Garden Update! It is Grow-time!
Garden update… Finally! It is definitely grow-time around here. Remember I said I planted 1104 peas? Only 90 did not come up. Why yes, I just replanted them. I took these photos in the late afternoon. The light is not ideal, but it works.
Garden Update
This is the side of the house, or back garden bed area. Why not grow in the back of the house and call it the back garden? The back of my home is about 8′ from a hill that was cut back when the house was built. We use the door under the carport as our front door, that enters into the dining/kitchen area of the great room, the opposing side of the area is where the “back” garden resides. This is where I planted the tall pea plants in the blocks with the arches and the green beans are in the long bed. Those have not popped up as of yet.
Our kitchen garden is in the “real” front of the house. It has a lovely porch where I can sit and look at the mountains, the garden and nature in general. I know, who cares why I call an area what… laughing.
This is the right-hand side of the kitchen garden bed area. It is the warmest area, being the southern end of this area. The small bed to the far-right has cherry tomatoes, onions and basil. I know you cannot see them. All are rather small right now.
The closest bed in sight has peas in the cement block holes, 1 black beauty zucchini, radishes, chard and lettuces. When the radishes are harvested, the zucchini will get a full 5′ of space. The peas will be ready to pick before the zucchini gets full grown.
The bed behind that one has two zucchini plants in them, one at each end. When the radishes are harvested, they will have a good 4′ to spread. The variety in this bed is costata romanesco. It is said to be the best tasting of the zucchinis. The final long bed only 12 of the cement block holes with peas. The rest have cucumbers planted. The varieties are marketmore and summer dance. There is green onions, lettuces, carrots and radishes in the bed.
You can see a hanging basket off the tree. That was planted with parsley seeds. Those are “sacrificial” herb plants for a black swallowtail butterfly we have in this area. They love parsley. They will munch down on them happily. My little bit to keep the species going. They do not seem to like anything else, thankfully and selfishly, I may add.
This is the center area of the kitchen garden beds. The bed with the arch has tomatoes, green onions and basil planted. The small bed behind it has various sweet peppers, bell peppers and onions. That one is very hard to make out because of the angle and the tomato bed’s arch. We had a storm and a unusual cold snap. All of my tomatoes and peppers are hanging on for dear life. I do not have any wall-o-waters. The seed company kept running out of them. I just put clear plastic cups for overnight. The temps are not supposed to get very cold. I am crossing my fingers they make it. Tomatoes and peppers can surprise you at times, bouncing back when they look about to go to the great garden in the sky.
The bed you can see in the photo above with the mesh covering is the cabbage bed. I found the mesh online and snapped it up. I am tired of fighting cabbage moths and their worms or trying to get ponderosa pine bits out of the cabbages as we water. The remains of the tulips leaves are to the back. They are dying off now. I waited until the tulips died off before planting and placing the mesh cover on the cabbages. I am growing green and red napa cabbages. I prefer them for flavor and ease of growing. The red cabbages are hidden by the mesh in the photo.
The left-side of the kitchen garden beds area is all that is left of the kitchen beds area. All but the last two of the long beds have peas growing out of the cement block holes. Because they are not “sharing” soil with the rest of the garden bed, I can put green onions to the front of the bed. The onion family and legume family are the Hatfields and McCoys of the plant families. I found a way around that. All of these beds have various carrots, lettuce, chard, radishes and green onions in them.
The last two beds are strawberries, well… what is left of the strawberry plants. When I had them sitting in water last year while we rebuilt their beds, they were in the water way too long. I starved the roots of oxygen. gads… It looked like they made it last fall. This spring, few came back. I dug up the remains and will replant next year. The long bed to the right and going “longways” by the tree was also a strawberry bed. Sadly, none of the strawberry plants made it in that bed. For now, the bed has tomatoes and peppers. I had too many sprout up when I started them. I do not like tossing a good plant because their planting area is full. The loss of the strawberries was their gain. I thought I was going to have to set up quickie areas for them.
I did not get a photo of the potato beds and the corn patch. The potatoes are about ready for their first hilling. The corn has not sprouted yet.
Growing…
Growing is fun and a lot of work. In the end, it is worth it. The photo here is another angle of the kitchen garden beds area, featuring one happy Sally. She loves being out all morning with us while we weed if needed and water. All in all, things are proceeding well. I have been getting up all of the pine cone “petals” with the nasty thorn ends in them. By time summer hits, I should be able to walk around the garden barefoot. I love that.
I now have time to finish some crafts projects, take some important Me-time and… sigh… clean the house. We got to open the windows a few days while the lilacs are blooming. They are about gone. The scent wafting into the house is so lovely. I wish the blooms lasted longer.
You all take care. Hugs!
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