Boy, putting in a garden is hard work! And I say that on behalf of Scott, who has been doing all of the digging this year. While I’m a willing digger, digging and chasing a toddler don’t go well together. So instead I chase and he digs. Next year he’ll get more help. Anyhoo, want to see what’s going on in these parts? Above is the front of the main garden. We cleared out the front bed to make way for things we’d like to pick quickly for dinner, carrots, lettuce, basil and the such. Beyond that are boysenberries.
Then we trellised a row of concord grapes. Last year we managed to get only a few jars canned of grape jelly and it was carefully savored. Can’t wait to have a whole cupboard full!
Volunteer onions! What a nice surprise!
Between the walls of asparagus….
…lies another few rows of seasonal goodies. This patch we planted all out with seedlings back in March and everything came up and was immediately eaten. It was so disappointing. There is some debate between whether the culprits were sparrows, snails or a combination. However the sparrows have migrated away and the snails got evicted by a troop of boys who were paid 5 cents a smooshed snail. Things are growing once more.
Like cilantro and beets and kale.
This section of garden is south of what I just showed you and has been the main source of the work lately. This was all grass before and was carefully dug out with foot and shovel. Amended with heaps of compost and smoothed out. We’re trying out a new irrigation technique we learned about last year. Where you put a grid of drip down over the entire bed.
Last year a few of you mentioned that you were interested in learning more about this new system we learned about, are you still interested? I can do a whole post (and it will take me at least one long post) to explain, if you’d like. In this bed live 12 tomatoes we grew from seed and maybe 20 peppers we acquired from different sources. Yes, 20!
We’re giving San Marzanos a try again this year. In our previous garden we had a terrible problem with blossom end rot with that variety, but we’re hoping they do well here.Grow little tomato, grow!
ACK! Immediately eaten. The sparrows and finches get worse in my yard each year it seems. They look forward to their spring deli. They will eat my pea and bean shoots and anything else fresh out of the earth and green. They also are keen on working over the fruit tree blossoms. I watched a group of them completely eat all the buds/blossom from a plum tree last year. Grrrrrrrrrrr.
It’s a war now with those critters, everything has to be covered.
Jees! Farming looks like soo much work. But I sure enjoy watching you guys doing it! 😀
Love seeing what you are doing, I know how hard it is to farm, I did it for several years also did ranching and miss it at times. your Garden looks wonderful, take care HUGS and Cheers angeljeanne (jeanne)
Nice new areas. It’s terrific that you have willing snail-helpers. Dratted beasts (the mollusks, not the boys).
I would love to hear more about your grid drip irrigation system! Thanks for such a great blog :).
What a great garden. I garden vicariously through your blog. I live in the woods. I pray God blesses all your hard work.
have you tried starting new beds with lasagna gardening? we do a simplified version. mow your grass, layer 4 sheets of cardboard, soak with water dump 6-10 inches of composted horse manure on top. plant directly into your new bed!
I would love to hear more about your irrigation system. I am trying to figure out a simple way to water my garden that doesn’t involve a sprinkler. Thanks!
Good luck with the San M’s. We got the same rot last year here in PA. Vey disapointed.
I’m skipping them this year and going for a Viva Italia if I can find it again.
Awwww…I want a garden!!
I found out that lime is needed to prevent blossom end rot.