Planted more beet seeds

It has been hot and dry for the past few weeks. So we didn't sow anything at all. However, the weather will be changing this week and rain is supposed to stay with us for a few days at least, so I guess it is a good time to sow some seeds.

I soaked the beet seeds for a few hours ahead of time (not sure if that makes any difference). Seeds are down at the end of the left side yard (looking from the house), by the tomato plant at the end of the right side yard and under the apple tree. The seed colour is the same as the soil, so it is really difficult to sow them evenly few inches apart. Time will tell how good the job I did when they start to sprout.

Broad Bean is done. Bye!

We have tried, and we are disappointed.

Today we harvested all the broad beans. There were seven plants in total and altogether we have less than half a bowl of the beans.

I might have planted the seeds to deep to begin with, and that took a long time for them to surface above the soil. However, once they have made their appearance, their growth rate was slow and their size was small. We had allocated quite a large space for them. With that little result, we felt it doesn't worth growing them again.

Did I also mention that it was a pain to take their shell off?

strawberry

Moving the strawing plants from the patch under the patio staircase to the backyard path is a great success. Not only they don't take up extra growing space, the strawberries lies on the ground cover and it decorates the path. The only minor problem is that every step we take has to be careful or we will step on the little sweet goodies (as a matter of fact, I did already...)

The weather has been rather friendly for veggie growing. We have hot sunny days and then a day of rain in between. Seeds that were sown are all sprouting, including the slow germinating carrots. The friendly weather definitely helps. I also tried to sow the seeds on the day when it was about to rain; and I covered the seeded area with a light floating fabric. The fabric might help with trapping the moisture in the soil.

The leeks have grown taller also. Time to start filling the trench...and you know what, I think I didn't dig the trench deep enough. Another lesson learned.

There are holes on the cherry tomato plants. What causes that?

more seeds

It was a sunny hot Sunday yesterday. (max. 23C) We took our chili plants and seedling trays out for sun bathing. Today, it was a 360 degree change (max 16C)...cloudy in the morning and then followed by rain. The radio said this Victoria Day weekend will be the perfect time to do gardening due to the predicted change of weather. They are right. I planted the seeds in the morning, and let the nature takes care of the rest.

Today I've sown the following seeds:
carrots (by the shelling pea)
beets (by the shelling pea, 2008 seeds)
radishes (all over, 2008 seeds, the round type)
salad mix (by the end of the shelling peas, by the edge of the cherry tomato plant)

Also, the leeks seedlings were also down in the field (by the shelling pea/carrot seeds).

We pulled out a number of leeks (planted last year) and made leek and potato soup. There are still leeks remaining. We have been keeping a close watch on their growing as they seem to grow in height only instead of width (the white part). The flower stalk is coming out from the leek one after another. I guess it is time to finish them. In case you wonder, no, they don't taste old. They are still very fragrant and delicious.

Update of the previous sowing: the carrot seeds from the first round of sowing have sprouted, so as the Gai lan. The radishes are still not ready yet. Though the salad seeds have sprouted, they seem to stop growing. I'm glad that we still have constant supply of green salad from the kale that we planted last year(?), red lettuce and arugula. The kale flower is delicious.

apple tree

This is the second year of our apple tree. Beautiful flowers blossomed and now followed by apples...we hope! At least, this is what we saw today:

Is it exciting? Under the apple tree, we've sown/planted some low height crops such as radishes, lettuces (only about 4 inches tall) and beets (a late harvest crop).

pea and leek: new method

As a new veggie grower, we learn something new every year and we always try to do things a bit different the next year hoping to see some improvements. So this year, we've tried a new pea trellis. I brought a net from the nursery and mounted it on the wooden frame. It looks pretty good, though I believe that the trellis is not tall enough for the pea to climb. Oh well, next year project...

For the leeks, I've tried the trench method. It is a method that I learned while looking for information about vegetable farming on the Internet. Over the course of the growing season, the trench is gradually filled in with soil. The goal is to encourage the grow of the white part of the leek. (the tall green plants are garlics)