Seeds for a new beginning -- Garden Update 4/11

Almost time for cabbage

Although my garden isn't looking as vibrant as the same time last year, I've had a slow start this year. This week we'll be taking a look at the changes I've made so far to prepare for the longer growing season.

Looking north

Looking south

You may have noticed that the cabbage is nicely heading up in the photos above. I'll probably harvest that head next week to make room for some beans. Already I have planted the vacant half of that bin with some of the bean seeds I harvested from last year.

These cabbages are nearly done

New and removed garlic and lettuce bed

I have removed the rest of the cilantro from my garden. All it was doing was taking up space and trying to invade my room whenever I opened the door to the outside. In it's place I planted some lemon cucumber seeds. I want to see how well they'll do in soil. The lettuce that's still there is doing fine. 1 or 2 plants might have died by the heat, but I can always replant.

Salad bowl lettuce doing ok

Moving over to the left side of my balcony, with the cilantro gone, everything else will be getting more sunlight. I've had to remove two of my white chard plants because they bolted. I expect some of the others to bolt soon. I'll be replacing white chard with red chard as the season continues.

Surviving older white chard

A closeup on the onions, lettuce, and kale

Grand Rapids lettuce

Red chard growing very fast

Newer red chard

My beloved giant kale plant has started to bolt. I think I'll keep it for now because I want to harvest seeds from it because it was a massive plant.

The end of an era

Moving toward the subirrigated planter, several pea pods have begun to form on my pea plants. The carrots and onions are getting bigger too. My biggest spinach plant has started to bolt, but the other orphaned seeds are still alive and possibly growing.

Everything is leaning toward the sun

Carrots

Smaller Spinach

Pea pods

This one had massive leaves

Finally, I decided to bring my old hydroponic hanging planters out of retirement to increase my growing space. I planted some Nevada lettuce in them to tolerate the heat in my area.

Those planters thought they could retire early

That concludes today's garden update. I'll be sure to include downstairs next week. Otherwise, this leaf of spinach below made a tasty morning snack.

Biggest leaf I've grown so far

Last Update (4/2)