Dig Dug Gardens

About a week after the last post Kate had a day off and she worked on the west garden.  She added dirt, compost and planted the garlic.  Since then, the squirrels have continued treating the gardens like their own little playground.  Daily she has had to check the garlic and strawberries, replanting when necessary and adding straw. 

The burning bush is finally showing how it got it's name.  After a good trimming this spring after the drought of last year, it is alive and well.  It started out quite overgrown and is probably better off.

Fall Is Here - Mid October Update

Last weekend Kate cleared out the tomato, cucumber and pepper plants from the west garden and potted the thyme.  We have yet to add more soil mostly due to the wet conditions.  It will dry out soon and we shall get more soil and compost added and Kate will get the garlic in for next season.

The east garden no longer has netting and the squirrels are having a ball digging around in the dirt and straw, as you can see, much to my wife's annoyance.

East Garden Update

We did a makeover of the east garden on Tuesday night.  On Wednesday after work we found that the squirrels had a heyday with the strawberry plants, as they have been known to do before, so Kate had to do a lot of replanting.  That made me not wait for the weekend and I stopped off after work today and got a bag of straw.  We use straw to protect the small plants and roots over these cool nights and ultimately winter.  In the spring we remove as much as we can and put it in the path between the gardens to inhibit weed growth.

Anyway, we got home tonight and amazingly the garden was untouched as far as we could tell.  Still, Kate put down some straw to maybe help keep the critters away by hiding the small plant sprouts.  And besides, we're probably not too far away from the first frost.

East Garden Re-Do

Last night we put some work into the east garden to get ready for next season.  It may be a little early, but that should give the plants some time to establish themselves after replanting.

 

 

Here is the final product, replanted and watered.  Also with bird netting in an attempt to keep the critters from digging in it.  It didn't work, Kate had to replant about half the strawberry crowns today after work and we lost a few.  Damn squirrels.

 

See the whole thing, start to finish, after the break!

September Onions Plus

These pics were taken during the day yesterday.  Afterward, Kate harvested all the onions and some peppers that were ready.  Two notes:  Kate says this type of onion does not grow large bulbs and the peppers that were drying were taken down about a week and a half ago, except for the red one which required more drying time.

The east garden will be getting a major overhaul very soon.  We have strawberries to plant and also move the raspberries.  The trick is that we have compost and soil to add to this side so we will have to replant the strawberries that are there now, the raspberries will be totally removed and replanted as well.

Still Growing

What is here is mostly still growing well.  There are both kinds of peppers, cucumbers, parsley and even a few tomatoes in the west garden, top of picture here taken yesterday.  In the east garden onions are still growing as well as some new lettuce and oregano.  The raspberry plants and strawberry plants are still alive, not doing a lot right now.  Our thoughts are already turning to how we will prepare the gardens this fall for the next season.


And the peppers that were brought in to dry (because that part of the plant was dying) have been out for just over 2 weeks now.

Late August Update

These are pics that I took a couple days ago and finally getting around to posting.  The peppers were picked about a week ago and are hung in the porch to dry.

Picking and Planting

Last night Kate gathered a few veggies for use in salads and also to use in a brine for the juicy, delicious chicken we grilled today.

Edit:  The veggies were used in a jerk marinade for later - previously harvested herbs were used in the brine.

Today Kate planted some more romaine lettuce in the east garden, to use up the seeds that she thought would no longer be any good next year.  (They were barely good this year.)

She also planted more peas in the west garden for similar reasons, plus she says they both may produce yet before winter.












The empty tomato cage is to hold up the netting which we have placed over this side.  This happened a couple days after the last post.

Last Tuesday...

... Kate picked a tomato and a cucumber.  Both were eaten in salads at dinner that night.

Herb-ie Rides Again

Kate has harvested much of the herbs yesterday and has been busy making meatballs, pesto, spaghetti sauce, and other stuff with them.  Sorry, not a long post, I'm feeling a bit lazy today.  Pictures are before and after harvesting the herbs.




















