Today was transplant day, the day when the weather is right to start moving things out of the greenhouse into the ground. I would like to share a photo essay of some of the things in my garden.  You can click on the images below to get a view of a larger version of the image.  You should do it, the large images hold lots of cool secret details you don’t see in the smaller versions.

Let’s start with the greenhouse.  Because of the size and nature of my greenhouse, it is hard to get good pictures of the inside.    I use a heavy plastic for the shell of the walls and root, and it allows light in, but it is not possible to take photos through it.

This was the second year for my new greenhouse, and the plastic can’t be used for another year.  It has rips in the high stress areas, and it is generally starting to deteriorate.

Checking the weather today, I saw that the lows at night for most of the rest of the 10 day forecast are in the 50s, daytime highs in the high 70s.  There is also rain in the forecast, so that combination meant it was time to transplant the tomatoes into the garden.

I rolled back the plastic roof to get a glimpse inside, but left it attached so I could put the roof back in place if necessary.

What it showed me was a good view of some very healthy and happy plants, especially the tomatoes.

But before I started to transplant, I took the camera out and had a look around.  I like to chronicle my garden, and frankly, you can get some pretty cool pictures of plants that are just starting to grow.  I wanted to share some of those with you.

Click on the image above and take a close look at the larger version of the image.  If you are able to free your mind from the judgement of the dandelion as a weed, you will see that it is really quite a beautiful flower.  It becomes the first major food source for the bees in the spring, and that is good enough for me.

I wrote in one of my earlier blogs about the raspberries in my yard.   Now they are starting to bud out with new growth on the old canes that will produce berries this spring, and new canes popping up that will provide berries in the fall.

Peas are one of my spring stalwarts.  I like to plant them very early because they can handle a few freezes or snows and just keep on doing their thing.  There have been some years when I have planted the peas right into the snow.  Then, when they find soil they find the right time to germinate and are one of the earliest green things in the garden.  I really like to look at the up close details of the pea plant.

In addition to being an early herb to add to your sauces or salads, oregano is a lovely delicate little herb.  It is surprising how much it can increase in size from year to year.  This is my third year with this particular plant, and it has been transplanted to this location.  Somehow it manages to have green even under the snow.

Another early riser in the spring is the onion.  Onions are the thing I plant the most of, placing either seeds or sets all over the garden.  And yet, I always seem to run out of them.  Luckily it is easy to keep the seeds of onions, so there is nothing to seeding the garden liberally with onions.

The picture above is another one to take a closer look at.  I was taking a picture of the lettuce coming up.  I knew that there were a lot of little somethings coming up, but I didn’t know what they were.  And then I opened this photo.  I started a daisy patch because they are my wife’s favorite flower.  Daisies are perennials, so they come back year after year, but it takes them a little while to get started.  so this year I decided that in the back of the daisy patch I would grow lettuce and sunflowers.  The sunflower seeds were just planted this weekend, but the lettuce is up.  And now I realize that this will be the last year I will be able to plant lettuce here, because with all those daisies, there won’t be room for anything else next year.

In the picture above, you can see volunteer blue kale coming up from where the kale was planted last year.  I like that the bolt is there for perspective.  This is currently a little tiny plant.  But, take a look at the larger picture and check out the details of the bolt, the water drops on kale, and the stone or wood deteriorating beside the bolt.  That bolt used to hold a board onto cement blocks to provide a decorative edge.

The asparagus is well under way.  It is the first edible thing that I get out of the garden each year.  I planted these from seed about 5 years ago, and planted the seeds way too close together.  I have been thinning the patch ever since.  I thin one small section each fall and generally give away the roots, I have no more room for growing asparagus.  If you are going to plant asparagus from seed, do yourself a favor and get the right spacing, it is a chore to thin them.  I right about it in this blog post.

And since I have also posted about compost, I thought I would only be fitting to show the current status of my compost pile.  It is very hot and active in there.  The tarp give you an idea of the size of the pile, and it has reduced down to about a half or a third of the size it was at the beginning of spring.  I have pulled some of the compost out today as I transplanted tomatoes, but it still has a ways to go before it is ready for using.

So, that is what the garden had to share before I started transplanting today.  After I transplanted 35 plants of various types, I tilled up a new section to add to the garden.  It was in the back corner and never had any light before.  But last spring I lost three trees and it opened up a nice area that I can now garden.  I added about 500 sq. ft. of garden this spring.  I’ll be needing a lot of that compost to get it into shape, my soil consists mostly of sand until I amend it.

And just to close out the post, I wanted to share a cool photo I got after the storm came in and put a half inch of rain on my newly transplanted garden.

Peace!

KT

Day 42