First Veg of Spring - Garden Update

10 days since my last post, and you saw some half decent snaps. I've been rather busy this week with the twins turning 3, getting a few things in the yard squared away so I could work out where to put the replacement for their budget wading pool (15 bucks well spent - but it's time to upgrade), and other household sundries.

So I guess everyone was expecting some HUGE haul of wonderful veg, and have me telling them how it was 'all worth it and easy to do', then go into pickling and storage methods so as not to waste this bumper crop as it we look towards our winter months....

 Well, sorry to disappoint! Technically the first spring 'harvest' it was more 'pick it or lose it'.
I did want to show the colors of them - and the pics don't do them justice (my camera is ballsing up today).
I noticed 2 radishes bolt to seed on Friday - so I'll be pulling these as they poke a little red out of the soil and adding them to the gallon bag near full I already have in the crisper. I was hoping they'd time out with young lettuce - but it wasn't to be.
Radishes will be cleared out and make way for another crop (undecided - I'll see what's in my seed bag - it might be spinach, or something new).
Peas were the first spring buds coming to nice bulging pods. I could lose this first few while waiting for the others to catch up.

As you can see, now in full bloom there is no shortage of peas for next time, but these early buds may harden up waiting, and I didn't feel like baby pods for a salad with no dang lettuce.

 On the subject of that garden bed - it's interesting to look at the beans in front of them and compare them to the other 4 squares on the right next to them (a close up below).  They were planted at the same time, same soil, they get the same sun, watering, fertilizing.

There are only TWO differences between them.
The left hand beans are 2 squares planted in front of the peas (although with the sun on this property - they aren't shaded by them), and the left 4 squares were mulched with worm castings when they came into their 2nd leaves.

These beans weren't mulched. I had some left over from setting up beds and containers and decided to use the surplus to start mulching early - though a small casting harvest this month (which I'll go into in vermicomposting later) has put this on hold for maybe another month.

Even if I don't get to do it with these beans - it shows an objective look at what mulching with castings is capable of.
That being said - consider these plants are less than a month and a half old, that's from planting the seed to now. Although the picture doesn't really pick it up that well - all of these are in flower and with beans, in another week I think I'll be having some worth picking... so all things considered, my liquid worm runnoff fertilizer is no slouch either.

Carrots - about 3/4 the size of my hand - not a bad size to cut up and put in a soup or stew - but when you consider they came out of the container shown to the right (a standard 'window box' plastic garden pot) - it's not bad at all. I doubt they would get any longer - only wider - and as I learned over Autumn, there's a limit on how big you want a container carrot to grow.
Anyways - I want to use this container for other things, so as they mature I'll pull them up.

The herb garden, shown last blog post being planted, is doing good. Basil is growing quite fast  - and the single plant is growing marginally larger than the front 4.  The question will be will it produce four times as much in order to 'break even' - time will tell.
The sage next to it is coming along slowly - but all 5 plants are doing well.  The squares ahead of them have sprouted their basil and sage from seed, as well as cilantro and dill.  All other transplants have done well - chives, parsley, although the thyme is recovering - one of the sprigs didn't quite make it. Thyme being a ground cover - that doesn't give me much concern.  Garlic in the back is peeking up, and the only square not to show me the goods is Rosemary...but Rosemary has a long germination time anyways - so time will tell.  Even if it doesn't - if all the squares bar one is producing fresh herbs it will easily put the entire garden into the black before summer.

I was going to curse out the lettuce again, and was thinking of trying a new variety, when I noticed several very very small plants peeking up from the soil after watering.  The spacing would be right for the lettuce I planted into those containers last post - and so I'm hoping for a positive outcome.  If they pop I should expect between 10 and 12 ready for transplant in about a week and a half.  To fully fill out the squares I need about 14 plants - so if I get a good result I'll keep one container aside to propagate lettuce for the rest of the spring - transplanting to the bed as I pull the others.
This is not a BAD thing all in all, as the spacing between the growing plants SHOULD allow me to pull lettuce as wanted on the day - which always gives you a MUCH better product than harvesting and storing in the fridge.

One of the big things today - though it doesn't LOOK impressive was this little baby. Tucked at the end of the Turnip greens.  It's a pepper plant just starting to flower out. Big Deal.  Well it's the sole survivor from garden #2.  I took 6 pepper plants with me when I moved to the house. 4 survived long enough into that summer for me to plant in the new garden bed - of those 4 this one had some dashes of green at the mulch mark after the break of winter, and it's kin were dry sticks of wood.

So pruned back to an inch above the soil, it's grown above it's old stick of a base and putting forth flowers - whereas the new Peppers are only into their 2nd leaves.  So with any luck - some early peppers.. 'You could just do them indoors and transplant!' I hear you cry - but alas the house cat, while being a very good mouser, has a love for anything green or anything resembling a straw - the only thing that saves my outdoor plantings from the cat is that it only gets out when it manages to escape.  Maybe next year I'll build that little 9ft greenhouse of my dreams... but that's a LOT of outlay, even if I use my mediocre DIY skills.

The Turnip greens are doing rather well (when you look at them from 10 days ago) although I still think on my part that was a boneheaded planting.  Collards would be a good planting for greens alone - but what I SHOULD have planted were Turnips... I could have gotten a 2 for 1 deal on that.
Live and Learn.

All in all a good start for me I feel - with a good idea of some Autumn/Winter crops that work in South Georgia, next year I can start tightening up the gap between the seasons plantings - in a perfect world having an overlap between the last of Winter and first of Spring.