We now have all the broccolis, Pak Chois and Napa cabbages in the ground, as well as all the onion plants that will be big onions and about 2/3 of the onion plants that will be pulled young as scallions. Some of the Napas were bolting already, so they weren't planted; they'll get canned. The Napa seeds we ordered online, a small variety called Minuet, are all growing very nicely with rosettes of basal leaves. However, we also bought some seeds for a normal sized Chinese cabbage at a local store and they're the ones that are rushing the season. Most of them are growing properly, but about a third want to grow a stem and start blooming already. Naughty!
We're trying straw mulch this year, chopping it with a lawn mower before putting it around the plants. And we got some of the scrap rolls of newsprint from the Sun to use under the straw in a couple of the raised beds. We'll use it under the big plants later in the season, too.
Those bikes we bought last month? Our butts haven't touched 'em yet. It's been either too rainy, too cold, or, if the day is sunny and warm, we have too much to do outside with the garden.
Our Bradford (Cleveland?) pear trees and the flowering plum are blooming, and the bees are loving them. The redbuds should be opening next week sometime. I still have to cut the butterfly bushes back and prune the rambling rose, Gertrude Jekyll. The Gertrude flowers smell WONderful. I like fragrant flowers - roses, lilacs, lilies, hyacinths, etc.
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