The garden is starting to develop nicely this year. So far, the plants have not been bothered by fungus, bugs or critters! Well, except for the tiny rose bush we put in a big pot. I think it’s down low enough that a hungry bunny has been able to taste the new growth!
We’ve had enough rain that the plants aren’t stressed about that; the summer is young…so fungus and bugs aren’t a problem yet. We’ll see if the deer get adventurous and nibble on my small yellow pear tomatoes when they get here. All we have a flowers so far.
So, here’s a tour of the various beds:
On the patio, our raised planters are doing well. We’ve started cutting the Black Seeded Simpson lettuce for sandwiches. I started another batch of the Little Gem lettuce in the two empty sections.
The Little Gem lettuce is starting to make small heads…just right for one person for a salad. We’ll start picking and eating that soon.
The second planting of radishes is going strong.
You can sort of see the chomped off tops on the tiny rose bush.
The fenced gardens off the patio are helping the sugar snap peas grow up and we finally have the first flower! There’s hope for peas in our salads someday soon!
The yellow pear tomato plants look healthy and have their first blossoms.
The two hills of zucchini are going strong. I had planned to compare how each hill did with two different brands of seeds…but of course now I can’t remember which is which! I guess it doesn’t matter but I’m more worried that I won’t be able to keep up as they produce.
Hill #1
Hill #2
And the last section of the fenced garden by the patio has two rows of huge flowers…one is a giant Marigold and the other is a Zinnia with double flowers that may be up to 2 1/2 inches across! These are meant to be used as cut flowers. I hope the deer don’t like them!
We remembered we were going to plant flowers around our lamp post out front…and then we’ve watching some plants we grew last year come up again…we had no idea they were perennials!
The fenced garden on the hill is starting to look encouraging. The row of lavender we planted last year made it through the winter just fine. I should soon be able to start cutting some to dry.
The green and yellow beans continue to grow.
The carrots have finally popped but they are still pretty tiny…here’s a close up:
The tomatoes have blossoms! This year we’re growing 6 plants of a large variety called, “Bodacious.” The other 6 plants are our familiar Super Sauce tomatoes from Burpee.
Of course, the Echinacea plants have gone nuts! I just noticed the first flower has bloomed. It won’t be long until the whole bed is beautiful!
While we’re waiting for baskets of vegetables to appear, my first task of the summer is to make applesauce. I usually go out to Way’s Fruit Farm and get a bushel to work with. These would be apples that were picked last fall and stored over the winter. By now, they are much easier to peel! Happy Summer!
Hi Aunt Mary, your garden looks beautiful! Let me ask, how many plantings of lettuce and beans do you do? And, do you start them indoors each time or just plant them directly in the ground? I’m trying to figure out how to have vegetables growing all season.
I will probably plant radishes 5 or 6 times over the summer. Lettuce (the Little gem variety) I’ve planted twice so far. I’ll need to do it twice more in the same spaces. About mid August will be the last. Bert adds fertilizer each time I replant. The green beans will get a second planting next week. I’ll use the one section that has been left unplanted. Around the end of July when the first section is done I’ll make a decision whether I really want to pick more beans in mid September. Mid August is when we’re inundated with tomatoes and busy canning relish and pizza sauce. And this year I added zucchini! Yikes…what have I done! But it’s so worth it to have my own stuff in the winter! I feel like my Grandma on the farm. Many other vegetables like kale and Swiss chard grow quickly and can be replanted several times. Just add a little fertilizer or alternate with a different plant. Whew…does that help?