More Cabbage, More Food -- Garden Update April 24

Surviving the heat, and soaking up sun.

It's getting hot this April! Thanks to some cloudy weather, my plants aren't wilting as much today. It's supposed to rain tomorrow (90% chance), which is good for the state and the plants. However, the forecast says it'll reach 90 next week for 3 days or so. I think it'll be a good idea to bring out some sheets to act as shade cloth for some of these plants.
DOWNSTAIRS

Overview of the hydroponic garden

Some salad bowl lettuce

Leafy

The lettuce in the hydroponic garden is getting a lot bigger, in a week or 2, it might be ready to start harvesting and making salads. This, of course if it survives the heat wave next week. I think the Nevada lettuce has a good chance of surviving, but the Salad Bowl Lettuce might not make it.

A closer look

Hand for slight size comparison

After weeks of attempting to fruit, the strawberry plant finally has a berry ripening. The combination of extra water and removal of dead flowers likely helped. It's likely that I can get some more berries out of it before it goes dormant again. The grapevine isn't looking any larger yet, but it doesn't look like it's dying either. I must be doing something right then.

A ripening strawberry

The vine needs a lot more time

UPSTAIRS

Kale, Chard, Onions, basil, lettuce, and carrots

Lettuce, cucumbers, cabbage, and beans

Overall, the upstairs garden is flourishing. New plants are taking hold, seedlings are growing bigger, and larger, more established plants are nearly ready for replacement. The salad bowl lettuce upstairs is doing much better than my downstairs crop, but I think it's because the stuff upstairs was transplanted a few weeks earlier.

Salad bowl lettuce

Look at the cool leaf shape

 The lemon cucumber seedlings have started to grow the first true leaves. In the next week, I'll need to build or move a trellis into this bin to accommodate the growth and vines.

Cucumbers are a must each season.

Four of the bean seeds I planted have germinated in the vacated cabbage spot. I planted some more seeds today after my harvesting operation today.

More beans are coming!

Moving toward the left side of my balcony, many of the plants there are now well established. The basil plant looks like it'll grow up to produce many Italian dishes and pizzas. The red chard is growing so fast that I feel it'll be ready to eat in less than 2 weeks. Also the green onions I have might be due for a harvest soon.

The start of many basil plants

The red chard is catching up to the white chard already

Time to make onion soap! (joking)

My pea plants have run their course. I harvested a total of 5 or 6 pods from them, all which tasted pretty sweet. I think the one I pulled up today is the last pod I'll get. I might be able to relocate the trellis from this bin to support the lemon cucumbers.

The last pod

So small, but so sweet

We'll finish off this week by looking at some cabbages. All the old outer leaves on my mutant cabbage dried up, so I pulled them off. Now the plant looks like it has 5 or so heads forming on it.

Cabbage revolutions

Additionally as I mentioned above, I harvested the cabbage in the bin with the beans. I can't wait to cook with it.

Today's harvests

Come back next week to see if the garden can survive the upcoming heat wave!

Last Week's Update