The Cabbages will EAT US!!

Updates:

Cabbage bed is filling up, and running out of room, lower leaves that rest on the ground are showing 2-3 aphids, so I have been removing them and putting them on the fire pit. Chamomile is developing lush foliage but no flowers yet. Everything looks healthy and strong.

Sweet potatoes still have not recovered the massive amounts of disease from the feed store. I may have to replace them if possible. I also am trying to root a pineapple plant in that bed. Compared to all the others, it looks pretty barren.

The lettuce bed is filling in nicely and we are pulling heads out pretty regularly. The radishes have almost all been eaten out and the carrots are filling in completely. Even the lemongrass has sprouted and is growing and looks hardy.

We have 20-25 immature strawberries growing in right now, and the thyme and garlic seem right at home. We are still fighting black spot, though. The organic powder did nothing for them. I need to fertilize them soon.

The tomatoes are growing in well and seem healthy. Some are flowering, giving me hopes of an early crop! :) They are all caged and supported and no pests are to be seen.

The peppers are still getting bigger. One bell pepper has a small pepper on it, but quite a few have numerous flower buds that haven't blossomed yet. I still fell like they are pretty little, though, and am not sure that they are big enough to handle that weight. But we will see! I also threw in a tabasco pepper to finish things off. (there is still a tray of pepper seedlings in there, seeing who will survive)

The okra had to be replaced as it looked diseased, and I ended up buying more than I needed because of the size of the packs. Any way, they have developed a couple more true leaves, which is optimistic. The tomatillos are both in flower, and I divided the eggplant leaving us with 3 Ichiban eggplant plants, and 4 Black Beauty (Italian) eggplant. They seem small, but the garden has a way of surprising me with shocking growth overnight.

The potato bed is starting to look overgrown. There is lots of dense foliage, and small alyssum flowers poking through covering the ground. I am waiting for one to start flowering, so we can have new potatoes. I would love to have them for Easter!! There are no signs of blight, and the cilantro is getting huge. I dug the blighted plant up and removed the small blue tubers and re-buried them in their old spot. My grow, may do nothing. We will see. I don't water this bed at all anymore and it looks like it is better for it.

The broccoli/onion bed is in a state of transition. The radishes are almost gone, and the carrots are coming in. We cut the central heads off the 4 broccoli plants. They were small, but the heads were growing less dense, and I was afraid the flower buds would start opening. (They were delicious). Either way, they are developing many little side-shoots. And I will be able to move the broccoli plants from the cabbage bed over once those shoots are harvested. Then I hope to get a second (and hopefully third) harvest of broccoli. I had to use one onion for a recipe, so we are now one short. And about 4 of them didn't sprout. I think it should be enough, though. If not, this bed may require revision for next year.

The corn is getting big, and I would venture to say has reached 18-20" tall. I love it. Everything is planted and sprouting. I will try to take pictures soon. The peas and (a few) beans are flowering, hopefully signaling the beginning of a harvest season. I also placed a butternut squash, a peanut plant, and stevia in some open areas in the area. A pantyhose cap will be placed on the sunflower to prevent the seeds from scattering once they get fertilized and start to form. We have lots of little sprouts. And I bought some pickling cucumbers hoping that will make a difference in how our pickles turn out his year. No more signs of aphids here, but we do see a lot of ladybugs around the garden, so I am sure that they don't want to be here.

Will try to update on the perennial perimeter soon!!

P.S. I discovered a sprinkler head buried under the sod! Now I can get water delivered automatically from 2 sides of the garden. :)