Last week the weather was pretty cold here so I didn't have a report put together for sharing with you on Monday. The temperatures of the last two nights of the week was 28 degrees and then 26 degrees. Pretty chilly for the plants, but it seems like they were not damaged.
The garden is looking pretty good for February! This is today's view of my east plot.
This is a view of my west plot. As you can see, I didn't do additional work on the giant marconi pepper stalks to prepare them for the winter temperatures. It's been so mild for the vast majority of this winter that I felt it was unnecessary to do anything else for them. Maybe the weeds that grew up alongside will help protect them from the cold. The stalks are very dry so I leave them alone. If they sprout new growth, it would be great. Perhaps new growth may come from the base of the stalks and not the stalks themselves. The stalks may actually be dead, but I'm hoping that the roots are still alive.
I checked the soil temperature to see if it was warming up for seed planting. After four full minutes in the ground, the probe thermometer only rose to 48 degrees. The cooperative extension publications basically say that anything planted before the ground reaches and maintains a steady 60 degrees is just wasting seed because it will rot. At least for the non-cool-weather crops anyway. Using that line of thinking worked well for me last year, so I'm sticking with it for this year too. The air temp today was only 42 degrees, so that could be a contributing factor to the low soil temperature. Daytime temps this week are supposed to be in the mid-50's all week. I hope so.
I picked 15 ounces of rainbow Swiss chard this week. It's really starting to sprout!
I harvested three pounds of broccoli this week! After fertilizing the garden and watering it in, then we had rain. Now there are several dozen dime-sized florets throughout the garden. Hopefully I'll be picking them for the next Harvest Monday!
During the last two weeks I picked two pounds of buttercrunch lettuce for salads and sandwiches. This picture is of the full pound that was picked just this week.
Be sure to visit DaphnesDandelions for more exciting vegetable gardening experiences in a northern growing zone.
That concludes another Harvest Monday report from our garden. I hope no one is having too much trouble in their gardens with cold temperatures. Spring is right around the corner!
Have a great vegetable gardening day, and thanks for visiting!
Veggie PAK
Wow! What a harvest! I'm so impressed with your lettuces. Thanks for the info about ground temps too. I've never seen a thermomator stuck into the ground like that - but it is definitely something I will do before we start dropping in tomato and eggplants seeds. - Cheers, Cullen
ReplyDeleteThanks! The lettuce has been doing great! I used to pay a lot of attention to air temps at seed planting time, but monitoring the soil temp is a much more significant indicator of successful germination.
Deletewow that's a load of broccoli! Love the color on your chard, lovely!
ReplyDeleteI hope the broccoli keeps on coming, too! The chard is pretty and full of vitamins and minerals. We love it!
Deletebeautiful chard and wow on the broccoli! I cannot wait to harvest our first ever broccoli!
ReplyDeleteThe part I like about growing broccoli is that after you harvest the first batch, it grows more and more! When I'm cutting it off the plant with my knife, I am trying to be careful to not knick the new baby broccoli that is growing closely to the parts I want. If you knick the baby ones, you have hurt next week's harvest potential.
DeleteI think your soil thermometer is great - I need to get one. I planted broccoli this week - I'm looking forward to eating it again - its been a while.
ReplyDeleteThe thermometer I use is actually one that an AC repairman gave me, but I use it for my soil. Any low range probe thermometer would work for this. Something with a high range, like a meat thermometer, wouldn't work as well. It wouldn't be sensitive enough to suit me for lower temp monitoring.
DeleteGood luck to you with your new broccoli!
Soil thermometer....such a great idea who wants to waste seeds? A lovely harvest of broccoli and your lettuce quite impressive, any special feed?
ReplyDeleteThanks! As far as fertilizer goes, I use dried blood and give each plant a side dressing of a heavy 1/2 teaspoonful every three weeks. It seems to work pretty well.
DeleteI'm going to really risk planting early. But with peas and spinach that can handle the cold soil. I usually plant them at the end of March and the weather has been very much like the end of March or the beginning of April. It so feels like spring.
ReplyDeleteYour harvest looks so lovely.
With the way this winter has been, it's hard to resist planting early! It's certainly worth a try. As I write this, it is 65 degrees at 7:14 A.M., and it is supposed to get to 81 by 3:00 P.M.! Unbelievable!
DeleteThank you for hosting Harvest Monday!
Looking great!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteThat broccoli looks amazing! I managed to get one, quarter sized floret from my first attempt at growing broccoli. It was delicious! Haha.
ReplyDeleteDid you fertilize yours a bunch? I hear they are heavy feeders.
Thanks! In my above reply to Andrea I share my fertilization info. I think for a boost I might try increasing the dose to a full teaspoonful for each plant. At this time of year, what do I have to lose?
DeleteI fertilize mine every three weeks, but I make sure that the fertilizer is watered in well. I tried depending on the weather to provide rain, but that was too undependable. I actually un-winterized my well pump and have been watering after I fertilize, and after I harvest.
Absolutely gorgeous! Everything looks so happy!
ReplyDeleteThank you! It really does look happy!
DeleteBroccoli ie amazing. I live in houston and two days back the tem was 74 and muggy.I have started my okra seeds indoors I see your garden does not havea any weeds atall.Mine is full of weeds I have tried preen for my veg patch and it is not helping Any advise?
ReplyDeleteThe broccoli has been doing pretty well for me. My garden has plenty of weeds, but I don't believe in a weed-free garden. At some point, it becomes overkill and an unproductive use of valuable time in my humble opinion, to extract every single weed. For the most part, my rows are evenly spaced, but more importantly, except for Swiss chard and lettuce, all my plants are 18 inches apart. I measure all my plant spacing FROM ONE SIDE OF THE GARDEN ONLY! If you alternate sides, the plants won't be exactly spaced right. After three or four rows, you can do the alignment by sight of the planted rows and you don't need to measure. My garden resembles a chess board in that I can use my Mantis minitiller to go criss-cross in the garden down the rows AND between the plants! If you will notice in some of my previous posts, the pictures show the alignment of the plants going across the rows. This method really works for me! There are some weeds at the base of the good plants that remain, but if I pull them just before they go to seed, I potentially remove thousands of weed seeds from my garden. I would not use Preen or any product like it as I suspect it MIGHT inhibit the production of the plants you want to keep. I have a really hard time believing that there is no effect on the good plants from the use of such products. If you have a small garden, space the plants at 18 inch intervals, then weekly take a hoe or preferably a steel toothed garden rake (even a children's steel toothed rake with a 3 foot handle will do), and just go between the plants and down the rows raking very lightly. You don't want to go deep because you will hit the roots of the vegetables. I believe this disturbs the germinating weeds and the sprouted ones die, then the new ones will have to germinate all over again. This buys you time from weeding every day in the garden. There are lots of ways to approach handling the weed problem. This is just how I do mine. I hope this helps you. Thanks for visiting my blog! I hope you find it informative.
Delete