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.

22 comments:

  1. That bread looks so delicious, there is nothing better than fresh baked bread. Oh and the garden looks good too, LOL.

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  2. Your garden looks so good! I had to reseed some of my beans too. The slugs got to them. Carrots are next.

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  3. Your garden is so gorgeous! Despite those nasty wire worms you certainly seem to have plenty of food crops growing well. I can't tell the difference between chard and spinach either. Rainbow chard sure is pretty though. Your lilies are going to be amazing!

    Sometimes when I read your blog, I think I moved to the wrong side of the Cascades...

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  4. Kris, it was so good, after each of us had a warm heel to snack on, we decided to have a breakfast dinner just so we could have some toast!

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    Liisa, I've never, NEVER, had to do so much reseeding as I've done this spring. Slugs, bugs and birds are eating better than we are.

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  5. Show off!

    Just kidding. Your gardens look wonderful. And so clean and weed-free. How many hours a day would you say you spend in them?

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  6. Alison, we do have a long growing season over on this side. At least we used to....I think that changed this year ;-)

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    Langela, neener, neener. neener!

    I hardly spend any time weeding. I usually walk through the garden once in the morning and once in the late afternoon in good weather. I take my harvest basket, my camera, and usually grab some type of tool....a hoe, or a claw cultivator, and if I see a weed I pull it out or hoe or scratch at it. Maybe 2-3 weeds a day at most. I have had a bit of wheat sprouting from the straw in the paths, but a swift yank and it's out. I would say, other than spring bed preparation and planting and harvesting, I doubt I spend more than an hour a week actually working in the garden. My main (hardest) chores are keeping the raspberry and lilac suckers cut/pulled, and I do try to keep up and not let those get ahead of me.

    I do try to keep the grass cut back along the edge of the garden, but the grandson needs money, so I'll have him edge it for me this week.

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  7. Those lilies should be spectacular. I have had to do a fair amount of reseeding too. Last week I reseeded the cucumbers as I lost all but two of the starts. Today I seeded some additional zucchini as the two plants are looking very weak and I also added another planting hill of butternut squash because I lost two plants (two survived). I think I will have to reseed the pole beans too as not a one has emerged - even though the pinto beans right next to them are all up. Not sure what happened - but obviously the pole beans are having a problem.

    The bread and your garden is looking wonderful.

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  8. Kitsap, I lost two of four cucumbers, too. They were a bush (slicing) variety though, so the two remaining will be enough for us. I have to go buy some seeds for pickling cukes, as the ones I saved were not viable. Even though I took them from an orange-ripe cucumber, none of ten sprouted during the viability test :-(

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  9. It all looks so lovely. You continue to inspire me. Just the succession planting alone is a good reminder. Leaf miners are my least pleasant pest around here -- I'd grow much more spinach if I could figure out how to really get rid of them. I'm also super inspired at the fact that you remember to include flowers. I have to be really conscious to do that. It's probably time for netting for strawberries here, too. Dratted birds.

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  10. Covering stuff is such a pain, but I find myself covering more and more beds. And STILL stuff gets eaten. I don't have slugs. I have no idea -ants perhaps....but we have to share, I guess.
    I love your neat orderly rows!!

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  11. Your garden looks wonderful and so well maintained.

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  12. You have the most beautiful gardens Granny!! You just reminded me that I need to sow some more basil.

    I just love the picture with the cabbage hanging over the bed....beautiful!!

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  13. Chard is my summer spinach. When people haven't heard of chard and want to know how to use it, I just say to cut out the stems and use the leaves like they would spinach. But cook it. Once it grows up the leaves have too much oxalic acid to make it palatable raw. Boiling it is best as it gets rid of a lot of the oxalic acid.

    Usually I have no chance of keeping up with your harvests. Your season starts so early compared to mine. But with my new garden and your really crappy weather and nasty birds, I might just make it. Then I can say I'm as good as Granny. Though my bread has been grilled. It's been too hot for me to want to bake. I brought some frozen zucchini bread for the dessert table at the bbq yesterday as I didn't want to make anything in this heat.

