Dallas Fruit and Vegetable Grower

Spring Vegetable Garden

Our late winter / early spring vegetable garden has been a little hit or miss.  However, our asparagus is definitely a hit.  This is the third year since I planted our asparagus crowns and they are going bonkers.  This is on target with what the "experts" say; expect your first truly big crop in the third spring.

I left the asparagus unattended for a couple of days, and some of the spears were already too mature to harvest.  These spears are really stout . . . about as wide as a big toe!  And so sweet.  They have so much sugar content that I like to eat them raw.  Our 8 year old daughter even likes them, and she is pretty discerning.  I definitely include asparagus in the category of foods that definitely rewards growing food at home.

The other vegetables that have done well are our perennial artichoke plants.  Over the winter, I moved seven artichoke plants from a flower bed with fairly anemic soil into two of our raised beds.  It is unbelievable how big these plants have gotten in a few short months.  One reason is because we did not have a killing freeze this winter, so the plants did not go dormant.  Additionally, I think the plants have enjoyed the raised bed soil which is heavily enriched with compost and composted manure.

The only problem is that these plants have gotten so large that they preclude me from growing anything else in two of my nine large raised beds.  Consequently, this past weekend, I moved them back into another flower bed.  I cut the leaves way back, but the plants still suffered some shock from the transplanting.  The torrential rain that we received the other night, however, brought them right back, and they look very healthy.

 

 We have some cauliflower, brussel sprouts, lettuce, spinach, and kale growing from seed; however, a lot of the seed did not germinate for me.  I was a very lazy gardener this winter and did not use the greenhouse tunnels.  Nevertheless, given how mild our winter was, I don't really think it impacted the garden that significantly.

Our sweet and red onions that I planted from onion starts are doing great.  They should be ready in another month or so.

It is a different story with the garlic.  I planted my garlic cloves saved from last year's harvest, two months late!  They do not look good.   I am still holding out hope that more will sprout shoots from the ground, but it may be a lost cause.

This is a photograph of our blooming rosemary with a blooming plum tree barely visible in the background.  The rosemary is blooming a lot more than in past years.  In fact, I don't recall it blooming before.  The sage is also blooming, and our cool weather herbs like dill, fennel, cilantro, and parsley are all growing like gangbusters.

 

Our lone, surviving alpine strawberry is already producing its tiny, sweet berries.  I lost the remainder to last years remarkable heat and drought.  I transplanted this plant into the asparagus bed, and I am going to plant about 10 more plants with it.  On the other side of the asparagus bed, I transplanted about 15 musk strawberry plants to make them easier to harvest.

This past weekend, given the warm temperatures that appear to be here to stay, I started interplanting hot temperature vegetables.   I planted my favorite, charentais melon, from seed among the onions.   I am interplanting cucumbers into the garlic.  And I planted about 12 tomato plants and pepper plants (I am shamed to admit that I bought tomato starts from the nursery, but we were too busy to start the plants from seed this january).

I will try to get the rest of my seeds planted in the next few weeks: eggplants, squash, corn, pumpkin, etc.

 

Artichokes

 

When you enjoy an artichoke for dinner, you are eating the flower bud before it has bloomed.  This season, we have had a lot of buds on our artichoke plants that were grown from seed last year.   We are growing the Imperial Star variety.  Artichoke plants often take two seasons (one winter) before they will produce buds; however, I have heard that there are ways around this requirement.

 

 

We actually have not eaten any of the buds this year.  Rather, we have just enjoyed their unusual beauty.  In flower, the buds transform into huge heads of soft, violet strands that are loaded with  pollen.  The flowers have the consistency of a soft "kush" ball.  The bees and butterflies are clearly drawn to these flower heads which contain an immense amount of pollen in them. 

 

 

 

As you can see from the two following photographs, the bees disappear in these flowers and emerge covered in pollen.  In the lower right hand corner of the first photograph, you can just barely see the bee burrowing deep into the flower.

 

 

 

Also, if you are looking for a catch crop for leaf-footed bugs, artichokes are what you need.  All of the leaf-footed bugs in our garden seemed to be drawn to these buds and their flowers.  I used the opportunity to spray an organic bug killer of mint spray onto them in order to eradicate them.  You can see an adult leaf-footed bug on the right-most bud in the first photograph of this post, and there is a young, red leaf-footed bug on the left side of the flowering bud in the third photograph.

The photograph below is of an artichoke plant in early spring.  By the summer, the plants are three feet wide by three feet tall.  The mature plants take up a fair amount of space, and they are perennials living for four to six years if you are lucky.  Consequently, you need to find a permanent spot for them in your garden.

 

Now that our plants have flowered, they look like they are about to die with the excessive heat that we are having.  Fortunately, this anemic looking condition is fairly common, and the plants can just be cut back so that new fronds will appear in the Autumn.

The following link should provide you with more information if you are interested in growing artichokes yourself:  http://www.annettemcfarlane.com/Stories/Artichokes.pdf.