Garden update
May. 2nd, 2016 16:31![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torquillSo, just to get the dates down: I planted (most of) my tomatoes on 4/23 or so, along with sowing seed for delicata squash, white and grey summer squash, two kinds of long bean, Roma bush beans, cosmos, and bachelor's buttons. I pulled almost all the garlic, leaving only the tiny ones, which are now starting to die down too. On the 30th I sowed Nigella around the end of the bed where I placed the blueberry pots, sowed morning glory where the cucumbers will go, and took out the last of the sugar snap peas to dry down; I planted four tomatillos and one more tomato, plus a thyme bush (since I have nowhere else to put it). I'm still waiting to plant three tomatoes until they've grown up a bit, but they do seem to be getting a little momentum.
Right now I've got celery and parsley going to seed, about four dill plants soldiering on, and the delicata and long beans are appearing. The pot of basil is starting to show a little green. I'll wait until midmonth to put in the cukes, melons, and peppers, and if we get a break from hot weather around the end of May, I'll put in the sweet potatoes and sow okra then.
I think I've set aside enough space for bush beans that I can sow more every two weeks without running out of room -- let's hope I'm right. I need about 24 at a time to give us a useful quantity.
Elsewhere, my apple tree has enough fruit I'll have to look at thinning it for the first time ever, and the nectarine is going to need it too; last year I didn't get to it, and it broke branches. The mints are both going berserk with larger quarters and some horse manure, and even the licorice seems content after having been harvested this winter. The lemon verbena is a tree. The French terragon has finally established. I'm down to one currant, but it seems to finally be getting to a good size. I'll have to make a place to move it to in the back, unless we choose to replace the acacia out front right away with something that can shield it from the western sun; that tree is on its way out from old age, and that has consequences for the currant, the single rhubarb, and my proposed bed of nettles.
I still need to spread wood chips around the raised beds in back, and the front strip is in desperate need of clearing and mulch. I'm about to make a compost bed in back, a three-walled affair for depositing grass clippings, horse manure, and brewing byproducts. Plus, probably, plants pulled at the end of the season.
I'm gradually working my way through clearing the old winter garden, then it'll get heavily mulched, the standpipe will get taken out, and it'll turn into a thoroughfare between the two backyards. It served its purpose for several years, now it's time to move on.
This is the most impatient season, staring at raised beds full of dirt and poles with only little bits of green to herald the season to come. The bush beans and summer squash aren't up yet. The flowers aren't up yet. I'm reduced to pulling the odd sprout of bindweed and waiting. At least there don't seem to be any pests to speak of beyond the occasional earwig.
Right now I've got celery and parsley going to seed, about four dill plants soldiering on, and the delicata and long beans are appearing. The pot of basil is starting to show a little green. I'll wait until midmonth to put in the cukes, melons, and peppers, and if we get a break from hot weather around the end of May, I'll put in the sweet potatoes and sow okra then.
I think I've set aside enough space for bush beans that I can sow more every two weeks without running out of room -- let's hope I'm right. I need about 24 at a time to give us a useful quantity.
Elsewhere, my apple tree has enough fruit I'll have to look at thinning it for the first time ever, and the nectarine is going to need it too; last year I didn't get to it, and it broke branches. The mints are both going berserk with larger quarters and some horse manure, and even the licorice seems content after having been harvested this winter. The lemon verbena is a tree. The French terragon has finally established. I'm down to one currant, but it seems to finally be getting to a good size. I'll have to make a place to move it to in the back, unless we choose to replace the acacia out front right away with something that can shield it from the western sun; that tree is on its way out from old age, and that has consequences for the currant, the single rhubarb, and my proposed bed of nettles.
I still need to spread wood chips around the raised beds in back, and the front strip is in desperate need of clearing and mulch. I'm about to make a compost bed in back, a three-walled affair for depositing grass clippings, horse manure, and brewing byproducts. Plus, probably, plants pulled at the end of the season.
I'm gradually working my way through clearing the old winter garden, then it'll get heavily mulched, the standpipe will get taken out, and it'll turn into a thoroughfare between the two backyards. It served its purpose for several years, now it's time to move on.
This is the most impatient season, staring at raised beds full of dirt and poles with only little bits of green to herald the season to come. The bush beans and summer squash aren't up yet. The flowers aren't up yet. I'm reduced to pulling the odd sprout of bindweed and waiting. At least there don't seem to be any pests to speak of beyond the occasional earwig.