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  14. Thank you for the walking tour! It all looks wonderful.... and I cazn almost smell the bread.

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  15. Impressive as usual, the garlic looks great!

    I jut put up bird netting over my berries today, the blues are starting to plump and the strawberries are becoming red. laid down some sluggo as well. Fingers crossed we will all enjoy the berries this year. :)

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  16. Everything looks great!!! Despite your troubles with pests!

    Can I have some bread :)

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  17. Granny. that bread looks fantastic!
    I'm coming over with some jam lol.

    The garden looks so great too!

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  18. I was planning to tulle for my cabbages, so do you not recommend them anymore? Your garden looks great! I spend several hours a week trying to pull out the weeds! How do you manage to get away with just a few weeds?

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  19. Stefaneener, succession planting and flowers are two things I'm trying to do this year. Most of the flowers are perennials or self seeders, but I have planted some sunflowers along the fence as well. I'm kind of at that point of "what will I put here once this is pulled?" though. I mean, how many carrots can we eat?

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    Sue, the slugs are bad here, which I find odd as we have such hot summers. Of course, with irrigation water always available, my garden never dries out, and having straw on my paths is giving them some extra hiding places. I think it will soon be moved from paths to beds for mulch, then dug in before winter. I like the straw, but....

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    Larry, thank you. I like my plants close together with no weeds! Hmmm, no weeds. Does that sound familiar?

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    Thank you, Robin. I planted six varieties of basil this year, and there is no way on earth I can use it all. Much of it is in pots, so the scraggly plants in the garden can die if they want ;-)

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    Daphne, the raw chard I ate was really young, but even then I don't think I'd want it in my salad. We like our spinach boiled, although we also like it in salads when it's really young and tender. It's odd how it can taste different from one year to the next. It doesn't taste as sweet and mild this year as it has in past years, the oxalic acid content must be higher.

    You'll easily beat me this year, since I'm not growing any summer squash and I only have 21 tomato plants. Yes, I know I said I'd only plant twelve.

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    Thank you, David. We had a breakfast dinner last night, just so we'd have an excuse to eat more toast!

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    Kelly, I think that was the Walla Walla sweet onions, not garlic. My garlic is being dwarfed by the broccoli in the brassica bed!

    I hate bird netting, but I'm afraid it might be necessary soon. I have a real problem with the quail eating everything.

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    Allison, you betcha! Want it toasted? With home made strawberry jam?

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    LOL, Fred, you don't even have to bring your own jam! I still have strawberry and peach from last year.

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    Random, the tulle would work great for keeping cabbage moths away. It probably would have worked for the leaf miner flies if I'd have bought the finer tulle rather than the larger nylon netting. Although I'm now wondering if maybe the larvae overwintered in the soil in that bed, since the leaf miner damage is concentrated in one area. Of course, now there would be flies underneath the netting doing their nasty egg laying. If that's the case, no type of covering would have kept them out.

    Weeds....I just never let them get ahead of me. I can't remember a time when I have ever had a weed problem in any of my gardens. Not even on the huge gardens I used to grow, although I had kids at home helping me weed back then. I've always wanted my vegetable gardens to look neat and pretty, as well as being useful. I also have loose, sandy soil, so weeds pull out easily. I do have a Bermuda grass problem, sneaking under the fence from the neighbor's. If they don't clean up their bed along the fence, it will soon be invading my garden.

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  20. Beautiful picks, Gran! Your garden sets the standard for all of us to try and emulate! I really like how your beds look without the wood frames. It's amazing how there's not a weed in sight!

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  21. Oh, Thomas, I'd trade you gardens any day! I think we have a mutual admiration society going here ;-)

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  22. Your garden is wonderful. May has been a good growing month for you. Aren't the critters frustrating? Hope you had a great holiday weekend.

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