Update time.
Whereas March was amazingly (and disturbingly) dry and warm, April has reverted back to a more typical PNW Spring pattern of showers interspersed with glorious bouts of sunshine. Quite honestly it's been pretty much perfect to get a garden going early with leafy greens (various lettuces and spinach), peas, and brassicas. Yesterday was so wonderful. The sun had emerged, the Pacific Wrens, Flickrs, Song Sparrows and Orange-crowned Warblers were in full throat and their song surrounded me as I worked. I could sense the growth of green things all around me....both inside the garden and out. This has become a Spring ritual for me and it has truly become one of the unexpected, joyous discoveries of FIRE.
My first planting of peas (planted mid-March) are clambering up the trellis now, the second planting (late March) have just made their first grasping contact with the trellis. And I just planted a third, 10 foot row of snap peas yesterday. When I return from Mexico in early May, I will quickly plant a 4th. And very quickly get my heat loving crops ready to go.
My brassicas, always a very reliable and prodigious garden performer, are well on their way. Directly sowed cabbage, and volunteer kale, have emerged...and I have bolstered these (because they could get munched by wood bugs) with lots of transplants....cabbage: red, Tiara, EJW, Charmant. 3 varieties of kale, 3 or broccoli, and 3 of cauli.
I'll be planting out my onions very soon - my onion sets are already showing 4 inches of growth. I'm very lucky that I don't really have that many pests to contend with in my garden...once the deer have been thwarted with a proper fence. But....birds have been very fond of pulling out my onions. I'm guessing they do this in order to find bugs in around the roots? Whatever the reason, I do have to put netting over them until they are more established.
I've planted 4 different potato varieties over the past few weeks. I've got some in my established beds, while I've got a bunch growing in dedicated "grow bags" in soil which I imported from a high quality source. I do this because I have had a bit of an issue with wire worms (larval stage of the click beetle) in some of my raised beds. They are not too big an issue, except when it comes to potatoes. They are attracted to them like moths to a light source. The bed in which I put the seed potatoes didn't seem to have any, but I like the idea of a guarenteed potato source as back up. There are few things as wonderful as fresh, out of the garden taters...that don't have little orange worms in them. ;)
While I'm in Mexico my family are going to tend things. A sibling has taken ownership of the carrot crop...for whatever reason I've never had great luck with them. I suspect my thinning technique leaves something to be desired. This sibling is going to plant beets for me as well.
Turnips and parsnips seem to be doing okay, though I suspect they would welcome a few more degrees of warmth.
The beds in which I have my brassicas this year are where last years tomatoes were. And now there must be HUNDREDS of little volunteer tomatoes popping up everywhere. For some reason it really pains me to pull these out.
When I'm sitting on the beach gazing out at the Sea of Cortez I know my thoughts will increasingly drift north, wondering how my garden grows in my absence. I know my family will be able to keep me abreast of how things are going, but I suspect that by the end of my Mexico trip I will almost be panicky to return.
