What I'm Planting - November 2011 - Week 1 Update

This morning I went out to check on things in the garden and water and found some tiny holes (already) in the seed leaves of my broccoli plants.  Last years homemade "garlic, onion, pepper stock" spray was a big flop and I didn't get much of anything out of the ground. For this year I've decided that yield is more important to me than pesticide free is right now, so I gave everything a good misting of Ortho Max Gtarden & Landscape Insect Killer.  The bottle says it kills 100+ Insects and is safe for use on vegetables, fruits, flowers and shrubs.  I was gentle/light on the mist since my plants are so tiny, not even having their true leaves yet.  We shall see how well this works for keeping pests away. 

As far as the garden grows, I am very happy with how things are progressing.  

All of my lettuces are doing wonderfully!  They are beautiful shades of light greens.  I'm afraid I may have crowded them too much, but am not sure when to thin.  I'd like to wait until they get a bit bigger so I can see which will be the stronger plants and then thin the weaklings.  

Spinach finally sprouted a couple days ago.  It's looking healthy and strong and I'm very excited!

My cauliflower seeds have all come up now too.  I almost gave up hope on them, but they made it!

Broccoli looks brilliant (other than those little bite marks).

My carrots are all sprouting!!!    Yes, that required bold because in all my gardening adventures I've never had any luck getting carrots to grow!  I'm hoping for a BIG yield!

The garlic I planted hasn't done anything so far.  Folks say it has to stay in the ground through winter and can't be harvested until Spring next year.  I'm hoping it's just a SLOW grower and I don't get too discouraged and dig it up.  

The Turnips are all popping up finally too!  This was another I thought I may give up on (notice a trend here?) but I'm glad I didn't.  Very nice spacing and sprouting.

My radishes are all sprouting now too!  I don't eat radishes, but LOVE the idea of harvesting in a month or less.  That's my kind of garden turn around.  Who knows, maybe I will learn to love them.  

There is no activity from my beets or onions yet.  Again I am hoping I just need to practice some PATIENCE!  I won't give up just yet.  :)

As a reminder, here's what I planted:

Planted Saturday, 11/19:

• Lettuce (Bibb, Grand Rapids, 3 test varities, mesclun mix)
• Spinach (Bloomsdale Long Standing)
• Cauliflower (Early Snowball A)
• Broccoli (De Cicco)
• Carrots (Danver's #126)

Sunday, 11/20/11 I planted:

• 6 cloves of white garlic (from Publix).  I've heard mixed results using store bought garlic so I want to try this myself to see how it goes.
• Turnips (Purple Top White Globe)

Monday, 11/21/11 I planted:

• Beets (Detroit Dark Red, Morse's Strain)
• Onions (Hybrid Granex Yellow PRR)
• Radishes (Icicle, Short Top)