One big push and 1st of the month pictures

I can officially say the garden is in the ground. Over Memorial day weekend, Daddy, Pooka and I made a huge 2 day long push to get everything in the ground. It was a long couple of days, but now we can sit back and work on other things without worrying that things will die in pots.

Pollinator bed

 Pooka's pollinator bed is in and starting to grow. Since we did so much from seed and in a scatter pattern, I don't know what is a weed and what is a plant. we are going to let it grow a bit and see what happens. I do know I need to pull some nettles out, but those require gloves sadly.

Garlic bed

 The garlic bed is growing quite well. We finally have some scrapes we are going to try for dinner this week. We have only been waiting for 3 years to try them. Although some of the garlic plants are really good sized, I am hoping for a much better garlic haul this year. Daddy is so tempted to pull the plants and I have to keep telling him no. You can also see the mint plant in its new home.

The herb bed part A

The herb bed you can see took a running start this year. We have had to replace a number of plants, but we are doing well. This picture is also after Aunt T took almost a half pound of tarragon in hopes of making her own plant. Looks like the tarragon needs cut back as well as some parsley and oregano. It is so nice to have fresh herbs to cook with again. At this rate, the dehydrator may need to come out sooner rather then later.

Herb bed part B

As you can see the second section of garlic is doing well but not as well as the other. But this section is primarily the grocery store grown garlic so I am still okay with it. We have the colored peppers in next to the garlic then the basil plants next to that. We keep increasing the kinds of basil we use. I don't mind buying these as starts since it means I have less to keep alive as seedlings.

The deck

The pots on the deck are doing quite well. The squash has sprouted, as has the zucchini. Soon this entire will be covered in green and making food. Audrey the morning glory as sprouted as well, so I will be keeping her in line as well.

Plant stand corner

 The little plant stand corner is doing well. Pooka's hummingbird planter has come to life and is covered in color. We haven't seen any birds yet, but maybe later this year. Everything in this corner is started and sprouted, even if it doesn't look it just yet. Some of the potted plants were the last to get done. In fact, this last weekend Pooka and I were running out between rainstorms to get the last of the lettuce and spinach seeds planted.

Onions

The onions are doing well. The store bought onion is seeming to grow quite well as well. This is another bed of leave it and let nature do her thing. I just need to watch the weeds in it.

Brandywine        rainbow cherry        fireballs

This area is our 3 year rotation for tomatoes. The brandywine tomatoes are next to the stairs, followed by Rainbow cherries then fireballs. I have already seen flowers starting on the rainbow cherries and the fireballs. Tomatoes here we come. I am so looking forward to them.

Peppers and peas

 All the sweet peppers are doing well. We have carnival next to a couple of sweet peas and then Pooka's lilac pepper, then the long sweets that are a favorite around here followed by Daddy's cubanelle peppers.











These 2 containers hold peas. The big one is blue podded peas while the small one is regular sugar peas. The sugar peas I did start later then the big one, but I see peas in our future.

Leeks beefsteaks      roma        blueberry tomatoes

This is the second half of the tomatoes. Since it doesn't have any support behind it (like a trellis) we decided to go standard tomato cages on it. I am kinda hoping this works. I also have our homegrown leeks as well as some storebought plants tucked in a bit of free space in this bed. I think they get alone well, but we will have to see. Luckily, they are close to the beefsteaks, so I am not as concerned about them. There is beefsteak, Roma and Blueberry tomatoes in this bed.

Pots galore

In this little area we have tucked away a bunch of pots. I don't know if this will work (the weeds are getting a bit big back here) but we are going to try it. The 2 green pots are the raspberries (and yes, on doesn't look so good). The blue bin is blue corn, and the white and brown with the tomato cages are the watermelons. Cross your fingers those do well.

Beans and       tomatillos and           peas

On this side of the shed I have the green beans and tomatillos. It is really hard to find companion info on beans so we are just going to see what happens. There are more blue podded peas in the blue bin next to the bed.

