Weekly Veggie Garden Update - May 19

Here's my weekly veggie garden update:

I *finally* got bitten by the Gardening Bug.  With everything happening this past year I thought perhaps I wouldn't even plant the veggie garden.  Ah....but when those leaves start popping out of the trees, the warm air returns and the smell of the earth is so delicious that I just couldn't help myself at the garden center.

On Mother's Day I picked up lots of seeds- most of which haven't been planted yet.  I've got golden beets, lettuce, spinach, radishes, two kinds of potatoes (don't ask what kind as I didn't really pay much attention- oops!) and red onions planted.  The remaining seeds: pole beans, shallots, carrots, Swiss chard, pumpkins, summer and winter squash and cucumbers (and various flowers) are waiting patiently for me to plant them.  I'm kind of glad I didn't plant the cold-sensitive seeds as we had a few nights recently that got dangerously close to freezing.  

The girls helped me one afternoon weed the pumpkin/winter squash/dahlia/gladiolus bed.  It's the only bed that is NOT a raised bed.  That took hours!  I'm so glad that I had their help.  And now Annika is that much closer to getting her Ipod (more on that in a future post!).  

This year I'm doing something a little differently: I'm purchasing tomato, pepper, eggplant and herb plants.  I just didn't get my seeds started in time so off I'll go to the farmer's market this weekend in high hopes of finding lovely seedlings that will have to come home with me. Wish me luck! I honestly can't remember the last time I didn't start tomatoes from seed.  

The beds with cattle panels sticking up (held in place with t-posts) are the tomato beds.  I know I should rotate my crops in different beds (I used to do that) but since we've got our drip irrigation set up differently for the various beds I've decided to keep the plants in the same place.  I do add bags of composted manure and grass clippings (some is piled up in the foreground) that I work into the soil.  I know it's not ideal but it does work for me.  The upside down V-frame houses the cucumber bed.  The panels allow the cucumber vines to grow upward.  Not sure if I've noticed any difference in mildew attacks but it keeps the garden looking nice.

I consider my garden to be a Potager Garden...veggies, herbs and  flowers mingle together

I've got gravel on the pathways between my raised beds.  Why gravel?  It's what we had on-hand at the time.  Why are my beds spaced far apart?  The original garden lay-out accommodated the width of the deck of our former riding mower.  We upgraded the mower and the new one had a much larger deck.   After about a year of mowing with our little push mower we decided to try something different!  Our gravel pathway set up isn't perfect (it gets weedy and is now in need of extra gravel) but I do love it.  It doesn't get super muddy after a heavy rainfall.  

The bed on the right front corner has lettuce (as planted by Annika) and radishes popping up.  The smaller square beds have various herbs (lavender, thyme and sage) in them and are waiting for the pole bean seeds to be planted around the poles.  You can see our drip irrigation system.  We set it up a few years ago and while we have minor repairs to make to it every year it still works great!

My currant bush bed.  I currently have two white, two red and one black currant bushes.  Get it?  Currently currant?  eep.  Somebody save me from myself.  I moved these bushes (along with a few ratty looking red raspberry bushes, a few sad looking blueberry bushes and two rhubarb plants) from my former veggie garden on the other side of the driveway.  They never got the attention they needed to succeed over there so I'm hoping they'll be happier and healthier in their new location.  (so far the answer is "yes" - they are much happier!)

 Bed in foreground contains baby spinach and radish plants. The bed in the background used to be the weed strawberry patch. As I could barely see the strawberries through all the weeds I lifted all the remaining strawberry plants out of that bed (to be replanted elsewhere) and planted potatoes and red onions in there.  

 Is there anything you'd like to know more about my garden?  Do you have any gardening questions?  I might not have all the answers to your questions but I'd love to help!  I love encouraging people to try gardening.  It's a very rewarding and, at the same time, a very humbling experience.  Becoming a gardener is a life-long, never-ending learning adventure.