Mad Dogs and English [Wo]men

Megan, Ann and I arrived at the old house Saturday at noon. 

We were greeted by the first bloom of the season.

We got to work right away. It took a lot of effort but we weeded the garden leaving only some garlic, onions, flowers, and what I'm pretty sure is zucchini but might be cucumber. John showed up shortly thereafter and cut the small patch of grass out back with the push mower that decided to work now that there wasn't a front lawn to cut. We threw out all the things that needed throwing out, and cleaned the whole house.

Results of the tidied-up back yard.

Final Harvest

I got sun sick and had to take some Tylenol and nap with an ice cold beanbag to get rid of the headache that was bad enough to make me queezy... but I'm glad it's done.

Almost Food!

SQUEEE!! It's almost time to pick a few things! 

I'm very excited that there may be a harvest within the next week or two!

Look deep into my eyes and find, a lil broccoli flower started!!!!!

Itty-bitty Radishes!

Tender lil baby salad greens!

Lovely Afternoon

Out is the garden, weeding and tidying:

These are radishes,

and these are garlic.

As I was digging a worm just kinda popped up nearby and started squirming away.

Run-away worm!

Closer view.

When the weeding was done I started to tackle the piles of sticks, papers, rocks all over the grassy area.

Too much stuff is/was on the grass making naked dirt.

Hopefully it'll green up again easily

Raked, watered, seeded.

And that was my afternoon. How's your garden coming along?

Is it just me, or is this taking forever?

Tub A - Lettuce & Green Onion

Tub B - Lettuce, Radishes & Carrots

Tub C - Lettuce and Carrots

Mint. If you look REALLY close you can see tiny sprouts.

Leek. Growing new roots and more leaf.

Maybe it's just me but I kinda figured the sprouts would have stopped looking like sprouts and started looking like plants by now.

About the new addition, I was chopping some leeks to put in an omelet and I left a nice big chunk with the root end to see if I could sprout some new roots. Since the mint didn't seem to be sprouting I figured I'd just plant it in that tub... well now the mint's showing activity and I don't want to disturb it so... I need to find another tub I guess. :)

See All the Green?

Yay! Except... no, not really.

All those tall grass looking things are rye. Apparently when I scooped dirt from the garden I brought in some rye seeds too. The teeny-tiny sprouts are what I planted, and the one lettuce has yet to sprout at all. The tall "sprout-looking" sprouts(aka "hairy roots") I assume are the radishes because they're the fastest growing thing I planted.

The poor mint hasn't shown any spouts either (I planted a few seeds dead center). Looks like maybe they were too old. I've snipped at the soil every sprout that I'm over 95% sure is rye. In a  few days we'll see how the rest are doing.

Small Packages

Soon to be a spearmint plant.

Buckets have been seeded. Now we wait.

The coffee tub may get a makeover with labels to cover the branding but it will be the permanent indoor home of the Spearmint plant. Mints are awesome, but unfortunately opportunistic. One mint plant can take over your garden without strict containment.

Buckets A, B, and C (labeled on the handle) contain the following:
A- a central bunch of loose leaf lettuce, surrounded by green onions
B- a central head of boston type lettuce, surrounded by radishes and narrow type carrots(will probably add more radishes when the carrots are pulled)
C- a central bunch of loose leaf lettuce, surrounded by thick type carrots

The buckets will probably get a some mulch and a makeover like the coffee tub. I'm certain the neighbours might still be wondering why we have litter tubs in the window but at least they won't be ugly litter tubs. :)