Garden Goings-on

Here's what's happening this week in the garden:

Alliaceae (onion) Family:
The garlics I planted in November continue to do well and thrive. A friend had given me some Walla Walla sweets back in March (I think?) and they are looking very healthy. Some chives from last year actually over-wintered and are coming back vigorously. A few of the chives are looking a bit yellow. Any ideas as to why this is happening??? The leeks we put in a week and a half ago look good too, still tiny, but good. They are in an unprotected bed, and we found deer hoofprints in the bed, but none of the leeks got nibbled - yay:)

Asteraceae (lettuce) Family:
Amongst the garlic are a few volunteer lettuces from the mesclun mix that had inhabited that bed last year. I think they are enjoying the shade from the garlic. I planted two rows of mesclun, one row of romaine, and one of spinach early in March. So far the mesclun are doing well, as are the romaine, but the spinach didn't develop at all. A few little cotyledons came up, but they mostly got eaten by some bug that didnt seem to care at all about the other greens right next to it. Hmmm....

Brassicaceae (cabbage) Family:
Between the onions I planted radishes two weeks ago and they are finally developing their second set of leaves. Nothing seems to have made a snack of their cotyledons (knock on wood) even though I have kicked a small handful of slugs out of the garden lately.
Yesterday I transplanted about 15 of our broccoli starts (and possibly a few kohlrabi, as I got a lot of them mixed up...) out into one of the raised beds, and they are looking pretty good so far.

Cucurbitaceae (cucumber) Family:
Monday we transplanted 6 of our cucumber starts outdoors and they seem to be suffering a bit of shock. Their cotyledons and second set of leaves are both looking whitish at the tips and a little less green all over. Does anyone know if this will subside or if there is something seriously wrong?? We also put 4 pumpkins out a few days ago, and they seem to be suffering from the same thing, but a little less so. We're going to plant a few summer squash in the same bed as the pumpkins. I also recently read about "The Three Sisters" of Corn, Beans and Squash. I had already planned on planting two rows of corn at the edge of the bed that the squash are in, and now I think I will plant some pole beans next to the corn so they can vine up.

Papilionaceae (pea and bean) family:
The peas I planted in late February/early March, are doing well. They are about a foot and a half to two feet tall. They're a bit peaked looking, so we are going to try fertilizing them with some alpaca manure tea this week. We cut some bamboo poles and propped them into an a-frame semi-structure and are training them up the poles. Hopefully they will make a lovely little pea-fortress.

Solanaceae (potato) family:
The potatoes have not shown their faces yet. I check every day and still nothing. Our tomato and pepper starts, on the other hand, are doing well. We brought about half of our tomato starts out and put them in the hot house about a week ago. So far they are looking ok, but aren't as big as the ones that are inside under the lamp. They also suffered a bit of shock at first, and some of the leaves have a whitish discoloration on the edges, but it is minimal and they seem to be recovering already. Within the next week or two, we plan to put the tomatoes outside, once we make sure we have plenty of protected bedspace for them. We were worried about the peppers because we had planted them indoors at the end of January, and they hadn't seemed to grow much. Two weeks ago, I repotted them and now they are flourishing. I am confident that they will grow lots of big happy peppers this season. At the end of May we plan to transplant them to their permanent spot in the hothouse.

Fruits:
Last week I dug out a forest of weeds that was growing in between the fence and a big raised bed and laid down black plastic. In one section I cut three holes in the plastic and put three strawberry plants and they are looking great. We still haven't found a good permanent place to put the raspberry. I got one in a pot from my mother last summer, and never put it in the ground. I thought I had killed it, but it came back this spring and looks just as healthy. There are also several apple trees on the property. We did a little bit of pruning on one this winter, so hopefully we get some apples this summer.

Herbs:
We had started a ton of basil and a little bit of oregano, dill, and sage indoors. The sage looks (and smells) awesome in their little starters. The oregano hasn't shown its face yet, but I know that it takes a while to develop. The dill is lanky but developing its second leaves nicely and looks overall pretty good. The basils are doing terribly. So far only a few have their second set of leaves and they are all extremely short. What are we doing wrong here?? Does dill just develop really really slowly?? We got some thyme, lavender, and marjoram as starts at a nursery and they look awesome.

That's the update for now. Much more to come later. Share your gardening stories and advice with me please I'd love to hear it!!!