Hot peppers and eggplants. 

In this bed is the hot peppers. Furtherest from the camera is the jalapeno, then the poblanos and then eggplants. This area I think may of been just a bit too dry for the tomatoes but that just means we will get nice and spicy jalapenos. Supposedly eggplants like these conditions as well, so here is to hoping for some nice eggplants that we get to figure out how to use.

Peas       broccoli               cucumber

In the last bed are the cucumbers and broccoli. I know they generally like things a tad bit shadier and cooler, but with crop rotation, they may have a less then good spot every few years. The cucumber has a bit of extra room since they like to sprawl, but I have the ever handy trellis there to help them. The broccoli still has a bit of a cage around it since the bunny issue. I am hoping to take that down in the next week or so.


I know the garden isn't completely done. Pooka needs to put out all her little fairy houses and butterflies and things, but we have it in the ground and will be slowly working on getting it done now that we are not as pressed for time. I am also hoping the butterflies will help a bit with the bunny problem. We haven't seen much of a problem but its only been a week. Cross your fingers that mr. bunny found a different buffet.

Adding on to the garden

This is a project that we have been working on for awhile now. Mostly we had to wait on the weather and the rain.

In March Daddy went out and and turned the grass over around the shed. We had talked for awhile about making it another planting bed for Pooka's ever expanding garden. It sat there and sat there, and sat there. In all that time, I forgot to take a picture.

Then last Tuesday on Daddy's Mr. Mom day, he got outside and turned the dirt over again. He even got the sides put on the bed. Suddenly, it looked like a bed.

It looks like a garden bed

Daddy had added one bag of garden soil, in the side the tomatoes would live on. This helped it look a bit more filled in, but it seemed to need something

Future home of the tomatoes

But somehow, it still looked a little low on dirt. Very low on dirt, so Wednesday Pooka and I went out and bought dirt for the bed. I carried around 3 bags and put them in. Pooka helped me level it all out and she loved being able to "get dirty."

 

Adding more dirt with Pooka's wheelbarrow

After adding extra dirt, one corner looked right, and I had some tomatoes I desperatly needed to get into the ground. I was concerned they were getting root bound and too big to be in a small pot. Not to mention I had already had one of the growums tomatoes die in the pot, so I wanted to save the other 3. 

3 little tomatoes waiting for a home

We used our little speed square foot guide and dug our holes. But I will talk more about how we plant tomatoes another time.

Pooka digging her holes

Next thing you knew, I had 4 tomatoes in the ground. I think the 4th is a beefsteak, but the name came off the tag so I can't be too sure. Pooka called it the mystery tomato.

Finally we are in the ground.

We then added a small layer of mulch to just that corner. It was due to rain the next few days and I wanted to make sure they didn't get too much mud on their leaves since my reading said that can lead to fungus. We only mulched the corner we planted tho because we knew we would need more dirt for the rest of the beds. We just had to wait on the weather to give us another nice day that someone was actually going to be home.

Tomatoes all settled in

Friday night Daddy and I went out and bought more dirt and with everything else going on Saturday it was finally nice enough that Pooka and I went through and put all the new dirt in the beds.

Newly filled bed

A few of the beds had reclaimed soil in them from either pots that we think died off or from the seed starters after we removed the seeds. Thus this bed got some cinnamon flavorings in it. I wonder how that broccolli will taste when its grown.



At this point, Daddy wanted to mow the back yard so Pooka and I went out front to do some other jobs. We came back and Brother helped lay the mulch down in all the beds. Now we are just waiting on this unseasonably cold snap that is coming through till Monday so we can plant the rest of the beds. It is not suppose to get down to 37 in MAY. But that is another disccusion. I should have pictures of the new beds later today. We have been a tad thrown off with arrangements for Pooka's Great Grandfather. I am hoping to be back to normal later this week or early next week.