A Busy Sunday

I began my day in the west-end flowerbed. I gave the whole bed a thorough weeding and watering. Then I went to work transplanting a few sunflowers. I had 4 volunteers come up this year. Two are just fine where they sprouted but two others appeared in the "Tzan" garlic bed. I moved those two and watered them in well. Sunflowers have very shallow roots and hate to be disturbed. Currently, the two plants that I moved look very unhappy but I am hoping that they will perk up in a few days.

After I got all of the volunteer sunflowers settled, I planted the four starts that I grew of "Bright Bandolier". They look good but I am a bit worried about the birds getting to them. There isn't an easy way for me to protect them, so fingers crossed!

Next I moved my attention to the kitchen garden. It was finally time to pull my two kale plants. They have pretty much finished blooming and are busy setting seed.

The seed pods are long and thin. They remind me of miniature green bean pods. I opened a pod and each one has a single row of seed. I can only imagine how much seed would be produced on a plant the size of mine.

Next I got out my flat of Winter Squash starts. As you can see, not all of the seed germinated. But I always plant more then I need so that I will have enough plants to meet my needs, plus a few to give away.

Here's my 4 "Butternut" plants.

And I have four good looking "Delicata" too.

The five "Guatemalan Blue Banana" plants are really big. I think this might foreshadow some really large plants in the garden. I am having flashback to the summer of 2011 and my "Marinia di Chiogia" squash!

I built two new raised beds and first planted two "Guatemalan Blue Banana" in one.

The seedlings are just getting ready to produce their first true leaf. It is the perfect time to transplant them out into the garden.

Then I planted the other raised bed with two "Butternut" plants. After I was done I covered both raised beds with a protective tunnel of remay fabric. 

After I finished planting the two Winter Squash varieties, I took the remay tunnel off of the radish. As you can see, the radish are now ready to harvest. As soon as I have finished harvesting all of the radish from this raised bed, I will add some fresh Nature's Best compost to the bed. Then it will become the home for two "Delicata" squash plants.

Next I took the protective remay tunnel off of the onion row. It has served its purpose. As you can see, the onions are now nice, strong plants. They are big enough that the birds will leave them alone.

Here's a close-up of the "Candy" onions.

And here is the section that is planted with "Frontier" onions.

So here is the latest "look" of the kitchen garden. The white tunnels keep moving around and the garden is slowly filling up for the Summer.

After dinner I decided I had enough time that I could pot up some more dahlia tubers. When I headed over to the planted pots I discovered that my first three dahlias are up! All three are varieties I purchased this year from Blossom Gulch Dahlias; "Asia", "Chubasco", and "Carmella". Below, "Carmella ". And so begins my dahlia year.