May is great time to plant!

May 28
The first red strawberry, with lots more ready to ripen in the next few days and 2-3 weeks.

Bed 4: Onions from sets in foreground, then chard we grew in greenhouse, and garlic, planted in October, in background.

 Carrots loving their new home:

 The 4x4 box built last year by Kendall Heard in filled with tiny seedlings, some from the greenhouse, and some from seeds we sowed directly in the box.  A great demonstration of what can be grown in a small space.

 The annual photo of the chive flowers and the barn:

 Bean germination disappointingly spotty.  Will add more seeds in the empty places.  Corn germination also poor.  Probably due to the 90+ degree dry weather.

May 25  Bill planted eggplant and blackberries her bought at Sunrise.

 Rhubarb is looking great!  Seems to thrive in the new bed we gave it last year.

Tarragon (perennial) and dill (self seeding annual) are looking good at the back of  the herb garden.

Stevia with beautiful flowers:

 Beans are up!

 Bed 1:  Peas and lettuce, planted in March and April:

 The garden in late May:

 Drying apple mint in the dehydrator, for tea.  I've been using the garden tea herbs to supply the tea for the art center spring, Halloween, and Christmas teas, plus special SAGE dinners.  I'm trying to grow enough this year to give to the fellowcrafters to sell in the gift shop.  And I have a class to teach on herbal tea making in July.

Also drying chamomile flowers for teas.  Cut cheesecloth to line the dehydrator trays to keep the small chamomile flowers from falling through:

 Chamomile:

May 22

Cherry tree is loaded with fruit!  I think Bill's pruning paid off!

May 16
I planted beans today: kidney beans, yellow beans, and beananza and roma II green beans.

Bill put in stakes and stretched white cord to keep foot traffic off the beds.

May  14  It's been a busy planting week in the garden.    Planted 4 lemon verbena from Teds and 6 stevia from Teds and Sunrise in the herb garden.

 The potatoes are up and looking good.

 Planted tomatoes and peppers from our own greenhouse, again using the trellises and tomato cages for the tomatoes.  Also put in squash that we grew from seed, plus cucumber seedlings and seeds.

May 7, 2018:
Finished replanting the asparagus bed today.  The crowns I bought seemed dry and old when I unpacked them but after soaking in water for a few minutes, they looked so much better than the ones I saved from last fall's dig of the old patch.  But of course looks can be deceiving, so only time will tell.  I bought 6 Mary Washington (an old time variety)crowns  and 9 Jersey Giants crowns.  This is what the crowns looked like when I unpacked them.  Several banded together:

But after soaking and spreading out in the trenches I dug, they looked healthy and spiderlike:

I covered them and watered really well....and now we wait! 

(The 7 westmost crowns (furthest away int his photo) which are the ones I kept from last fall and planted last week, are only partially covered because I dug those trenches much deeper.)

 

The cherry tree is full of blossoms,

the apple trees have fewer, but perhaps a year of less fruit will be good for those little guys,

and the strawberries are blossoming...fruit will come soon!

The potatoes are up!   18 up out of 45 planted over a month ago!

The onions (foreground, planted in April) and garlic (planted in October)look great!

I planted 4 broccoli and 3 cabbage that we have been growing in the greenhouse in bed 2 (foreground), and the peas and lettuce in bed 1  are looking good!

Seeds I planted last week in the 4x4 box are sprouted:  radish, lettuce, beets, and spinach.

And I planted some basil and parsley we grew in the greenhouse, plus marigold and carrot seeds.