crimson fava beans

My fava beans are starting to bloom! These are the crimson flowered ones from Dan at Urban Veggie Garden Blog in Toronto. I am so excited to see these bright flowers. So for, most are just budded. I'm sure I will get better photos of these later.

what birds are these?

I always like to get confirmation on my bird identification. What do you think these are? An oriole and maybe a pair of song sparrows?

my community plot

I am gradually turning the beds on the west side of my plot that were seeded with cover crops and layered with manure over the winter. These rich soils will be planted with squashes and corn soon.

The east side of my plot has unammended soils this year. These beds are planted already with lots of roots (carrots, beets, onions, garlic, radish etc). Also peas and fava beans. Soon I will plant beans. I am planning to do a lot with beans this year. I have a seeds for bush green beans and a wonderful variety of Chinese pole beans. One of my favorite beans is soy, for edamame. Last year I failed in growing these because the chipmunks eat the seeds as fast as I could plant them, even when I covered them until they sprouted. This year I will try sprouting at home and transplanting seedlings to my plot.

new plot progress

I'm enjoying watching the new plots take shape as their new gardeners get to work. Skippy and I walked around the Community Gardens yesterday and took a bunch of pictures of the progress.

frosted peas

My pea plants got nipped a bit by the frost last night. The edge leaves on the most exposed area look singed. The frost also got my little marigold seedlings that I had planted out. I don't think they will survive. I have more at home and will have to replace them. Everything else was fine: broccoli, onions, cabbage, radish, fava beans and carrots.

I think this will be our last frost. Its a late one this year.

bird sightings

I've seen some wonderful birds this week. American Woodcock, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Eastern Bluebird and the first Baltimore Orioles were at the garden this week.

The woodcock was a real treat. I saw this bird at dusk, just as we finished assigning the last plots at 8:30 last week. He settled down in the mowed grass, looking like a misplaced shorebird the size of a robin. Too bad I didn't have my camera with me, but don;t know if I could have gotten a good shot anyway. (next time....)

transplanting

I am transplanting my tomatoes, peppers and eggplant seedlings to bigger pots. It seems the weather will be too cool for planting out for a week of so, at least. SO - everything gets to move into big pots.

I am trying to figure out what I can do with all these seedlings. My parents have reserved theirs, and my brother says he wants some. I just was invited to talk at the NOAA Fisheries Environmental Fair (Wednesday, May 19 in Gloucester), so this may be a good place to find homes for more seedlings.

new work on the new plots

Its been a very chilly and windy weekend, but there is evidence of work in at least 3 of the new plots. Two fences are up and one plot has a nice trench around the edge. There is also a lot of work on newly assigned old plots in the back. Everything is looking good!

clematis

My clematis is blooming.

what's growing in my cold frame

I can't get over how fantastic this big cold frame is!! Its overflowing now with green. I didn't plant seeds any earlier this year than previous years, but things never grew this fast before.

(If you click on the top photo and mouse over, there are notes to show whats growing where.)

This weekend, I'll transplant half of the little tomatoes, eggplants and pepper seedlings into larger pots to give away. I'm planning to plant mine out into the garden early next week under hoops. The squashes, melons and cucumber seedlings are growing fast. My sweet potato slips that I transplanted into dirt against the expert advice seem OK. Its been easier for me to have them out in the frame and not inside in jars of water. It won't be warm enough to plant these out until the end of May.

And then there's that giant patch of kale! I have to start eating kale every night I think. Got any recipes?

my first harvest of the season - lettuce!

In previous years I have picked my first lettuce at the end of May or even early June. This year May 8!!! It has been a record warm spring here, but also my new cold frame is amazing.

Once I pick my first lettuce, I can usually avoid buying any supermarket lettuce until October. I bet the cold frame will extend the fall end of the season too.

plot assignments

The past two evenings, we assigned 23 of the 25 empty plots, including the newly created plots up front. Only 2 new plots are unassigned now. For the first time in at least 10 or 20 years, all of the 120 old plots are assigned! With the 15 new plots, we have a total now of 135 garden plots.

We have a rule that plots need to be worked by June 1, so the next step is to see if there are plots that aren't being worked and maybe we'll have more plots to assign at this time.

The plot assignment process takes some time and is very pleasant in the spring dusk. We walk new gardeners around in groups in groups of 6 and point out the available plots and answer questions about their pros and cons: where's the closest faucet, what's the soil and sun exposure like, etc. Then, gardeners pick their plot in the order their application was received.

It very fun to see how gardeners stress over their selection and then, once the choice is made, they look so happy. New community gardeners! I remember the feeling. They take out their tape measure or shovel and putter around. They poke at this and that and I can just see the process of visualizing what will grow where. What fun!

wall-o-water tomatoes

Today I checked on my four tomato plants in Wall-o-Water protectors. The Ulra early Beaverlodge seedling is nearly emerging from the top of the unit and has two clusters of many blossoms. Half are budded and half in full bloom. I shook them - pretending to be bee-like - hopefully getting them to self pollinate.

The Cherokee Purple and Box Car Willy seedlings look good, though no blossoms, not as big, and a bit of mold in some spots. The protectors seem to trap too much moisture around the plant. It will be good if I can remove them soon, but this weekend is supposed to be chilly.

And the fourth plant, another Beaverlodge that I planted in the shade at the end of the row under my rose bush, has died. Without sun, it makes sense that the Wall-O-Water is effective. :(

I have about 3 or so little tomato seedlings in my cold frame that are getting bigger and will be ready to transplant or give away soon, probably next week. I actually haven;t even looked at these recently. I will have to check on hem soon.

marigold

My marigolds have started to bloom. This is Lemon Boy.

baby cucumber plants

They are always the cutest little things. The baby cukes are growing up. I planted many this year. Diva (my favorite), Boston Pickling (a new one for me), North Carolina Pickling, Sweet Success and Tonikawa. I'm looking forward to fresh summer cukes.

I started the seeds inside under lights and today moved them outside to the cold frame (which I am now calling the hot house). In this hot weather, they can go right out. Today we had temps in the 80's. More like July.