May 7, 2013 - The Garden in Early May

It's beginning to look like spring!

 L to R: Determinate tomatoes with carrots and lettuce sowed around them; Walla Walla sweet onions with a row of lettuce seedlings just emerging along one side; Red Norland potatoes.  In the background the lilies are in full bud, and some of the Sweet Williams are blooming (I didn't cut the tall ones back, so they are earlier but they aren't very pretty this year).  There are some tomatoes against the fence, with a couple of hot pepper plants, parsley, cosmos and marigolds interplanted.

Four of the determinate tomato plants.

 L to R: My two remaining broccoli plants with 6 Gonzales cabbages; Yukon Gold potatoes; Golden Acre cabbages (only 3 left, another is dying from I know not what).  I had some garlic that was sprouting, so I planted a few at the end of the cabbage row.  At the far right is a double trench of leeks that I just began backfilling with soil. In the background are hollyhocks and the strawberry bed, which is loaded with berries this year.

More broccoli and cabbages to (hopefully) take the place of those I lost.

 L to R: A pot of cantaloupe (not yet emerging), in front of the raspberry bed.  I have always had blossoms on the raspberries by April, but they are just now budding out.  They didn't grow as full as in the past, so I hope I have a decent crop.  In the foreground, surrounded by grass clippings, I have three hills of butternut squash (not yet germinating).

 L to R:  More grass clippings with one hill each of zucchini and yellow crookneck squash; sugar snap peas in the background, bush cucumbers growing in the barrel.

Cucumber seedlings.

  L to R: A newly planted bed of carrots (it was crawling with sow bugs, so I'll probably lose the seedlings as they emerge); a triple row of Western Giant onions (they sure are itsy-bitsy teeny-tiny giants!); the wide bed of carrots that have disappeared; a double row of bush beans (spotty germination, so I seeded the gaps yesterday).   In the background my 36 sweet pepper plants are on the right, with three beds of sweet corn on the left.  The neighbor went out and pulled the weeds on her side of the fence this morning!  Hooray, maybe I won't have milkweed seeds blowing all over my garden this year.

Next to the kennel garden are cosmos, 9 more sweet pepper plants (with a newly seeded row of carrots), another tomato, nasturtiums, radishes, parsnips and parsley.

Inside the kennel garden there is lettuce, spinach, beets and some lovely little non-disappearing carrots.  I just planted a row of pole beans on the right side, but they may be too shaded to grow well.  I will be planting more after the snap peas are pulled from the sunny side of this garden.  I also have a cherry tomato (I think it's Una Hartsock) planted at the front corner.

The first snap pea blossom!

The over-picked bed of lettuce behind the shed, with garlic in the background. 

Leftover seed potatoes went into the grow bag.

Several of the cherry tomatoes have blossoms now.