Sow Exciting

We've had a few chilly weeks here, but the tomatoes, boc choi, swiss chard and leeks I started a few weeks ago are coming up! 

The snow peas and garlic are coming on strong, too. 

Yesterday we sowed Anaheim peppers, Banana peppers, Heinz Sauce tomatoes, tomatillos, butternut squash and luffa!

Euphorbia!

I've been looking at all the beautiful Euphorbia in bloom, thinking that it really deserves a blog post.  And, wouldn't you know it, my friend Lesley asked me yesterday if I would write about the crazy Jetson's space age plant with all the suction cups!  Euphorbia. Absolutely! And nice to know I have at least one reader out there!
There are actually about 2000 species of Euphorbia, ranging from the Ponsettia to 30 foot tall tropical varieties.  When most gardeners here mention Euphorbia they are referring to the European perennials (Euphorbia amygdaloides and Euphorbia characias).  Euphorbia characias wulfenii, pictured above, is one of the most commonly grown varieties, which grows to an impressive 3' to 4' high.  It has blue green foliage that persists throughout winter, and looks great with it's massive spring display of chartreuse bracts.  I like to mix this Euphorbia, or smaller similar varieties with lavender and or New Zealand flax for color contrast. It is  relatively drought tolerant and prefers a full sun location. Maintenance is minimal - just cut older yellow/brown stalks down to the base. All Euphorbia have sap that can be a skin irritant, so wear gloves when doing any pruning.

Late March

The garlic I planted a month ago is all several inches above ground already!  And the snow peas, leeks, tomatoes, boc choi and swiss chard I seeded three weeks ago are all sprouting up.  Makes me hungry just thinking about it!

In the Garden

Time to start those seeds! Today I sowed the Snow Pod Peas that I bought last weekend.  In the (unheated) greenhouse I started some of the intriguing french seeds I received last year including cherry tomatoes and leeks.  And I had remaining seeds of boc choi, swiss chard, and Medford Early tomatoes from last year that I also seeded today.  

March!

Today I planted elephant garlic! I used about 20 cloves from bulbs I grew last year.  I also planted our horseradish into a large container.  Horseradish is incredibly prolific, so I'll keep that guy in confinement on our deck - right next to my container of mint.

2010 Garden

Another beautiful day!  I neglected to plant garlic last fall, so today I planted the remainder (52 to be exact) of our 2009 garlic cloves.  I also went to a few garden centers and bought: 1 package of Anaheim Pepper seeds, 1 package of Snow Pea seeds, 1 Rhubarb plant, 1 Horseradish plant, 1.5 lbs of organic German Butterball Potato seed, and 1 bag of seed starting mix. The grand total for all of these treasures was $18.13.  Not bad!  I got a few good deals.

Two years ago I was taking Master Gardener classes where a discussion about the value of homegrown produce was brought up.  One person said that his time was worth so much that it was simply not cost effective to grow his own tomatoes, and that he would prefer to purchase tomatoes that had been shipped here from Mexico. Kind of a quirky perspective coming from a Master Gardener...
Two years later times have changed and many people have more time than money. This year I plan to keep track of how much I spend to grow food, what I harvest from my yard and the dollar value of what I have grown.  I think that, particularly in these economically challenging times, it will be interesting to see how much can be produced out of a city garden.

It might as well be spring

It has been a warm and sunny winter here in Portland! March 21 is still weeks away, but it looks and feels a lot like spring.  In my yard there are blooming daffodils, vinca, violets, grape hyacinth, forsythia, primrose and flowering currant.