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.

April 25: Wonderful long day in the garden, finally!

This spider-like thing is an asparagus crown.  Last fall we dug up the asparagus patch because of the perennial weed problem.  Today Bill refilled it with a truckload of beautiful black soil.  I dug the 4 asparagus crowns I had healed into bed 12 last fall and got the three I had put in the refrigerator last fall (they were moldy...not sure if they'll grow?) Actually not sure any will grow.  But I thought it worth a try.  So we have 7 crowns planted and now need to buy some others to finish planting the new asparagus bed.  But won't be eating asparagus for 3 years! In the picture below, the dark rectangle of soil is where I put in the crowns and watered them.  But the bed of new soil is much larger and will be divided into two 3 1/2 foot beds with a 2" path in the middle.    In the foreground, you can see that the rhubarb is doing really well!

 Bill and Joe cleaned up the weed pile area on the southwest corner of the garden--Joe with the tractor and bill with the rake.  Looks so great!  And will be a perfect place to have a pile of woodchips for re-chipping the pathways.

Then Joe scooped out the enclosed weed bin so we are ready for all the new weeds which we will inevitably be pulling throughout the summer!

Last week Bill planted the onions (4/17) in beds 5 and 6.  Instead of onion sets this year, Amy bought onion plants for us....a new adventure in onion growing!  Garlic in bed 7 is also doing great.

And the first peas that had been planted March 18 are finally up.  Soil today is 50 degrees F.

Greatly enlarged in this photos, the lettuce from both March 11 and 18 is up!

And some self-seeded dill coming up in the herb bed.

Raspberries are leafing out beautifully, both the ones Bill left up as canes on the east side of the patch,

 and the ones he cut to the ground on the west side.

The compost bins that eagle Scout Des Athy built a few years ago are filled with

1. composting manure

2. compost from last summer, with some extra soil from the truckload of soil on top.

3. Garden "stuff)--buckets, composter, pots, etc.   Every garden needs a place to keep "stuff."

Got the hoses from their winter storage in the "Ritz" and lacking new rubber gaskets, got myself soaked watering the garden and unfortunately, also myself.  In a brisk 50 degree F wind, that was chilly!

April 11: a few more plantings

Perennial lovage coming up!  This herb gets tough in summer, but is tasty when tender and young.

Bill has all the beds ready to plant!

 Strawberries trimmed back and fertilized with composted manure.

Bed 1:

Planted more pea and lettuce seeds, plus some lettuce that Bill and Amy grew in greenhouse.

Bed 2:

Planted beet, turnip, and winter kale seeds, plus broccoli, cabbage, and curly kale seedlings I'd started at home.

Peas, lettuces, and potatoes in and first herbs up!

Planted half row of peas, lettuces, arugula, and spinach on 3/18 and then the rest of the row on 3/28.  Soaked peas 1-2 days first to give them a head start.

Bill has been pruning the fruit trees, and cutting back the dead strawberry leaves and added composted manure around the berries.  Then he put in stakes and I added the white cord to keep feet out of the beds.  And he has 9 of the 12 veggie beds dug and fertilized with manure already!

We planted bed 11 with potatoes.  Red on the east end.  White on the west end.  

Soil was 44 degrees F at noon.  48 degrees F at 4 pm!   Temperature int he 50's today, mostly sunny and not much wind.  A great March day in the garden!

Garlic already 8-10 inches high......, planted last October.

Dug out the stalks from last year's annuals in the herb garden, Trimmed the dried thyme and lavender stalks from last year.

Several perennial herbs are already coming up:  chives, licorice mint, chamomile, lovage, tarragon, and sorrel!  It felt good to get out the little ceramic signs and hang them above these early herbs.

 Bill built a new 3' x 3' carrot box!

                                                        Rhubarbs coming up.... looks great!