March kicked in with a bang with good precipitation, at least for the first two weeks. We had about 150% of the total average for the month by the 15th, definitely appreciated in these parts. The effect of what has been basically a normal season of rainfall this year is quite obvious, especially after the past 4 years of an extreme drought. All the plants that struggled to get established and flower last year have really come alive. Hopefully we can continue with this in subsequent years. It looks like that's about it, though, April doesn't seem to be very promising but we should be able to get through to next winter ok at this point.
A couple of photos for Boxes 1 and 2 - first from March 17 then the others from today.
Box 1 had radishes, arugula, beets, lettuce, mesclun, Russian white kale, and broccolini. Everything did well except for the broccolini which didn't time well with the warm, dry February and cold damp March.
I removed the radishes, arugula, kale, and broccolini in preparation for our holiday tomorrow. The beets will have a chance to grow over the next few weeks.
Box 2 had an older growth of beets, greens, Lacinato kale, chard, and sugar peas. Everything did quite well.
Box 3 still has the garlic and onions all of which have been growing well. However there are flower stalks coming up from some of the onions which I've picked. And there are signs of black aphid infestation on the garlic leaves. I expect more onion flowers but not much I can do there while I'm gone. I soaped the garlic leaves pretty well a couple of times the past week and blasted what remained with a hose today. I'll probably soap them once more tomorrow. Hopefully that protects them for a while. I haven't seen any flower stalks coming up on them yet.
Box 4 is a bit cleaner now. The parsley's about done but the marjoram, thyme, and oregano are doing so well it'll be hard to clean this bed in May. Their replacements seem to be doing well in Box 5 though, so may not be so tough to give up.
Box 5 is doing well for the most part. I pulled the original cilantro plants and the seedlings are doing well. However the dill seedlings never got going and the original chervil died in the rain. I replaced the chervil with 3 plants. I'll reseed the dill in May hoping they do better in the warmer dry weather.
