I'm done... anyone need sage?

Square food garden number one, this one has been under a floating row cover for a few weeks now. I think I can take the row cover off for good . The first row is onions, second rows is spinach, the third row has one square of kohlrabi with three squares of what I hope to be beans (I may need to reseed), and the fourth row is cucumber seedlings which are small but doing fine (because they have been under a row cover).

 This is my "worm bin".  I throw my kitchen scraps in here,  cover them with leaves and let the resident earthworms do their thing. The earth worms are so much more efficient than my compost bin. Those are raspberries surrounding my worm bin.

 Obligatory picture of my garlic in my second square foot garden.... really such an easy plant!!

Here are the rest of my seedling under a a shade cloth, acclimating to sun. I'll plant out the cucumbers and melons next week. So many extra chillis and tomatoes!!! Anyone want some!

I found a cheap mexican lime plant at a local nursery. I haven't had luck keeping limes alive in the winter but let see maybe third times the charm. (yes the lemongrass is photobombing the picture)

Gotu Kola is coming back. Yes there is a lot of clover,  however as I understand it clover is a good cover crop. So I am letting it stay in here,  at least till the Gotu Kola takes off.

 I started this hydroponic basil plant the first week in January and its still going... I get two large handfuls of leaves a week. I'll keep this going till the garden basil takes off. Speaking of which I really should sow my basil seeds soon., maybe next week.