Wow I did not have time to blog at all yesterday. I was busy again at work and then when I got home I had a ton of laundry to do and I had to work on my taxes (since they are due on Thursday!) and do a bit more work-work too. I did find time to make some homemade ice cream, and I hope to post about that later this week.
Anywho I wanted to post an update on the garden. Below are a bunch of pictures I took this past Sunday. First up is radishes. They have some true leaves now and you can kind of see the red color in the root.
The picture below is green leaf lettuce. Specifically black-seeded simpson. These little guys aren’t growing that fast. Hopefully they’ll pick up the pace soon.
The sprouts below are red leaf lettuce. I thought it would be a good addition to the garden this year. Last year I got a little bored with all green leaf lettuce all the time. I need some color!
I planted the radishes and lettuce 3 weeks ago today.
Below are my strawberry plants! Look at all the blossoms! Each blossom will become a delicious strawberry and each delicious strawberry will end up in my belly. 🙂
Look at how big my strawberry patch is! When I started my first garden in 2008, I bought two everbearing strawberry plants at Heartland Nursery. Since then they have grown and spread into an entire patch. The first year I didn’t get many berries, but last year I had quite a few.
This year I’m hoping to implement a new “strawberry patch rotation system” to keep the strawberry plants organized and under control. They are seriously starting to take over the garden. More on the new strawberry system later.
Below is a pea plant. I planted two short rows of shelling peas. Last year I didn’t have great luck with peas, but I later discovered that peas don’t like onions and I had planted my peas right next to onions. This year I did not plant onions so I’m hoping for better luck!
The plant below is a turnip. It looks kind of like the radish. I planted turnips for the first time last fall and they turned out great! I had turnips as big as softballs! I didn’t even really like turnips much until I grew them myself. Now I’m looking forward to eating them this spring.
The peas and turnips were planted two weeks ago today along with spinach, collards and kale. The spinach, collards and kale don’t look like much yet so I didn’t take any pictures.
Now here’s the cabbage that survived the winter:
Look at how much bigger it is! It’s starting to form a little head in the middle. I have no idea how I’ll know when its ready. I guess when it gets big? I need to look that up.
Finally, one night when we were out in the garden, Benzo was turning the compost and found a plant growing in the pile. He decided to plant it in the ground to see if it would grow. Here it is:
We think it might be kale, but we’re not sure yet. It does seem to be rooting and growing – score! I love bonus plants. The seeds must have germinated from something we threw in the compost.
We’re getting tons of sunshine this week so hopefully the plants will start growing like crazy. It’s less than a month now until the frost-free date and the BIG PLANTING WEEKEND. I can’t wait!
Everything Is Homemade 
Oh how wonderful! I love seeing this sort of thing. Your garden seems to be similar to mine. I seriously need to do a garden post. That cabbage plant is gorgeous I haven’t had luck with cabbage yet but my kale did insanely last year and this year looks to be another good one.
I love your garden! I have a question, if you know the answer 😉 When do you know the radishes are done? I’ve planted them for the first time, but have no idea when to pull them up! I think I’m beginning to have issues with food that can’t be seen to know when it’s done. *smile*
I can actually see the tops of the radishes above the dirt. Not sure if it’s because I didn’t plant them deep enough or what. But their red shoulders peek out so I use that to gauge when to pull them up. If you can’t see the shoulders then you might just dig very gently around one of them to see if you can check how big it is.
Also radishes are ready in about 30 days, so I would wait until 30 days after you planted them before digging around them. If it’s been cold in your area it may take a little longer. My radishes are just starting to form bulbs and I think they’ve been in the ground 4 weeks now. I’ll try to post pictures this weekend!
Hope that helps!
I planted them March 30th so I guess by the end of this month I should check them out. How wonderful!
I’m in North Central Florida so we’re having pretty mild temps 70s-80s) for growing. I think if these are done soon, then I’ll plant some more since I have another month or two before the really hot weather gets here. Then I can plant more in our second growing season this fall, if they come out alright.
Thanks for the information! I’m always trying to learn how to grow new things and it’s great finding people that have experimented before me!