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Two posts in two days, it's getting busy around here...
Kate cleaned up and prepared the gardens today before planting the peas at the top of the west garden.

















We got the bulk of the hay out of the strawberries, it will have to be enough.

First Spring Post, 2012

Happy St. Patrick's day 2012!  In the green state of mind on my green garden blog let's take a first look at the green in the garden!

Well, there's not much green yet, just some small strawberry plants and some garlic coming up that Kate planted last fall.  Below the garlic is a thyme plant that is expected to come back.  With the early Spring and great weather things may come together sooner than later, however.  We didn't use as much hay to cover the strawberries this year, in fact we may not have needed to use any at all with such a mild winter.  Other people have told me that they don't cover their strawberry plants and have no problems, but we still have about half the bag left so we will probably continue to use it.

Below is the whole thing, pockmarked by the damn squirrels digging around.  They don't like the garlic but that doesn't stop them.

Final Post 2011

I've been meaning to post a final garden post before winter for about a month now, but the first snowfall early yesterday (and 40 degree melting today) prompted me to finally shut the book on 2011 for the garden.  Not much has changed in the past month and a half except for the leaves that have gathered and been left in the lower part of each garden, and the holey texture due to curious squirrels poking their noses into everything.  They have gotten into the garlic rows planted for next Spring but hopefully haven't messed them up too much.  They don't really like garlic, they're just too damn nosy, is all.

Preparing The Gardens For Winter

Today was a productive day in the garden.  We got the bags of dirt required, planted the garlic and have the gardens ready for winter.  I say we, but you don't see me in any of these pics.  Kate is awfully protective of me and my problems, she put in a lot of hard work and had the sore muscles to prove it.  Friday she harvested all the usable peppers from the plants she removed today.

Above is the (hopefully) finished product for winter.  She cut down the strawberry plants as much as she could and mulched it with hay, removed the pepper plants, added four bags of dirt and manure, and planted the garlic at the bottom of the west garden (top) and added hay over that as well.  Hopefully the squirrels will leave it all alone now...

More pics after the break:

A Bit Cleaned Up

Well, over on my regular blog I think I said something about a post here on the garden blog soon, so I guess I should follow through.  Truth is, my regular hardware store was out of dirt so I have to make a trip this week to one of the 'big box' places to get some composted manure and garden soil.  Therefore, there is not much to update, but I took some pics yesterday so I may as well document it.

The west garden is all cleaned up and ready for dirt and garlic bulbs.  Only the pepper plants and the thyme, lower right, remain.

The east garden strawberry bed will be trimmed soon and covered with hay for the winter.  In the top right of this pic you can see the potted chives on the left and the newly potted sage on the right.

Mid-October Lateness

Not only have I not been posting as much on my regular page, it seems I've lost track of here as well.  I try to post here bi-monthly at the least and I missed it this time.  Oops.  Now, on with it then, eh?

The gardens are pretty much exactly as they were a month ago, except that I removed the cucumber plants soon after the last post.  We have harvested more peppers and still have some to go.  The sweet pepper plant, front left in above pic, has been droopy for the last few days however.  Kate still will pot the sage plant, middle top, and soon plant the garlic for next spring, where is still to be determined.

West garden, traditional view.  You can really see how the pepper plant on the right is wilted compared to the jalapeno plant on the left.

The east garden strawberry bed is still there.  A little thin on the topside, but I expect it to fill out again in Spring.  We may help it by moving some plants up or else we may find some compatable plant that likes the sun a lot to put up there.  Last year we winterized in the first week of December, if I remember right.  Hopefully we won't see snow for at least two more months yet.

Fall Is In The Air

It's the middle of September and the garden has wound down for the most part.  As things are removed and winterized I will continue to chronicle it here, for my own reference if nothing else.

The cucumbers didn't flourish like they teased, but it was worth the experience of trying to grow them.  Kate made an attempt at a recipe for them, but I think we need to start with a better, more apt type of cucumber for our needs rather than the free seeds we used.  The tomato plants have been cut down to one surviving grape tomato stem that may be finished after possible frost last night and tonight.  Last night, when these pics were taken, we covered the pepper plants (top left and below) that are still producing and have a dozen or more peppers growing on each.  We will have to cover them tonight as well, then we should warm up a bit again.  Two nights ago Kate cut and brought in both of the basil plants.  The only other things left are sage in the middle top and thyme in the lower left (both in the top pic).

On a side note, the chives that spent the first year in the garden and this year in a pot beside the garden, have been thriving.  I hear some people plant them just for decoration and not just for consumption and I can see why.  Right now they look healthy and have nice white blooms.  We're trying to figure out a place to plant them in the yard, maybe in the area around the tree.

A Late Start To September

I'm a little late for an end of August/beginning of September post so I'll just post about what it looked like after work today.  This past week has had highs in the upper 90's (last Thursday) to lows in the lower 40's (the last two nights).

The cucumbers that are almost grown appear to be the only ones that we will get this year.  Also, the tomatoe plants are pretty ragged.  We don't expect the regular tomatoes, that are about half-dollar size, to mature.  There are still one or two stems of grape tomatoes growing, though we will take a wait-and-see approach with them.  The peppers are thriving, however, with several harvested and several still growing.

Middle of August

Monday morning I went out and took pics to post, then forgot to post them.  Tuesday morning I remembered that and went out and took some more pics, then forgot all about it again.  Today I am finally posting, but the pic is from Tuesday, it still looks the same!

Let's do a small rundown, just for the record, shall we?  In the first row at the bottom of the garden, left in this pic, all that is left is the small thyme plant.  Kate picked the carrots the Saturday after my last post.  Like the radishes they were mostly greens and only very small roots.   I may have cheaped out and used too much top soil when filling it originally.  When we add more in the Spring it will be manure and garden compost to enrich the soil.  In the next row is the peppers, sweet in front and jalapeno in back (with over 20 peppers on it!).  Third row is sage above and a large leaf basil below.  I only call it that because there is a small leaf basil next to it in the fourth row.  Also in that row are the grape tomato plant up top and the regular tomato plant in the middle.  In the last row, draped along the small trellis I put in to contain the peas in Spring (which grew larger than I expected, but I had no idea), are the cucumber plants.  They are filling the top of the garden and running down each side.  If you look close you will see one vine that found the top of the tomato plant and continues to grow straight up! 

On a side note, I know nobody really reads this but my labelling system here sucks.  I may have to check out some other garden blogs to get some ideas on labels to organize my posts better.  Also a pic of the strawberry field and some of Monday's pics just for my own reference after the break.

Early August Veggies Ripening

Just a few notes today.  First, there are several small cucumbers growing, including one that is trying to defy gravity.  As it tries to grow up it becomes increasingly round rather than elongated.  You can also see a clump of small ones in the upper right.  (Click the pics to see them bigger.)

Some grape tomatoes are starting to ripen.  This plant grew bigger than we expected.  If it stood upright it would probably be almost as tall as me!  So another gardening lesson learned, if we plant these again we'll need a taller cage.

And here you can see some big sweet peppers in front and some jalapenos growing in the background. There are a lot more jalapenos growing on that plant than you can see here, maybe 15 or more, but I tried to get some of each in this shot.

The weather finally turned a bit milder so the plants aren't baking during the day anymore, but it has also turned dry so I have been watering the garden a bit every day.  I try to wait for evening but since I'm off work I'm pretty bored so I usually do it when they say not to - in the middle of the day.  Oh well, it's just a bit of water.  We've been talking about getting a sprinkler but it certainly isn't urgent.  Until next time, Happy Gardening!