The Greening Moon

Once again, the Greening Moon lives up to its name. Yesterday we got over 4 inches of rain, which was the most rain we've gotten since October. It cut our rain deficit for the year in half.

In fall, I sprinkled a mixture of wildflower seeds in our cactus garden by the driveway, but the Indian Blanket was the only species that came up. They're doing really well and have added a very cheerful touch.

In the front vegetable garden, the artichoke has almost opened. A second bud also grew and is starting to open as well. That one went a lot faster, maybe because it's warm now.

The tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant are all looking good, except most of the peppers are still very small. It looks like starting the seeds in fall does work better after all.

The tomatillos are already starting to make fruits. I have six plants left after two of them died when we were away because of my dad's illness. I hope I still get a good crop.

The Swiss chard is bolting. I'm not sure if I'm going to let it go to seed, or if I won't bother with that and will pull it up and plant something else there instead.

The okra is also doing really well. This is Beck's Gardenville okra, which I plan to save seeds from. It's a local heirloom named after my favorite garden center in town.

I had time to harvest the potatoes and some of the garlic before the big rainstorm. Here's where the potatoes used to be. I'll put up another post about how that harvest went.

And here's the garlic. I harvested the S&H Silverskin and Red Toch, but the other varieties look like they need a little more time.

I tied the harvested garlic to a piece of bamboo, and now it's drying in the garage. The bulbs were a little on the small side, but I got a lot of them, so it looks like I won't have to buy any more garlic for a while.

In the back garden, the peas are about finished. I'm letting the few pods I missed dry out completely, so I can use them for seed to plant.

The pole beans are just starting to climb up their bamboo teepees. I planted Calico Lima, Red Noodle Yardlong, Rattlesnake, and Purple Podded Pole.

The favas are about done too. Here's what's left of them. They did well, and I'm going to buy more Aquadulce favas from Baker Creek to plant this fall, since they did slightly better than Broad Windsor.

The squash, melons, and watermelons have all been planted and are settling in nicely. They really liked all the rain we got.

I have everything planted for summer except for the sweet potatoes. I ordered a few more varieties to try from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, and here are the ones from last year that I'm growing slips from. That one Molokai Purple is growing like crazy. They're going to go in where the garlic is now, once that's all harvested.

So now almost all the spring crops have been harvested, and it won't be too much longer now until summer crops start coming in.