Planted

Last weekend I planted most of the garden.  Bush beans, zuchinni, summer squash and cucumber seeds were planted.  I filled in the zinnia and cosmo seeds that did not come in.  I decided to plant the pitiful asparagus bed with flowers while leaving the asparagus and we will just see what happens next year.  

I also planted all of the tomato and eggplant seedlings.  It finally feels like summer is on its way!

Garden Progress

Life has been busy.  I have made time for gardening in between responsibilities but there has not been time for blogging.  A lot has happened since the last post and here is a quick recap.

 The final beds in the garden were amended after I cleared all the weeds out.

 A second succession of peas were planted.  Swiss chard, parsnips, cosmos, zinnias, dill and cilantro seed were all planted.  I'm a little late on some of these things but better late than never.

 An unimpressive 4 of 16 asparagus plants came up.  They are about the height of a pencil but incredibly skinnier.  It's about time I realize I do not have a good site for asparagus.  I will try them again when we eventually move.

 It's been fun watching volunteer seedlings pop up from plants that went to seed last year, like this little dill.

This is why I need to get an indoor light system going.  My windowsill is bulging with seedlings started inside and they are growing leggy from trying to reach towards the sky.  Most of these are in the process of being hardened off outside right now.  The seedlings consist of basil, Fantasia and Music Box sunflowers, dianthus, and snapdragons.

This past weekend a bunch of work was done and I will post about it soon.  We also have a big week ahead.  I plan on changing some plants in our landscaping, mulching, finishing plantings for the summer garden and our new bees are coming.  We ordered Carniolan bees from California this year instead of the Italian bees from Georgia we have gotten the past two years.

Trouble with Wildlife

This was the lettuce bed early Friday evening after planting.  We have had bad luck with lettuce the last few years.  This year I sowed the seeds a bit more thinly than in the past.  I didn't spend too much time because we have had such bad luck when I have taken much care I figured this year if I didn't worry about it too much maybe we will get a good lettuce harvest again.  But at the same time I tried to space the rows appropriately, spread the seeds and covered carefully with a thin layer of compost and manure.

When we returned on Sunday afternoon this was the bed trampled by some sort of animal.  It seems that it might have been a deer but it's hard to tell, the tracks weren't clear.  Of course it could have been an overzealous squirrel too.

It seems that at least once a year after planting seeds one of my beds gets trampled by the local wildlife.  I attempted to gently move the soil back how it was, but we will have to see how badly the planted seeds were displaced once they start coming in.

Garden Work Has Begun!

Today the weather was warm enough that I was able to get outside and do some work.  Work that was LONG over due!  It was a rush to get things done since we're going to be gone over the Easter weekend and when we return it should be raining.  Here are the garden beds at the beginning of the day after a long winter without any work.

This is what I accomplished today:

*clean the straw and leaves off the beds

*pull plants that finally gave out over the winter and harvest any left over roots.

*prune back perennial herbs.

*amend beds that were going to receive seeds.

*turn over/loosen soil in the in-ground bed.

*Finally created draft garden plans so I could figure out where to plant some of my seeds.

*planted the following seeds: peas, kale, lettuces, carrots, and radishes.

Here are what the beds look like now:

Not perfect, but immensely better.

I still need to:

*amend remaining beds.

*plant spinach and chard

*finalize garden plans for summer plant placement.

Seeing the garlic growing without the straw and the pea tepee supports in place make it really feel like the gardening season has begun.

Planting the Summer Garden

Last week I was able to spend a day planting most of the Summer garden.

I filled in more parsnip seeds into spots where the others did not germinate.  I planted the snapdragons that were started inside.  Seeds for kale, cosmos, zinnias, and a few more radishes were started.  I found red and green cabbage starts at a local store so I decided to give them a try.

Borage seeds were planted among the tomatoes and I have begun to hill up the soil around the potato plants.

The extra tomato was planted in what will be bush green beans.  I planted one row of provider beans on the left side of the bed.  I will plant two more rows this week and another row next week so that we will get a continual harvest of beans.  I am still waiting for the asparagus in the back of the bed to come in.

Onions and leeks were planted in front of the garlic.  I replanted swiss chard seeds in the spots where it did not come in.  On the left zucchini, summer squash and cucumber seeds were planted.  A small nasturtium was planted in the midst. 

I am going to test types of trellising.  The peas are on bamboo tepees, for the KY Wonder pole beans I set up netting that I nailed to the fence.

Thinking About Fall

While we are in the dog days of Summer it seems too hot to start planting for Fall but it is definitely time to start.  In fact the kale, cilantro, and dill below were planted the first week of July.  I have also planted some lettuces and need to get going on planting more weekly.  My Summer lettuce has been bitter so I should just pull it and replant now.

More Plantings

Since the bees didn't come on Thursday I had time to get the rest of our the seeds for Spring in.  I planted all the lettuces 10 different varieties, parsnips, 3 types of carrots, 3 varieties of radish, cilantro, and dill.  I used the dial seed sower for the first time.  It took a bit of practice to get used to how to lightly tap it so that too many seeds don't come out.  But once I got the hang of it the seed sower does help to space out tiny seeds of carrots and lettuce more efficiently than sowing by hand. 

I covered all the rows of seeds with an organic soil that I bought from the store. My soil forms a crust after it rains which makes it difficult for seedlings to break through. The soil that I bought is loose and crumbly and perfect for the seedlings.  Eventually it will get mixed into the rest of the soil.

   

The six leaf lettuce varieties at the bottom I planted closely together because I harvest them as cut and come again and they don't need too much room.  I left a section empty for a succession planting in a week or two.  Then the lettuce head varieties were planted a bit farther apart to give them the proper growing room.  I did space the spinach quite closely together in the upper right because we like them more as a baby greens. 

On the right I planted a decent amount of parsnips about an inch apart in rows four inches apart.  This year I am trying to extend our growing season and the times of year in which we are harvesting food.  I wanted to try parsnips since you can keep them in the ground all winter and harvest them as needed up until the following Spring.  I had never seen Parsnip seeds before, they looked more like dried pear blossom petals than seeds to me.

On the left are the three varieties of radish (purple plum, cherry belle, french breakfast) and carrots (half long danvers, red cored chatenay, cosmic purple) closely together.  Radish grow very quickly and will get pulled about the time that the carrots are needing more space.