Bonus Pics:  Other stuff is actually growing!

Garlic Harvest

It's certainly not much, but half of them died over winter for some reason.  Still, some is better than none.  These pictures were taken on Sunday afternoon, please excuse the delay in posting.

Late June Update

Well, my regular blog isn't the only thing I have been neglecting lately.  No changes have occurred in the gardens since the last post other than how everything has grown.  With that, here's the traditional looks at the garden.

More Planting, Little Growth Yet

Today in the west garden Kate planted more microgreen seeds at the top right of the pea trellis where the peas didn't come up.  These pics are from yesterday, before today's planting, but really it looks the same.














On May 26 Kate added 4 strawberry plants to the ones the squirrels left us, so now there are 8 or 9 total.  Also today, Kate planted more leaf lettuce above the raspberry plants on the right.















The left side of the compost bin is what we acquired all last year and even some early spring stuff this year.  You can see it is almost pure dirt already.  This year's compostables go into the right side.  I wasn't sure it would be ready in one year but we will be able to add it to the garden this fall or early next spring.

More Planting

More plants arrived on Friday and Kate planted them the same night.  It was a busy weekend so I'm finally posting about it.  I had her draw me up a map so I could share what is there, and just to make it quicker here's a pic of the map she drew.  No I'm not lazy, just imaginative!

Actually, the garlic is mostly above the peppers in the west garden, though there was supposed to be more garlic below those as well.  It was planted last fall and, well, never came up this spring.

More Plants

More of Kate's plants arrived yesterday and were planted last night.  I'm too tired to have Kate make me a little map so I can share what is where, I'll save that for the next post.

Quick Notes

Just a quick update to note 2 things:  The posts are in for the raspberry trellis and last night was a frost warning so we covered the east (nearest) garden with a sheet.  Other than that, not much to say yet.

Berry Planting

Yesterday was a nice day, relatively, this spring for us.  The cool weather has our spring plants behind in their growth, most things have barely started.  But we had plants that needed to be planted before they died, so Kate spent several hours in the garden and yard getting it done.  Me?  I slept in, my butt was dragging all day, but I was out there some and got pictures.  I also took a trip to the hardware store and some other errands so I didn't feel totally worthless.  Anyway there are more creeping phlox planted in the tree area (pic over here), and two types of rapberries and ever-bearing strawberries now planted here in the east (right) garden.

A Break From April Showers

Finally the rain gave us a break - see my rant yesterday here - and we finally got a dry day to do some work on the garden.  Of course, the forecast calls for rain 6 out of the next 7 days again.  Saturday looks to be dry as of now, and if so then we (Kate) may be able to get the strawberries in plus some plants around the yard.

We added 2 cubic feet of composted manure and 2 cu ft of garden soil to the east garden, closest in the pic, and 1.5 cu ft of the composted manure at the top of the west garden where Kate has put in a trellis for the peas, also planted this afternoon.  We have 2 cu ft of garden soil and 1.5 cu ft of composted manure left over for adding later, saving for next year or using around the yard where needed.

Garden Spring Cleaning

It is a nice day out with temps in the 50's, good enough to get a start on the garden.  We cleaned up the dead strawberry plants removed most of the hay that was covering the garlic, the rows that are visible.  I also removed excess dirt from the center path and caulked up the seams that were leaking that dirt out of the garden.  I made an attempt to turn the compost, but under the loose dry stuff it was like a block of ice yet.  That's all for today, but I foresee a flurry of activity back here in the coming weeks.

Spring 2013

Okay, time to shake off the cobwebs around here and get ready.  It is officially Spring as of this past Wednesday so all things should be go, right?  Well, Mother Nature is a bit behind schedule this year, not surprising considering the type of schedule she kept last spring and summer.  I snuck back to take this photo on Friday, today there is a fresh layer of snow on top... again. 

Plans have been made and made again, it is almost time to get busy.  When?  Well, I guess we'll see.