The camera I took the picture above with died. Lloyd Cha gave me an old camera he had sitting around, state of the art technology in 2002. I went back to the spot I took the above pictures to take a new set and see how the two cameras compare.



One thing that makes the comparison a little harder is that stuff has grown a lot since the first set of pictures was taken. In other words, we're comparing apples and oranges to some extent.



     

That kale flowering concerned me. I talked to that guy who has the huge kale bush about it. He said "I just don't worry about it." He has a huge kale bush that he's been harvesting leaves from for years, so if he just lets the plants flower and keep moving on, I'll try that to.

I moved the collard in the pot to my front porch. I figured I'd see what that kind of plant can do in my shady location.




     

None of the seeds has sprouted yet. Haven't planted anything in the green pot I put out there yet.



The fava beans are growing well.





That cabbage I harvested between taking the above two pictures is still adding sweet crunchiness to salads as I type this. The other three are moving towards harvestible soon.



The grapes are still asleep, so I'm not going to worry about them shading the cabbage at all. I figure the cabbage will be gone before they cast much of a shadow at all.

     

The daffodils didn't last that long as pretty flowers. I'm really startled how different the greens look from the two different cameras. Maybe one factor is that I've harvested a lot of the oldest leaves. Probably another factor is the overcast sky. Gotta try again on a sunny day.

I'm so happy about how the collards are growing. I was concerned when I saw the flowers that they would bolt and be finished the way broccoli can. I talked to the master gardener and he said "some of them bolt and some of them don't." His advice is to keep harvesting as long as the leaves are sweet. Nowadays that's two or three one pound harvests every week. It's rare for those leaves to last even one day in my fridge. I eat them right away! Yummy.



I wonder if that's a birth defect or some insect making an egg receptacle or something. I harvested that leaf and did a surgical investigation. Found one blobby brown thing, but not a cache of eggs or anything like that.



These are my favorite collard plants right now. They're collard bushes!

     

Those rose shoots are weeds. I'm going to let the one behind the collard grow long enough to see what the flowers look like, but I'm expecting the same little ones I got there last summer. At least having taken out the bush I get a much smaller one that's further back and hopefully out of the way. If I don't like what it does I won't have any issues with pulling it out. I'm curious how long it will be before I get flowers from it to judge.

The little collard to the right of the daffodils is also the plant in the right picture, two weeks later. I like how it's developing. I've notice that harvesting the leaves that turn purple like that stimulates the plant to pay more attention to the rest of the leaves, which causes them to grow a little faster. Also, that leaf was done growing. Waiting any longer would have made it inedible. As it was it was plenty tasty.

  

The artichoke isn't producing flowers yet. Seems like a big healthy bush though. The lady from near the front with several artichoke plants said I should get around twenty youngish flowers off the thing. Last year I remember getting three or four. I fertilized it a bit when I noticed it was waking up. It still doesn't want much water, so I leave it alone mostly.

That tomato plant got frost bitten the night after I planted it. Wasn't expecting that. That was my inspiration for planting the seeds in the pots.

     

The horseradish is just beginning to send up shoots. Talking to the mustard eating master gardener, she told me "Russians like planting horseradish and beets near each other." I gather they help each other out somehow. Maybe I should plant a ring of beets around the horseradish...

The broccoli plants are sending up secondary shoots, as expected. Maybe it works out to a serving a week from the four plants that are big enough to provide much.

  

The current is still asleep. I'm looking forward to finding out what currents are like.



I like to think the peas are growing, but it's hard to see the progress. Fingers crossed!

  

I think that mini-tulip cluster flower thing is a hyacinth. It did smell good for about a week. Gotta stake it next year.

     

I'm liking those fava flowers! They mean fava beans are just around the corner. I've seen several different types of bees browsing the flowers. Haven't taken a picture of one feeding. Ought to do that.

     

That handful of leaves is a typical collard harvest. Generally works out to about a pound of greens, of which maybe ten ounces of which actually go in the steamer. The rest are stems that I donate to Marci's compost pile.

I took out this kale plant because it had aphids. Gotta figure out what to do about that. It's the second plant I've had to sacrifice because of them. Very unhappy about that. Gotta figure out how to get rid of the ants that are farming them to.

Talking to Marci the master gardener, she said to just leave them be. For one thing they'll attract ladybugs who will reward you by eating LOTS of aphids and keeping the damage under control.  For another thing, the soapy water that makes the aphids easy prey for other things repels the lady bugs, which prevents those from doing their work. For another, the soap makes the leaves taste soapy. She said that if I harvest something with lots of aphids on it, just rinse it off in very salty water. That makes the aphids float off. She also pointed out that the aphids have a tendency to only go after the weaker plants, so the happy campers just keep getting better. So I'm going to just watch the situation develop and pray that it works out.