We've been harvesting romaine lettuce and cilantro for several weeks, and we cut our first head of broccoli just the other day. Tom Thumb peas are all ripe and ready to be harvested too. Good thing. The greenhouse holds spring vegetable seedlings getting close to transplant time.
Temperatures have been well below freezing at night for the past week, but you wouldn't know it by looking at the keyhole garden. It continues to produce like there's no tomorrow. We've been harvesting lettuce and cilantro all week and it just seems to grow right back. Garlic, broccoli and cabbage are thriving as well.
80 degree heat earlier this week forced me to actually water the garden. It's quite full now. Time to start harvesting some of that lettuce and cilantro for Super Bowl snacking tomorrow.
A bit of rain followed by warmer weather from what I call our "fake spring" (it always gets really warm here at the end of January, then snaps back to cold) has the vegetables in the keyhole garden growing like crazy. All the garlic is now well along and the romaine lettuce, cilantro and dill are getting close to harvest. Maybe another week or so.
Cool weather (frost overnight and daytime temps in the upper 50s / low 60s) has slowed, but not stopped, plant growth. Lettuces (particularly the romaine) and cilantro are doing quite well, and the garlic I planted several weeks ago has now all sprouted.
Cool weather has turned it into a nutrient rich kitchen garden like no other! It's hard to overstate how awesome a keyhole garden is. If you’ve ever thought about building one, do it. I built one on a whim for about $100 early last spring and was amazed at how it pumped out vegetables and herbs from spring all the way into mid-autumn with basically no effort from me -- no weeding, very little watering, easy harvesting. Definitely $100 well [keep reading...]
A Pacific storm rolled in giving us about 2 inches of rain and considerably colder temperatures. Our mountains got snow, we got frost, but the keyhole garden doesn't seem to notice. The lettuces and Chinese cabbage are really leafing out and the broccoli and red cabbage are getting tall. Even the cilantro, which is kind of picky about too hot or too cold, is growing well.
No rain but close to freezing temperatures has the broccoli confused about what to do. Fortunately, the lettuce (front left) has no such problem.
Another 3" of rain and continued cool weather this week, but the keyhole garden continues to thrive. The broccoli (rear of the garden) is doing well, the romaine lettuce (right side) is doubling each week. We were even able to harvest some cilantro yesterday for enchiladas the mrs. is making.
Second week of the keyhole garden's winter plantings. We had 3 inches of occasionally heavy rains which could have easily pounded the young herbs and vegetables into the mud. Instead, the garden absorbed the water and drained it away beautifully. Even though it's cool and cloudy, the plants are doing beautifully.
