Updates on the Garden

It's been a while since I've uploaded new pics of how the garden is progressing. As of right now the pics are in my camera's memory card. But I'll list what we've harvested. We dug up some brown and red young potatoes. We've had our first large bunch of Bok Choi. We've been getting lots of lettuce, and sporadic strawberries. Chinese Chives have always been very vigorous. If I could take some time to make some Pot Stickers (Gyoza)...

Since we are Gluten-free, we have to make the wrappers from scratch so it takes even more time than normal. I purchased an Italian Pasta Maker, but haven't had the chance to use it yet. Maybe this weekend... We've been buying Rice Pasta (Tinkyada) in place of regular Gluten and Eggy Pasta but I would be able to make my own noodles now too, buying less at the market is a good thing.

Our newly transplanted Apple trees are doing great, but the Peach tree is struggling and only managed to sprout some tiny leaves .

Cucumbers don't seem to like where they are, some have wilted, and others are just barely growing. I realized that none of the water was soaking into the soil they were in, so I made some swales to hold the water in. The zucchini and the pumpkin are taking off like crazy. I'll be able to start havesting the zucchini in a day or two. The spinach is starting to take hold and grow.

In the place of the potatoes we planted tomatoes. Now, I know they belong to the same "family", but I wanted to try it to see how the growth will be affected. I planted some beans around the pear tree but they are barely hanging on. There seems to be a rodent or a mole eating at them. We were picnicking under the orange tree the other day and saw a large brown mouse climb up the orange tree. I think it is the culprit.

I've been picking pill-bugs, snails and slugs out of the garden as I see them for damage control. I kill off the slugs as I see them, but I still get holes in my strawberries... Maybe it's time for the beer bait. I've put the snails (they're shell is conical, I've read somewhere that they eat the regular garden snails and slugs, but ours only seems to eat the snails and lettuce & bok choi!) and the pill-bugs in a closed bucket with some garden scraps just to see if I can get some compost made by them (experimenting)

I've decided to uproot and transplant our sorry looking Blueberry Bushes and place them in a Large Plastic Bucket. I've added tons of peat moss and sand to the soil and topped it off with coffee grounds, then located it in a shadier spot. I'm hoping that helps them. They are a low chill variety, but they looked like they were barely surviving. Lost lost of blossoms, no fruit at all.

Since that spot where the Blueberries has opened up, I'm trying to sort out all the gravel from it and prepare the bed for some Broccoli. I have some tiny sprouts in a small yogurt cup so I need to get that soil done!

I began a slow process of liberating some strips of lawn as a veggie patch. I plan on experimenting with the "no-till" method. I've dug up the lawn in 1-1/2' squares, then turned them upside down. I plant on girdling the area with some wood, but haven't scrounged enough yet via Freecycle. Then I will start layering compost, peat moss, sand and soil onto the pile and make a bed. I'm debating if I should plant something right away or grow a cover crop first.

I've been trying to figure out a way for storage of any abundant harvests... Our fridge would no way hold all those things... So, I'm secretly trying to figure out a way to dig a Root Cellar under the house!