Vegetable Garden Update

It's been a while since I've updated on what's growing here.

Well, let me change that.

ONIONS
Some of the onions started to flower because it warmed up, then cooled down, and warmed back up. A gentleman I work with who moonlights as a farmer (seriously) told me to snap the flowers off and they should still be ok and bulb like normal. I'm worried about the cold snap we had this weekend and the warm weather we're scheduled to have from here on might force more of them to do the same.

MACHE
We planted mache in February, which is not the right time of year in our neck of the woods. Eliot Coleman of Four Season Harvest fame elaborates that mache is the most cold tolerant crop you can grow. So obviously, it wilts like mad in the 90^o heat. It still tastes good though, and we are looking forward to succession planting mache in the early fall to enjoy all winter.

POTATOES
We planted 4 kinds of potatoes - 2 came from our local nursery, and 2 came from our kitchen. The kitchen ones had already chitted themselves, whereas I should have chitted the nursery ones before planting them. The difference in their growth is staggering. The kitchen chitted ones are already 18-24" tall, whereas the unchitted nursery ones are only 6-10" tall. Hopefully it will be as if we succession planted potatoes and we'll have them all summer and deep into the fall.

GARLIC
Our garlic is doing questionably. Some looks good, but those nearest the sweet peas have smaller, less developed, and yellowish leaves. I tried to amend the soil around them with kelp to see if that would help, but I'm not sure yet. We eat so much garlic that it would be a shame to not be able to have any from the garden, including some to plant for next season!

STRAWBERRIES
Our strawberries are setting fruit. We've already made an agreement with the lizards that the strawberry pot near the raised beds is all theirs, but they must leave Chris' berry patch alone.

FRUIT TREES
We have one peach, and a ton of apples pollinated and starting to swell ever so slightly. Very exciting. It's really amazing how much growth the trees that we received as merely sticks in January have become trees. How they grow. Awww.

LETTUCES, GREENS
Everything green is bolting. The romaine is only alive to attract aphids, but Chris won't let me call it quits on them. Again, spring in NorCal is NOT the time to plant greens and lettuces - they do much better if fall-planted and overwintered. Thusly noted.

TOMATOES
Survived the cold weather, and look as healthy as ever. The wall o waters are coming off; Spring is here!

MANDARIN TREES
The two 'Clementine' Mandarin trees are doing very well in their oversized pots - they're currently putting on a lot of growth and flowering. We planted the 'Seedless Kishu' Mandarin in the ground, and oh boy, is it in shock. Apparently the drip system was not working around it until Chris discovered it a couple days ago, so the vast majority of the leaves have now fallen off in the wind, and the flower buds will likely follow. It has such a beautiful trunk and branch pattern that I hope it survives to tell the tale.