This is my second year gardening in the Charleston, SC area, but I am still amazed at the new things I see in my garden. For example, as my following knows, I planted three types of potatoes in five-gallon buckets – three white fingerling, two peach-colored fingerling, and five purple potatoes. (I bought them at the grocery store, so I’m unsure of the exact varieties.) The peach fingerlings are now blooming! (See picture above.) There are no blooms on the other potato plants, but I learned not all potatoes flower. Who knew?
GROWING IN MY POTS:
Besides the two plants blooming, my potatoes are all growing like crazy! I hope there’s as much going on under the soil as on top of it! And, I’m already harvesting herbs for cooking. Nothing like using fresh, home-grown herbs in the kitchen!
This week I noticed I have snow pea pods growing. At last count, I have over a dozen pods on three plants in one pot. No pods yet on the three plants in the other pot, but lots of flowers.
Snow peas
The Peruvian peppers – Rocoto and Lemon Drop – that I transplanted are doing well. They’ve survived a couple of rain storms, a very windy day, and lots of sunshine. I think all is well.
RAISED BEDS:
In addition to the Black Beauty eggplant I bought at Lowes, I transplanted two of my own eggplant seedlings, and one died. The seed I direct-sowed to replace it has not germinated…yet. I thought I was going to lose the other one, but it has survived. Its leaves (the ones tenderized under grow lights) suffered from two rainstorms, but new, stronger leaves are starting to grow.
Listada de Gandia eggplant seedling
Both my sweet peppers and my hot peppers are getting stronger and growing new leaves/branches along the stems.
Green Bell peppers
I was concerned that the lettuce I sowed between the pepper plants wouldn’t germinate, or wouldn’t “take,” but I do have quite a few that are growing in each bed.
My string beans poked through the soil and grew two inches in less than 24 hours! I had excellent germination on these. The front two-thirds of the bed are Black Valentine green beans, and the back third of the bed is Beurre de Rocquencourt wax beans.
String bean seedlings
The germination rate on my Henderson Lima beans wasn’t quite as good, so I’ll be resowing the end of the week so I can have a full bed.
Henderson Lima bean seedlings
The carrots I sowed among my tomato plants have germinated.
Scarlet Nantes carrot seedlings
My slicing tomatoes are starting to flower. (The paste tomatoes should be flowering soon.) I’m salivating just thinking about the juicy tomatoes soon to come! The Black Krim tomato buds look so much larger than the other tomato buds.
Black Krim tomato buds
Mortgage Lifter tomato bud
I am most excited that one of my own seedlings – a blue tomato from seed I’d received for free – is starting to bud!
Blue tomato bud
Remember when I grafted my first tomatoes? Two of those Cherokee Purple tomatoes survived and are actually doing well in the garden.
Grafted Cherokee Purple tomato
My Red Creole onions are starting to bloom as I begin harvesting them.
Red Creole onion flower
Red Creole onions
All but one of my squash seeds germinated and now have secondary leaves. (One butternut didn’t make it.) In between the squash hills, I planted icicle radishes to protect against squash beetles. We’ll see if it works.
Squash with icicle radishes
A few of my watermelon and melon seeds didn’t germinate, so I’ll be resowing later this week. But all of my Amish Pie pumkin seeds germinated and are growing secondary leaves.
Amish Pie pumpkin seedlings
I planted Long Green Improved cucumbers, White Wonder cucumbers, and Russian Pickling cucumbers. The pickling cucumbers germinated several days ahead of the green ones; and the white ones took a few days longer than the green. In the picture below, you can see the secondary leaves starting.
Russian Pickling cucumber seedling
I’m finding it interesting that the purple artichokes I grew from seed have leaves that are different than the green artichokes I bought.
Purple artichoke
Green artichoke
Besides the one Swiss chard plant that came back from last spring’s planting, I have several chard seedlings.
Swiss Chard seedlings
All my raspberry canes are now sprouting leaves, so I pruned them to remove any stems that didn’t grow leaves. Because they’re everbearing, I will be getting a small harvest in May from the canes that bore in the fall. I’ll have to prune again after that.
Raspberry Canes
My strawberry bed is from one Sequoia strawberry that survived last year’s planting and spread.
Strawberry bed
There is so much new going on in my garden, I can’t possibly post all the pictures! So, come back soon to see what’s new.
Sanctuary Gardener 