Its the end of May and I finally have a garden thanks to the help of my sister.  The help of plants?  No not so much, but the help of digging the garden up after it was a play area for 2 months due to the early and warm spring. Here's what is in the garden (so far)

To the east Lara and the boys planted radishes (2 rows!!!) and a row of salad.  This was done May 5th the same day the garden was dug up.  As of this weekend there are now soybeans at that end of the garden, and a spaghetti squash plant.  Next are 3 peppers - the one in the middle is X the one to the south is Y.  What is Variety X and Variety Y?  They are peppers from a friend who mixed up some seed and is not sure if they are Anaheim or Jalapeno peppers....time will tell.  The pepper to the north is try 2 at a California wonder.  Next is a row of green beans.  Then is a pea gate waiting for peas to be planted - thought I needed bean seed so I purchased some more, turns out I needed pea seed.  Then there are 5 tomatoes - 2 romas, 1 cherry and 1 Big girl?  the other one came from Laura.  I  think there is also a jalapeno pepper and cabbage in that corner of the garden.  Oh and there is kohlrabi under the tomatoes, too.  In the 1/2 barrel there is tarragon, rosemary and another potted tomato. I planted basil here but it did not grow - just button weeds grew here...so I still need to get basil.

Spring 2012

We are off to an early start for spring 2012!!!!  It was 80 degrees the last days of winter and HUMID - yuck!!!  I like heat, not humidity and don't want to deal with it in March.  Needless to say we have an early start with all of the plants.  My earliest daffodils are almost done blooming.  My tulips and daffodils on the west side of the house are in full bloom.  The daffodils in the landscaped area look great - they will look even better in a year or two when they are in clumps.

Today's weather was perfect for gardening and yard work.  Jay mowed the lawn.  The boys HAD to go outside - not their choice, and little sister was sitting in the stroller "helping."  I started by digging out 3/4 of the Russian Sage.  They attract to many bees to be inches away from the sandbox....especially in late summer/ early fall.  So they are being moved.  I placed one in the center of the grasses and 1 under the other bedroom window. The last one I placed on the west side by the window well...where I dug up the day lilies.  They have growth already, but I was told as long as they are not in bloom they can be moved w/out much trouble. I spread them out through the yard - 3 variety's went were the Russian sage was growing, 1 down by the lilac and the last 2 varieties in the corner area by the fence.  If they grow there fine, if not fine.  Right know things look good.  We will see how everything looks in a few weeks!  The neighbor was looking for an excuse to go for a walk and volunteered to take the baby with her in the stroller.  That helped get a TON done for me!  Totally enjoyed digging in the dirt today.  Also trimmed the "ornamental" grass on the west side of the house....made the boys clean that up - before they cooked supper....with minimal help from Mom.

We cleaned up the back yard area 2 weeks ago, in winter, wearing t-shirts, and the kids probably had on shorts!!  This weather has been crazy.  It was a mild winter.  Hopefully we don't get to dry, so far we have had some spring rain, but I don't think it will take much to go to a drought.  (Oh, for the record I still expect to see snow at some point this spring!)

I need to go and look for some spinach/salad greens, radishes in the seeds.  I'm ready for stuff to be grown from the garden and our CSA does not start for another 6 weeks (not that I'm counting down the days or anything, ha ha ha.  Let's just hope they still have asparagus in MAY!!!)

Until next time....

Spring 2011

Spring 2011 Update coming soon.  Just need time to get it from my head to the keyboard.....

Tomatoes!!!!

Its tomato season...and my tomatoes are doing awesome.   So awesome I"m going to have to make some tomato sauce in the next 48 hours before the tomatoes start to go bad.  Last year by this point the tomatoes had picked up a blight or something and stopped production - it was cool weather related.  This summer has been a polar opposite with hot and humid the norm.  (Yes I"m looking forwrard to cool and dry weather!) 

My roma tomato is doing super - have about 2 pints ready to freeze or make into sauce.  The grape tomato is sending out lots of fruit.  The one heirloom tomato tastes SO good in BLT's. Oh, and check out the size of the fruits on this plant! Wonder what variety it is.  I just harvest off the other tomato.  Its a red tomato and was laying on its side this morning thanks to last nights wind and the heavy fruit on the plant.  Need to get it staked up better tonight.

