February Garden Journal

I am a novice gardener. I have no idea what I'm doing- but I thought this might be interesting, and a good way for me to remember next year what I did and when. If you garden, tell me what you're doing. All suggestions are eagerly welcomed. 

I finally learned the secret wonders of homegrown broccoli. After the initial broccoli crown is cut, if you leave half the stem, lots of leaves and small crowns come back. I pulled out all but three plants, and those three have continued to give me a little broccoli here and there. Enough for a stir fry last night, and enough for a steamed side vegetable the week before that. Sadly I ate it before I thought to take a picture. The broccoli is a deep emerald green next to the store bought variety. I cut a bunch of the leaves off last night to make stem pesto with, and if I have enough soon I will try to make broccoli leaf chips instead of the trendy kale chips. 

All my young hens are finally laying. You can't tell in the picture above very clearly, but eggs five and six were about half the size of the others. The first eggs from our two black hens. 

I tried all winter long to grow swiss chard in a raised bed, and nothing happened. I sowed the seeds at the end of September, and though they germinated, they never thrived. Then I tried to grow it in a pot in the greenhouse, and it did really well in there until the weather started to warm up. I had sown close together for a braising mix, but I decided to just transplant all the little seedlings outside and they're finally growing. I covered them with some netting because I think little birds were eating them. The birds really did a number on my pathetic snap peas. I'm not including a picture- too sad. 

I finally started cutting the outer leaves of the kale. This took a while too- I think I sowed the kale at the end of September too. Not a huge success, but not bad either. 

The spinach is growing. It took five months! It was a pretty warm winter, so I'm surprised. I had big dreams for the spinach. Maybe next year. 

Volunteer parsley did really well, though I didn't get much from the parsley I started from seed. The green onions above were all started from the roots I cut off bunches last fall. I was never able to keep them alive from seed. 

I started butterhead lettuce mid-January and realized that it was dying in the greenhouse from the heat on warm days. It's doing well outside. All the lettuce and arugula I planted did really well this winter, but I wasn't in a mood to eat any of it. Some years I just don't feel like salad. Fortunately my mother lives next door and she is composed of 80% lettuce. 

I tried to grow zucchini last summer to no avail. I planted a few seeds on a cold day in January (in the greenhouse) and now, six weeks later, I have four or five zucchini. I don't get it, but I'm happy. I had a lot of garden fails- the seeds that never germinated, the beets the chickens got into, all the plants I accidentally killed. 

Chickens being pigs.