483 Days till Harvest

You read that right! 483 days till harvest. I started the artichoke January 2012 and I harvested my first artichoke yesterday. I planted Imperial Star; which is supposedly an annual. I followed all the directions and exposed it to cold temps last February/March. But the Spring of 2012 was fairly warm and short-lived. In 2012, this was all I got.

April 2012 (shows only one of the three planted)


October 2012 (shows all  three)


Then, this winter, I figured I had lost them for good after a few freezes left them looking …. well, dead. Didn’t take a picture of them because I thought that was all she wrote; given this variety is to be grown as annuals.

Well, this spring, I noticed that they had perked back up and even started to grow. Good thing I didn’t pull them up. In March, they looked like this. You can tell that they are smaller than they were in October, but they are clearly alive and well.


Then just a month later, in April 2013:
 


And today, I pulled these two beauties that had started to open up (that is a quart sized jar to give you an idea of their size).


These are just the beginning. I hadn’t gotten a picture yet, but there are ….maybe….. five more coming into size. I just hope they beat the Texas heat. I believe that if I cut them back just as the eat sets in, I can get another harvest in fall…..we’ll see.


This week also brought some collards, turnips, and I am beginning to unpeel my luffa’s (grown last season).
 

Check out more early season harvests (or late season harvest depending on which side of the equator you are on) over at Daphne’s Dandelions Harvest Monday.