Onions and garlic and shallots, oh my!

Yep, that about covers it.

The first wave of onions has been harvested.  They came earlier than I thought they might.  I was surprised to go out yesterday and find the tops of many of the first batch lying over on the ground.  So I have a couple racks of onions drying on the patio.

Most of the shallots were dug today also.  I got A LOT of shallots from the 12 or so I planted in the spring.  They are also drying on the patio.

I got curious though.  As I was pulling out some onions that had gone to seed, I realized that many of the garlic plants had turned brown.  So I dug them up and found little, tiny garlic bulbs.  I don't know if they'll be useful or not, but they are also drying on the patio.

All this onion pulling left me with a nearly empty raised bed.  So, I decided to give green beans another shot.  I planted a bunch when we got back from vacation, but nothing happened.  Not a single one grew.  So, I'm shooting for a fall crop of beans.  We shall see.

Now I'm eyeing the place where the garlic was and wondering when I should plant more snap peas...hrm....

I love summer.

Mid-spring Garden Update

Yeah, you'd never know it from the weather forecast, but it really is mid-spring.  I hear we're expecting a couple inches of snow tomorrow night.  What a bother.  I'll have to be out and about covering plants, I guess.

You see, I paid attention to the weather forecast this weekend.  It said nothing about a cold front or the potential for snow in the near future.  I figured we might be done.  We'll see about that.  But the problem is I set all my pretty little pepper seedlings out in their pots this weekend.

I'm a numbskull.  Yep.  I did it.

But that's not the update part:

• We finally finished up the much anticipated berry bed!  I have room for 3 raspberries, a gooseberry and about 18 strawberry plants one of which has given me a berry already.

• Although it's not strictly a part of the garden per se, we planted a State Fair apple tree on Friday.  It was Arbor Day after all.  And I wanted an apple tree.  Like my little white painted wire fences around my tree and new shrubs?  Yeah, I thought of that all by myself.  You can use it if you want.

• The bush cherries I ordered arrived last week and I got them in the ground on Saturday.  Little sticks with tiny little buds on them.  I noticed last night that some of the buds are becoming leaves already.
• The early plantings are thriving in the cool and damp spring we've had so far.  The onions have never looked better.  Every single onion, garlic clove and shallot I planted has sprouted, I think.  The peas are finally growing and the spinach is finally getting actual leaves.  We thinned the radishes last night and munched on the thinnings.  Very radish-y.  It has me reconsidering trying my hand at growing sprouts in the kitchen.  I can imagine how wonderful radish sprouts would be in stir fry.

• I'm trying brussel sprouts for the first time this year.  That's them under the milk jugs.  Long ago, a friend of mine grew some in his garden and I remember thinking they looked a little like aliens when I discovered them hanging in his garage in November.  He was still getting sprouts at Thanksgiving.  I'm not a big fan of sprouts, but maybe if I grow my own, I could be.  I never liked tomatoes until I grew my own.  I know, right?  Crazy.
• The only thing I'm concerned about are my potatoes.  I haven't seen a single sprout out of them yet.  Maybe they rotted in the pots?  Maybe they're taking their sweet time?  I'll give them awhile yet.  It's still early and it's been unseasonably cold.

So that's where I'm at.  I was hopeful to get some more planting done this weekend but between the rain and potential snow, I doubt it.  My tomatoes will have to wait another week or so.

And now, here is a lovely picture of my new fish:

Jumping the Gun?

This is what I'm dreaming of.

When I start the early planting every year, I almost always feel like I'm jumping the gun and planting too soon.  This year is no exception. 

In my neck of the woods, early gardening is traditionally started on or about St. Patrick's Day.  Every year, I do many google searches looking for just the right time to start planting.  Every year, I plan for a certain date to start.  It always winds up being somewhere around March 17.  So far I haven't had any problems or any casualties due to cold weather snaps that I can remember.  That may be due to Winter Gardener's Amnesia but it's more likely because I only plant what I consider to be the 'safe' seeds or bulbs that not only tolerate cold conditions, but actually thrive in them.  This is what I've planted so far:

1. Sugar snap peas.  Pretty much my entire garden plan starts with where to put the sugar snaps.  Last year I got them in much later than I wanted to due to a late start building my raised beds.  But, I still had a pretty good crop.  This year, I'm a full month earlier and according to my county extension office, that should be fine.  I have another packet of seed ready just in case. If the first planting does well, I will try for a fall crop of peas.
2. Spinach 'Bloomsdale Longstanding.'  My GOD how I love a spinach salad.  It's only made better by eating spinach I grew myself.  A little olive oil, some red wine vinegar and a sprinkle of bacon bits on a big bed of fresh baby spinach makes my favorite salad.
3. 'French Breakfast' radishes.  Radishes are a 'maybe' crop for me.  If they turn out too hot, I can't eat them.  But I read this year that if breakfast radishes are grown in cool weather, they are much sweeter.  So I put them in my first round planting line-up.
4. Red, white and yellow onions.  I have no idea what the varieties are for these.  They are the generic onion sets from my local, big box garden center.  I rarely buy a specific cultivar of onion sets since these generic varieties always do well enough to give us more onions than we can possibly use up fresh however small they might be.  I've read that onions are heavy feeders so I'll be fertilizing them more this year to see if that helps them grow bigger.
5. Shallots.  I sort of got these on a whim.  I grew them once before a long time ago and I just don't remember how they did.  This is another experimental crop for this year.
6. Garlic!  I've NEVER grown garlic before.  I got a pack of 4 bulbs and followed the directions on the package.  I wound up with 48 cloves.  If I get half that many bulbs, it will be way too much.  I found this interesting fact sheet from the UNL Extension office.  They'll get a dose of fertilizer the same time as the onions do.  It seems that garlic will do better if it is planted in October.  Funny thing is I've never seen garlic bulbs for sale in a garden center in the fall with the tulips and daffodils.  Odd.

So that's where I am.  The next thing is potato planting on or about Good Friday.  There are rumors of snow squalls in the next two weeks.  I don't care if it snows or not.  It's spring.  I can tell by the dirt under my fingernails.