My pole beans are blooming...well what is left of them is in bloom.  The japaneese beetles enjoyed eating them in July so the only vines with fruit on them are the ones that were stragglers in growing.

The peppers also look good.  I just brought in a red sweet pepper and the first 2 habaneros in a couple of years.  Not to find a kid safe place to keep them.

1st Day of Summer

Its a humid 1st day of summer.  The last 2 weeks have been humid...the next week is how and humid.  Much of my garden likes this weather.   I have peas that are 4' tall and full of pea pods.  I have jalapeno's that are nearly ready for harvest.  The roma tomato and cherry tomatoes have started to set fruit.  The other tomatoes are still short. 

My joy and struggle has been kholrabi.  The early ones were tasty - and I harvested my 1st the last day of May!  The problem has been cabbage worms eating all the leaves.  Where did they come from? The new dirt, The plants fom the greenhouse, the plants from my sisister???? 

The thistles continue to be a pain, too. Last Wednesday I mowed and mulched grass onto the garden,  but after the warm steamy weekend there are thistles evereywhere again.  How do I stop them?

Onions have also been a mystery - I guess they were planted to early because they have bloomed and set seed heads. Guess we'll have to eat them straight out of the garden.  That's okay. 

Off to find an onion, kohlrabi and peas to add to CSA cabbage and store carrots to make a stir fry!

OH, on a landscaping note...I should have put the Russian sage on the other side of the area and the smaller plants on this side so they can be seen from the deck.  I *think* all of my lavender are going to grow?!?  I was 100% sure only 1 made it.  Only one of the 2nd planting of daisies made it. 

Its all planted!

Laura visited this weekend and brought with her more tomatoes and peppers thant we ahve room fro in our garden.  We ended up planting 4 tomatoes - I only saved room for 3 in the garden and the other one went in the 1/2 barel with the herbs.  The herbs have not come up very well yet. 

• Tomato 1 - Grape - half barrel, thin cage
• Tomato 2 - heirloom - garden, tall cage
• Tomato 3 - heirloom ? - garden, regular cage
• Tomato 4 - roma - garden, regular cage

She also brought with her 4 varaiteys of hostas that joined the east side of the house and some Iris that are now on the west side of the house. The plants last from Laura's greenhouse treasures are 2 yellow peppers, they joined the other sweet pepper.

We visited Pecks to finish my plant shopping on Saturday.  Here is what I got & did with it...

• Jeepers Creepers - Whitley's Speedwell (Veronica whitleyi) - landscaped area near the lavender that I can't decide if its growing our not
• Jeepers Creepers - Creeping Thyme (Thymus praecox 'Elfin"
• 2 Jalapeno pepers - south edge of garden with the peppers
• 1 habenero pepper- in the middle of the spinach patch...hope the tomatoes don't over grow it like they have in the past, but did not want it on the edge of the garden in case an unsuspecting child were to have a sample of the peppers.
• Salmon pink geranium vine hanging plant for the hook on the north side of the house

We have been enjoying radishes out of the garden this week!  Its amazing to see the difference in maturity of  the kholrabi that I got from the greenhouse vs the ones that I got on Mother's Day weekend  and planted 3 weeks later!

The peas have been enjoying the summerlike temps this week and have taken off growing on the trellis, and pea gates. (Found the fencing under the deck decided to make some happy peas and gave it to them last weekend, too) The beans have all sprouted in the last 2 days as-well as lots of weeds!

Beans are in

Planted the bean seeds this morning.  Pole beans are around the pole and bush beans are in 2 short rows between the poles and peas. Peas are coming along nicely, too.  Added a 2nd tomato cage to the peas, because I found it in the shed when straightening up this morning.

Over the weekend we planted all the stuff from Laura's greenhouse including "Laura's Special" - all her extra seedlings that she stuck in a pot, we spread out a bit and stuck it in the ground just to see what happens. Still need a jalapeno pepper, habenaro pepper and 1 more sweet pepper, along with 3 tomatoes.

On the east side of the house we finally planted something - 2 varieties of hostas from the church on C ave, I can't recall its name, that had a plant sale on Saturday.  Two ice cream buckets worth of plants for $9 - I can handle that.  The backyard landscaping area looks much better this year.  The plants are fuller, and adding the smaller plants has helped too.  Now if only we could get the  lavender to grow.  The 2nd batch I got still did not grow.