Planting, tilling, and an experiment in quinoa

I did get to spend the entire afternoon gardening today.  I first rototilled several sections of the garden to prepare them for planting.  I had to put plants in the ground because they were getting a little overgrown in their seedling containers.  I planted four or five types of lettuce, other varied salad greens like tah tsai and endive, and then planted my big experiment of the year, quinoa, a grain generally grown in South America.  Here are a few pictures.

Quinoa

Concrete bed is full!

For dinner tonight, I picked a lot of asparagus, gave a bunch to a neighbor, and still had plenty to eat over a piece of toast with alfredo sauce.  We also had steamed beets and beet greens also picked today.  Yum!  I love that we have lots of lettuce and other greens as seen in the photo of the concrete bed.
Planting peas tomorrow.

A minor oops, and planting rhodies

     Today was a theoretically good day for transplanting, but operator error created a minor oops.  I wanted to transplant a tomato plant (Nova paste tomato) that had grown in the greenhouse hydroponic setup last year and had survived the winter with no care into the ground in the hothouse.  As I was getting the plant out of its pot, I destroyed its root system by pulling it too hard.  Sigh.  My carefully laid plan was ruined in just a moment.
     On a happier note, Illijana decided to transplant some of the rhododendron plants we have sitting in pots out into the garden.  We built up a collection of plants in one gallon pots when we pick them up from nurseries that have them in their discount sections.  Since it is supposed to pour (rain hard) in the next several days, we thought we would take advantage of the weather and transplant them now.  Here is a picture of the first which is being placed at the top of Moss Terrace.  You can read the history of Moss Terrace here: Moss Terrace history

Illijana planting a rhododendron