Random Garden Pics

Well, the two weeks off work due to a periappendiceal abscess and appendectomy have given me way more free time than I really know what to do with. I'm not supposed to "work in the yard" while recovering. The JP drain sticking out of my old c-section scar for the past week has sucked the fun out of most activities anyways (as well as 150 cc's per day of infected fluid out of my abdominal cavity). This morning said buh-bye to the 2' of tubing and attached squeezie bottle and look out world! (I have my 5-year old convinced my JP drain is a special "juice box" the doctor wants me to keep attached to my belt).

It is so nice to have a garden to come home to:

Pencil-sized purple passion asparagus spear

Potatoes have been hilled up-Green Mountain on the right, and Tom Wagner's selections in the two left rows

Yacon from an ebay seller in California


Garlic, Shallots and Potato Onions 8 months after planting

2" tall okra seedlings seem to be struggling a bit. They were planted out about 2 weeks ago, just as all the cloudy rainy weather started. I suspect they will take off as soon as we get some clear hot dry days.

Finally the first strawberry flower! Time to break out the bird netting.

Lettuce looking cool and crisp in the east bed, which is up against the house in afternoon shadow.

Pole beans of various makes and models prepare to send their first tendrils skyward

Wall O'Peas. To date, all pods have been eaten in situ.

Baker Creek's Topaz

These tomatoes are grown from a seed I saved from a Yellow Pear tomato which I crossed with Cherokee Purple pollen last summer. I know the cross took, because the shape is definitely not pear-like, and the one is already much larger than its Yellow Pear parent. I was actually hoping for a small purple pear yielding the rich Cherokee Purple taste; looks like I may get a beefsteak type instead--keeping fingers crossed for taste genes inherited from pollen parent.

Do not adjust your color settings-yes Virginia, there is a Blue Tomato.
These are currently smaller than golf balls. Very excited to see how this one progresses.

More later. Right now, I have to get back to "not working in the yard".

Passionate About Asparagus

Another box from Pinetree Garden Seeds came in the mail on Wednesday, and I have been counting the hours until the weekend when I could get my new Purple Passion Asparagus crowns into the ground! Freaky looking things, asparagus crowns:
Dug a new 10' asparagus bed today. Actually it's the south half of last year's sod heap. That part of the yard doesn't drain very well so I constructed a raised bed out of the decomposed sod. I made a shallow trench and dumped an $8 (!) bag of manure down the center, and covered that with a couple of inches of decomposed sod, which is now very rich humus. I made 10 little mounds and spread the tentacle-like roots of each crown over each mound.

Then I covered all that with a couple of more inches of humus, just a little over each crown.

The crowns are a few inches below the top of the sideboard of the raised bed, and I plan to mound at least 6 more inches on top as the summer progresses. Because of the poor drainage I chose to build up the bed this way, rather than doing what is usually prescribed-digging a 12" deep trench and planting the crowns well below grade and gradually filling it in to ground level. Hopefully my method will prevent the inevitable crown-rot and produce a comparable harvest.

By the way, my Green Mountain seed potatoes also came in the same box--But I'm way too tired from today's earth moving to do anything about them now. On the counter they will sit, "chitting" away until the bed they're to share with tubers saved from last year's colored potatoes is prepared, most likely next weekend.