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!

More Plants Added

It was expected to be rainy or stormy early afternoon today, that didn't happen so we were able to tend to the yard and garden when we got home from work. While I mowed, Kate added several plants in the west garden. Along the top sun/shade line are cherry tomatoes, regular tomatoes and basil. And below the garlic are a hot pepper and a sweet pepper plant. Everything else is progressing nicely. The cucumber plants, that were started from seed inside, are stil pretty small, but it is still early. Everything is a little later than last year due to the weather and cool Spring we've had.

In the strawberry bed most of the flowers have turned into small, green, going-to-be berries.  We've never done this before, but I'm hoping all the wet weather we've had and now more of the warm sunny weather expected is good for their growth. 

Gardens Are Shaping Up Nicely

It's almost the end of May, there has been progress and growth but even now the planting is not done.  At the top, two rows of peas grow between the back fence and a small trellis made out of leftover fence.  Just this side of that trellis several small cucumber plants - started from seed - form a row.  In the middle are two rows of garlic with sage and thyme right behind.  Then there is a blank area kind of shaped like 'T', with radishes in the lower right and carrots in the lower left.  Unfortunately the carrot seeds seem to have washed down to the lower end, but they are growing well anyway.  We still have tomato and pepper plants to put in.  Very soon I would say, after threats of frost yet.

The strawberry bed is lush with very big plants, some still flowering and others even starting to grow berries!  These are June-bearing plants so we look to have a bumper crop but we won't be picking them all summer long.  As long as we can keep the critters away no berry shall go to waste!

Mid-May Growth

In the mid morning shadows, the west garden is coming to life despite more yet to be planted.  The peas are getting big at the top, I'll be building a small trellis for the vines to attach to soon.  Below that is open space above two leftover herb plants, sage and thyme I think, my wife will correct me later.  Then there are two rows of garlic, some more open space that will be planted later, with radishes in the lower right and carrots just starting to come up in the lower left.

The east strawberry bed is almost in full swing.  There are several blossoms starting, and Kate said she saw a tiny berry starting already!  When they start ripening we will have to stay on top of picking them so we don't lose it all to the birds and squirrels.  I have a netting that hopefully will dissuade vermin poachers.

Latest Plantings

Just a quick note before I forget-  Friday Kate planted the garlic in the garden and today she planted carrots.  There will also be cucumbers in the garden soon, she has some started in planters inside but they are not big enough to be replanted yet.  No picture, it would just be dirt, but there should be sprouts to show off soon enough.  It seems like a late Spring this year, but looking back at last year we started planting around April 21 and still had a frost warning in early May.  So not so much a late Spring, I guess, as it is warm weather anticipation!

New Plants Arrive

Kate has been receiving plants in the mail a bunch lately and they needed to be planted soon.  We are not quite ready to plant them outside. so yesterday she put them into planters temporarily so they continue to grow.  We put these planters in the porch that we should have back soon from the little construction project going on out there. Most of these were flowers, I believe.  Day lilies, cone flowers, and Lily of the valley among them.


While she was doing that I got as much hay out of the strawberry bed as I could.  (You can see both the chives and garlic chives from last year in pots in the upper right of the pic.)  For now it will line the path between the gardens - not the easiest place to trim the grass or control weeds.  I think Kate may go throught it later this week when she plants the garlic and get some remaining hay and also thin the strawberry plants that are starting out almost as out of control as at the end of last year!

Pea Sprouts

Peas are starting to sprout at the top of the west garden!  This row of peas we feared the squirrels got the best of so Kate planted another row just beneath this row, but there are many of those first seeds coming up now.  Also, in the lower right corner radishes were planted last week when she put the second row of peas in.  Much more to come on this side yet.



In the east garden, the strawberry bed, you can see several of the plants poking up through their winter cover.  We have not taken the hay out yet because of all the rain but we shall have to do it soon. Perhaps next week won't be so soggy.