New Gate For The Gardens

Yesterday I added a front rail and gate to the gardens.  I'm actually pretty proud of how it turned out.  It looks nicer, I think, and the easier access to the path in between the gardens is just soooo convenient!  Check out my regular blog post here for lots more pics and commentary!

Things Getting Big and Picking Strawberries

Just a quick post to show the growth of all the plants.  No rundown of every single one this time, but I will point out the sprouting lettuce and radishes at the bottom, and the peas have gotten big!  We've never grown peas before, now we know.  Still, they won't last all Summer so we may pull them once they are done producing to make more room for the cucumber plants.

The strawberries have been producing for over a week now.  We have to pick them daily.  We are getting a fairly good yield, but many are small.  I wrote a little more about the strawberries over at my regular blog today, you can read that here.

More Planting, Space Worries

After yesterday's post, my wife chastised me for forgetting to mention the basil, planted in an east-west row along with the tomato plants (it's the one by the trowel).  Today she planted another basil, seen by her left hand, in the row with the sage and thyme thereby filling, or over-filling, all the space in the top of the garden.  We'll see how big things get, the cucumbers have me a bit worried if they happen to actually grow well.  Ah well, nothing ventured - nothing gained, right?

The lower part of the garden is divided into thirds under the pepper plants.  The left third still has the carrots, the middle third is now 3 short rows of leaf lettuce, and the right third is another round of  3 short rows of radishes.  Hopefully we won't get pummelled with rain anytime soon so the rows stay where planted.  As you can see, the carrots look pretty random and low, but I'm sure we'll get something from them.

Also this morning, we picked our first 10 (or so) ripe strawberries - they tasted great!  Just a sign of things to come!

June-Bearing Strawberries

The peas are getting very large at the top of the garden, with first pea pods starting to grow.  Just this side of the small trellis several of the cucumber plants seem to be doing very well.  I don't know if they will have much room if they all do well, but I guess we'll take that chance.  We put the tomato cages on the plants while we still can.  They have gotten stronger since we planted them and are starting to grow nicely.  Below that, the sage is growing well and the thyme is still small but growing well.  It is hidden by the 2 rows of garlic.  Then there are the hot and sweet pepper plants.  Kate pulled the radishes, they weren't developing well since the seeds got washed too close together.  The same happened to the carrots in the lower left but she has tried to thin them as they grow to give them a chance.  We still have space to plant more things yet.  Stay tuned, I guess.

A few days ago I notice the first berries starting to turn red so it was time to cover them with netting.  Since then, it seems a squirrel got in and tried one or two so now we think we have it secured enough to discourage future poaching.  But hey, if they're that determined there's not a lot we can do.  Check out the close up pic below!