And the beet grows on...

The beets are bulbing up :)

Pics from 4/17/2011--






Picks from today (4/19/2011)--






I think we're going to have a few cucumbers. The pic above shows one of the cuke plants; there are about 70 more.

Last Year's Proof-of-Concept Test Garden

Here are some pics of a small aquaponics system I set up late last year to test the concept of aquaponics. As you may have guessed, the testing was highly successful:

Update

Overview (it's beginning to get a bit jungly in there):




This head of buttercrunch was the best tasting lettuce I have ever had:



This is supposedly iceberg lettuce. The thing is, iceberg is supposed to form a crisp head, but these icebergs are instead forming giant sprawling fountains of leaves. Tastes like good iceberg, though. Weird.




The tomatoes are already getting thick, a harbinger of the major pruning that will be required down the road.




A peak underneath the summer squash leaves reveals the heart of their operation:




A young beet is beginning to bulb up:




The oldest section of Bodacious sweet corn is starting to send up tassles:




Nice looking little spinach:




Here's a bit of Outredgeous Romaine lettuce that I planted outside:





Outside the garden, a rosebud tree gives its opinion on the nice spring weather:




Finally, here's a pic of our new set of rodent removal devices (not yet fully assembled):

Lettuce kick spring off in style!

For some reason, my big sister just doesn't seem all that big in these photos...

Early April in the Garden

Overview:



A group of beets lingering behind the corn:



The cucumber plants are already getting fruit on them:



A pepper plant is starting to look like a pepper plant:



If you're wondering about the A&W bottle in the preceding pic, it's because I'm propping up the big zucchini leaves with makeshift braces in order to keep the pepper seedlings underneath them from being smothered. My first attempt was with a bottle that I happened to be holding when I discovered the problem; version 2.0 involved a high-tech upgrade to sticks.

Bring on the Sunshine!

The past two days have been sunny (after a long bout of crummy, cloudy weather), and the plants have responded. It's like an explosion of green when you peek inside:



The lettuce continues to amaze:



And the broccoli heads seem to be doubling in size every 24-36 hours:





Here are the Royal Burgandy garden beans (top) and pumpkins (along the bottom). The cluster at the bottom right are Prizewinner Hybrids that can get up to 300+ pounds. The cluster at the bottom left (under attack by snow peas that line the left side of the pic) are Big Max, which can get to around 100 lbs. The two in the bottom middle are Atlantic Giants. The plan with the pumpkins is to have them run right out the door; that way, they have some room to run around while still being able to keep their toes in the honey jar. [You'll also notice a Bibb lettuce that I plopped down in the middle of pumpkin avenue, and on the very bottom left, growing in the dirt, is some Parris Island romaine lettuce (the bigger plants) being followed up by some carnations.]



I'll end with a shot taken from the blue cushion in the first pic of this post looking back toward the entrance: