The April Garden: Ready to Roll!

Bearded Iris

It's early April and, while I am cautious about a late frost, it's time to plan and start on spring garden activities.

Asparagus

Vegetable Gardening

The asparagus bed has started producing. A weekend away resulted in a couple of foot-high stalks.

Asparagus Harvest 4-8-2018

About a month ago, I discovered new strawberry plants shooting off of a couple of last year's. With just a little replanting, I have two respectable rows of strawberries. Some of these are flowering and small green fruits are visible.

Strawberry Plant with Flowers and Fruits

If you read my blog, you might remember that we put down tarps and barrier fabric between rows and around plants. This was a super easy way to control grass and weeds growing around the vegetables. For the first time, we left most of the tarps down for the winter. This has saved us a lot of work as the rows are ready for planting.

The uncovered part of the garden is full of weeds and grass and will need tilling. In the past, I have planted sunflowers in this area. The squirrel predation was heartbreaking last year, and I am undecided about planting the sunflowers again.

Because of serious losses due to a wilt virus, no tomatoes or eggplant will be started in this garden. I'll have a few container plants on the deck.

Bush beans, zucchini squash, and yellow squash grow great and will be planted from seed soon.

Azalea

Flowers

I've transitioned most of my flowers to perennials. The bearded iris and azaleas are blooming now as the forsythia fades away.

Over the winter, we cut down two 20-year old camellias that had outgrown their locations. Although the blooms were gorgeous, these bushes were small trees and blocked window views. Sometimes life gets busy and plants really grow out-of-control. Guilty as charged. I am so excited to see out these new open views to the wildlife around the house.

Thanks for reading! I'll write more after I get some vegetable plants going. This will be soon I hope!

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Homegrown Vegetables May 2017

After a roller coaster ride of hot and cold temperatures, we started planting the vegetable garden in April. April 15 was the average last frost for this area. This guideline was helpful as frosty mornings continued close to that date.

The asparagus bed put in 3 years ago started producing in March and we harvested for 6 weeks. Now  the hard work of weeding begins. 

Fresh Asparagus

Asparagus Sauteed in Olive Oil

Nursery plants and seeds were put in between April 13th and 20th. I used notes made last year to adjust plant numbers. For example, my jalapeno plants didn't produce enough for poppers so I increased the number of plants. Tomatoes were plentiful so I decreased those. The crookneck yellow squash tended to rot at the neck so I'm replacing those with straight neck. My 8 eggplants produced very little last year so I increased the numbers and will be vigilant of bug infestations.

Every year we have an "experiment" where a new technique or plant is introduced. This year we're using barrier fabric to try and control the grass and weeds (mostly grass). There is also a new drip irrigation system cobbled from donated parts.

A summary of garden activity:

• The straight neck yellow and zucchini squash looks vigorous and healthy.
• The tomatoes and peppers have started flowering.
• The snow peas have started climbing their supports. 
• The eggplant has been treated for aphids.

Squash-4 Weeks after Planting Seeds

Squash with Drip Irrigation

In the blueberry garden, the plants are full and lush but lack flowers. The blueberries are planted beside some pine trees. The trees provide acid-rich needles, but may be blocking too much sun.

In the past, I've enjoyed sunflowers in the vegetable garden. They're wonderful photography subjects. This year a squirrel has eaten most of my planted seeds.  We're trying a fortified tomato cage barrier to try and get some flowers growing.

Squirrel Proof?Tomato Cages Covered with Netting

I hope you've found my garden update interesting. As you have read, not everything goes as planned in a garden. There's a lot of work and sometimes plants don't produce as hoped. The best thing to do is take notes and make plans for the next season.

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Updates on the Asparagus Garden

I reported on our first asparagus planting experience in the February 2014 post.

Much to our delight, asparagus emerged from 1 to 6 weeks after planting. Through the summer, beautiful ferns developed along with numerous asparagus stems. We refrained from harvesting although the stems were very delicious looking. Asparagus is typically harvested after the second year of growth.

Healthy Asparagus Ferns

Early this month, the dried plants were cut at the base and covered with mulch. I'm looking forward to a small, limited harvest this summer.

Dried Asparagus Ferns Cut Down

Picked Asparagus 4/2015

Cooked Asparagus

April 2015 Update:
Several asparagus stems appeared in late March. The first 3 to appear were damaged by a frost. The weather warmed, and several more appeared. A hard freeze was predicted for the night before Easter so I harvested knowing that the stems would be damaged anyway. They were small, but yummy.

My plans are to let the plants grow without any harvesting this 2nd year. Looking forward to a great harvest season the 3rd year. This website has good information on harvesting asparagus.

April 2016 Update:
Three years have flown by. Our hard work in 2014 on the asparagus bed has paid off. Beautiful, robust asparagus spears came up in March, and we've enjoyed this side dish twice a week since then. Another benefit is that we're in the garden early anticipating the other vegetables we will plant and enjoy through the summer. If you've ever considered an asparagus garden, don't hesitate. Our inexpensive WalMart-bought crowns have been a great investment and gardening experience.

3rd Year Spears

Picked Asparagus

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Growing Asparagus

We love eating asparagus, and have always wanted to try our hand at growing it. We've heard that it takes many years to harvest, but,when we came across some inexpensive crowns at Walmart, we decided to plant asparagus for the first time.

Guidelines came with the crowns, and the video below was helpful.

Dig a trench, add composted material, and place the crowns on top of furrows about a foot from each other. Cover with 2-3 inches of soil. Once the plants start emerging, cover again, and repeat this process until the trench is filled.

Here's a 2 minute video on preparing an asparagus bed.

If you are viewing on an iPad or iPhone the video can be accessed here.

An update on the asparagus garden is available here.