The Onions are flowering!!!!

Summer is fast approaching and my little urban fire-escape garden is growing like crazy.  One of the onions has begun to flower.  The diamond shaped onion bulb has blosommed into hundreds of delicate emerald tendrils.  3 more onion bulbs have yet to blossom, and I'm soooo looking forward to this! :)

My lettuce is growing wild at this point.  I encountered some aphids several weeks back but apparently, with aphids came the sparrows.  The little birds proved their worth by devouring many of the aphids which had been plaguing my greens.  Now the lettuce is half a foot tall and will soon be ready for harvest! 

After a stretch of warm weather, the hanging Tomato plant has almost doubled in size.  While the pea plants has been climbing the metal fire-escape railings in search of more sunlight.  The biggest pea plant is now 3 feet tall and has begun to flower.  Even some of the basel seeds have sprouted, at last count I had 4 little basel plants growing.

 

The urban garden blooms!!!!

More than a month has passed since I revamped my little fire-escape garden.  Much has changed since then.  For one thing, the little lettuce seedlings have blossomed into a forest of emerald leafs covering the top of the entire container.  I should be able to harvest the first wave of lettuce leaves in a few weeks.  I plan to grow another crop of the same container this season.  One thing that I noticed about container gardening is the need for more water.  Containers need more watering than raised beds.  I've gotten into the habit of watering my containers every single day.

Both of my onion containers are getting ready to bolt.  After a year of growth 3 of my green onions are at the cusp of flowering.  Each onion plant has a single heart shaped bulb growing outwards.   I plan on letting all three reach maturity and saving their seeds.  The peas are doing quite well.  3 of the 6 peas that I planted have survived so far.  All three are beginning to climb up the railings of the fire-escape.    

My latest addition to the garden is a hanging basket.  It costs plenty of hard currency to acquire, but after lusting over it for 10 minutes straight at Home Depot, I couldn't help myself and just had to buy it.  The basket has a base of peat moss which absorbs water.  I filled the basket with 2/3 potting soil and the other 1/3 with home brewed compost.  Then I planted in a huge tomato seedling.  After several days of growth the tomato plant has gotten noticeably bigger.  My fire-escape garden is so small yet it brings me so much joy.  To a certain extent, one realizes that life is so precious and should be allowed to continue on. :)

  

Suburban Garden Update 5/09

Last weekend, I journeyed back home to Pennsylvania for Mother's day.  While there I had a chance to check on my suburban garden.  My father had been doing an incredible job in expanding and maintaining the bio-intensive Garden based on the plans that I had drafted in March.  Everything is in full bloom.  In the picture, my father is standing proudly over the expanded garden! :D

The Cabbages are interplanted with rows of Green Onions and Garlic.  Potoatoes were coming on strong in 2 of the Garden Beds.  And 4 tomato plans were growing in one of the newly created garden beds.  All appeared to be growing extremely well.

Garden Bed 5 had Summer Squash seedlings catch-cropped with fast growing Shanghainese Lettuce.  The Lettuce will mature and be harvested prior to the maturing of the Summer Squash plants, thus allowing 2 harvests in one season!

2 Garden Beds used for growing potatoes last year are planted with Snow Peas and Sugar Snap Peas respectively.   Both beds are doing very well with the pea seedlings starting to climb up the bamboo trellis.  The Peas will absorb nitrogen from the atmosphere and fix it into the soil, thus improving long term soil fertility.

Now on to the perennials!  7 of the 8 asparagus plants that I had put down last Spring have made it to their 2nd year!  Now they are the size of small bushes and growing vigorously.  We have to wait one more year before beginning to harvest the asparagus shoots.  But even now, I can see fully grown asparagus shoots that are perfectly edible from each bush!

Both of the apple trees are flowering.  The pruning of errant branches several months ago seemed to have done these trees much good.  So far, I haven't seen any signs of fungus or pest upon the apple leaves.  In anycase, to ensure maximum survivability this year, I coughed up some hard currency and bought a bottle of Organic Pest Spray.  Basically it's a mixture of Garlic, Cottonseed, and Rosemary oils which drives the bugs crazy! :P

Finally, we come to the berries.  Despite our failed attempts to transplant berries last year, my father has bravely tried again this spring, with great success!  He transplanted another 3 blackberry bushes, 2 of them died, but 1 survived and appears to be thriving.  My father lined the berry bush with a lithic mulch in the same fashion as the ones I had laid in around the apple trees.  We need to keep our fingers crossed and pray to the Gardening Gods for success!