We let many plants to seed last year. After removal of the thick winter mulch, we start see many volunteer plants coming out.
The surprise is tons of healthy dill. We planted dill last year, and they just survived. However, the volunteers are very strong and healthy. We water only once a weed base, and the dill is growing great!


Now temperature is around 20th, many more volunteers came out and growing beautifully.

Mustard lettuce is one of them, and they just grow from less than 1 inch leaf to harvest ready size.

Arugula is start having seed pods. we are planning to self seed for second harvest.

Volunteer sunflowers are taking off great too.  We may have to relocate some of them later.
Anyone wants sunflower?

Our thick mulch over the winter really helped improving soil and over winter many seeds. Salad greens are sprouting, early start arugula plants are blooming. We can use their seeds to go second harvest of arugula!

We will kick start our season with Garden Meeting on April 14th,  Saturday!! (2:30pm-3:45pm)

Our garden beds wintered very well. Soils increased organic matter and very much alive. Some onions and arugula, and some greens are already growing. Blueberries have young buds and getting ready for this summer!

At the meeting, we will decided which day we will gather to do gardening as a group. We learned that doing gardening work in 4-6 people group is much more efficient than 1-2 people in every second day.  We can also exchange ideas, tips, and share harvest. We may have salad party at the site?!

For improving water supply, we are looking for unglazed clay pot. check out the use in permaculture here.

Various salad greens are harvested in early spring to summer.

Cut & Come again method encourage more tender leaf to come back for a long time.

Tomatoes & peppers are very slow this year.




 

In August, most of salad green started having flowers and forming seeds pods.
We had an abundance of Arugula seeds. These plants are cut down and layed on the straw to dry & self-seed.

September 11th. Clean up day.
Found dense patch of self-seeded Arugula under the dried stems. Also some savory, Italian parsley, carrots and more herbs are still growing under tomatoes.


Broccoli flower was covered with aphids. Some of broccoli were removed and planted garlic in the spot.

One bale of straw is set on the side for future mulch.

June 26th, Sunny.

Veggies at the garden are ready for harvest. Salad greens are very healthy and in abundance.

  These salad greens were sown on the May long weekend.

We covered the bed with straw mulch. Between these straw, greens poked head and now they are full of life and nutrients!!






I harvested them today. They all have very distinctive flavours and became a great salad. You don't need heavy dressing. a bit of oil and salt would do.

Underneath of these greens are more baby greens waiting for more sunlight.  I encourage all garden care takers to harvest these salad greens while it is tender and yummy.  You can be pretty aggressive about chopping!. They need more light and air space.  Don't worry if you ended up plucking some, we will saw more greens soon!! Also there may be some seeds already in the soil that has been waiting this opening.  After all, it is our food we are growing!