May 29, 2011 - The Garden at the End of May

The north and east gardens at the end of May

The East garden.....

Beds 1,2 & 3 are the "short beds". They are only 7' long, due to the lilac tree and flowers on one side. Bed #1 (back) holds the sugar snap peas, which are now at the top of the 3-foot fence. The first picture gives a much better view of these pea plants. No blossoms are showing yet. Bed #2 (center) has cabbage, broccoli and yellow onions. The first broccoli was harvested from this bed today, as it looked as though it was ready to bolt. It never did form a tight head, but had quite a few side sprouts. Bed #3 (foreground) holds the Walla Walla sweet onions, which are now getting nice, fat bulbs.

Bed #4 has the lilac tree, a rose bush that is almost hidden by the hollyhocks, and my "no cut just for pretty" chives.

Bed #5 has some very puny basil plants on the left, four sweet peppers and the earliest planted carrots. At the front edge are parsley and sweet alyssum.

The basil in bed #6 is doing much better. I have more basil planted than I could use in ten years, so I'm not too concerned about the ones that aren't growing well. This bed also has four sweet peppers, a triple row of bush beans that are way too close together. These are some that were reseeded when most of them failed to survive the cold, wet spring. I planted the seeds close to compensate, now I'll have to thin them. Parsley, alyssum and marigolds are in the front of the bed.

Carrots are just beginning to emerge in bed #7, and so far look to be rather spotty in their growth. I'll give them a week before I decide whether to reseed. Those are green onions on the left, leftovers from a couple of bunches from the grocery store. The three Rutgers tomato plants are growing well and looking healthy, although it's difficult to see them with all the lettuce that is growing between them. The beans that survived are growing fine, and I think I reseeded the bare spots. Parsley, alyssum and marigolds are in the front of the bed.

The netting isn't working so well in bed #8. It has definitely slowed the leaf miners down, but they are still getting into the beets. Most of the miner damage is toward the center of the bed, which surprises me. I would think it might be easier for the flies to reach the plants along the edges. At least we had a few good harvests of spinach from this bed, whereas the unprotected spinach plantings were ruined by miners long ago. Some of the spinach in this bed is beginning to go to seed, but there is still quite a bit left to harvest. I picked a few leaves of chard, which is also showing some leaf miner damage. I had never grown nor eaten it before. I can't say I really liked it raw, it had a slightly salty, bitter flavor. I cooked the rest with the spinach, and couldn't tell which was chard and which was spinach. I haven't checked the turnips in this bed to see if they've been ravaged by wireworms. I'll check them soon, and if they show damage, I'll pull them and plant something else in their place.

The lettuce in bed #9 is supposed to be Iceberg, but it, like the ones in the north garden, doesn't show any sign of forming a head. The plants get huge! I haven't harvested any outer leaves from these, as the birds and slugs have kept them quite tattered. There are red noodle beans planted behind them, but the plants suffered from the early cold weather, just as most of the other beans did. I'll be replanting this bed too. That's a Russian Baby tomato on the right, grown from seeds from Mr. H.

The north garden......

Speaking of reseeding, I gave up on this bed in the north garden. I had a nice crop of baby carrots showing one day, and the next day they were eaten right to the ground. Only one lone carrot survived. The pole beans had also been decapitated. Yesterday I double dug the entire bed and replanted it. Carrot seeds are under the boards until they begin to germinate, and the minute I see signs of life, the bird netting is going up until the plants are large enough to fend for themselves.


I may have to resort to bird netting on the strawberry beds, too. As much as I dislike the netting, I do want to have some strawberries that haven't been pecked by the birds.


Soon I'll not be able to get to the other side of the north garden from the shed. The brassica garden is right up against the fence on the right, and the flowers to the left are getting too tall to step over. Speaking of tall, notice the lilies against the wood fence. They are over 5' tall this year, and loaded with buds.


Some of the lily plants have as many as ten buds! I'm anxious for them all to open, they should put on a gorgeous show.


Behind the shed, the lettuce bed is keeping us well fed. Protected from birds, there is lettuce in three stages of growth. As I pull mature plants, there are seedlings to take their place. My seedlings are getting so large, I'm harvesting the leaves and planting the root ball. I hope they grow!


In the kitchen......


Two loaves of bread, fresh from the oven.