The weather prediction for the week of April 24 was pretty warm for that time of year so I decided to take a chance and wheeled the container fig tree out of the garage and onto the driveway on April 24, one whole week earlier than last year. Glad I did. Check out the photo below!

Container Fig Tree
Container Fig tree is happy to be outdoors. The leaves are filling out nicely.
To keep the fig tree as a single trunk tree I am going to remove all the new shoots at the base of the tree and use the shoots to start new fig trees to give away.
∗ ∗ ∗
The lettuces in the below photo were transplanted into the window boxes at the end of March, and left outdoors unprotected.
Early we had some very cold nights (teens and low 20’s). All 3 varieties suffered set back. Needless to say I was worried and hoped that at least one of the variety or maybe all 3 varieties would bounce back.
Well, once the weather got warmer they bounced right back and are now making up for lost time. Just look at those beauties in the window boxes!

Top to Bottom – Lettuce: Forellenschluss, Schweitzer Mescher & Bronze Mignonette
I had given some of the seedlings to Susan McCavery. She too bumped them up into larger container but was harvesting lettuce around Easter.
Reason: she kept them in a sunny location indoors put them outdoors on nice days and brought them indoors for the night. They did not suffer set back from the cold nights.
Lesson learned: OK to start lettuce seedlings in January in the Hudson Valley and transplant into larger container when ready, place outdoor on nice days during the day but must bring indoor for the night.
Of course what worked this year may not apply next year but at least I now have a base to work from.
Harvested the outer leaves of each lettuce plant and continued to harvest the outer leaves every few days, was, and still is, a treat at every meal.
That’s a lot of lettuce in the basket. Made the tastiest salad, so fresh, tender and sweet. A simple dressing of lemon juice, EVOO and S & P to taste was all that’s needed.
A friend stop by and went home with half of the above harvest.
∗ ∗ ∗
Last fall I planted my garlic cloves closer than recommended. Now I dig up every other garlic plant to use as garlic green.

Top – Garlic Green aka Green Garlic. Bottom – Walking Onion aka Egyptian Onion
The entire garlic green plant is edible, very tender with a mild garlic flavor.
The Walking Onion is bolting early this year, not sure why, maybe weather related. The entire plant is edible, use as you would scallion or green onions. I also freeze for later use when making broth.
∗ ∗ ∗
Harvest the outer leaves of each of the container grown Red Winter Kale plant and made a stir fry with the garlic green.

Red Winter Kale
Stir-fry Kale with Garlic Green
Ingredients
• Kale, thinly sliced or coarsely chopped (the stems were so tender I used the stems/ribs and leaves)
• Garlic Green (green garlic), white and green parts, slant cut or thinly sliced (or substitute 1-2 cloves garlic, minced)
• 1 – 2 tablespoons Oil
• 2 – 4 tablespoons broth or water as needed
• Salt and pepper to taste
Method
1. Heat oil in wok or frying pan, add garlic green, stir-fry about 1 minute.
2. Add kale, stir-fry about 1 minute, add broth or water as needed.
3. Cover and steam 3 – 5 minutes or until reached desired doneness.
Variations
• Add lemon juice and/or lemon zest or vinegar at the end
• Add minced ginger during step 1.
• Substitute soy sauce for the salt
• Brown 1 – 2 strips bacon and use the bacon fat instead of oil
• Add chopped nuts, seeds and/or dried fruits
∗ ∗ ∗
First tree peony to bloom. There are more than than a dozen flower buds on the plant.

Tree Peony
The photo above and the photo below were taken a day apart. What a difference a day makes.

Tree Peony
Today and tomorrow more of the buds will open, going to be just gorgeous!
Behind the tree peony is a deciduous peony, it will be in bloom right after the tree peony finishes blooming. Can you see the tiny pink buds at the top of the photo?
… … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … …
Copyright © by Norma Chang. All Rights Reserved. Do not use/repost any photos and/or articles without permission.
Do visit Dave at Our Happy Acres for more Harvest Monday