I apologize in advance for rambling, but my thoughts these days are pretty scattered! I’ve been spending most of my days outside. Summer always feels so short and fleeting here, so I want to take advantage before it’s gone. Before we moved to Spokane, fall and spring were my two favorite seasons. In New Mexico and Colorado, summer is just so hot and miserable much of the time! Now, summer is quickly taking over as my favorite, even though spring and fall run a close second.
This is shaping up to be my best garden ever (knock on wood). I’ve never had luck with potatoes, ending up with weak plants and few tubers. I tried chitting them for the first time this year and it seems to have worked. Hopefully they are as productive beneath the ground as they are above:
The green beans and heirloom slicing tomatoes are doing decent. Both got set back by a light late frost. The tomatoes are finally beginning to flower and the beans have put on major growth this last week:
For some reason, my roma tomatoes (for sauce making) weren’t affected by the frost. There’s tons of flowers and a few green tomatoes hiding in this thicket. The peppers are also starting to flower:
I never worry about summer squash, it always takes off as soon as the sun comes out! The dry beans are also starting to leaf out more:
Carrot foliage is always so pretty! my onions are doing good, although the foliage in part of the bed died back prematurely. I think the water may drain from this area more quickly. I pushed in a few more sets to replace the plants that didn’t get a chance to bulb:
The herb bed. The chives are growing slowly but surely. The basil is doing good, but I think we may have got a bit more rain than it liked. The dill, which started off so weak and which I thought was a lost cause, is now doing wonderful:
Strawberry flowers:
The melons and cucumbers are struggling a bit. I planted them here as an after thought but I think the soil is a little too acidic because of some pine shrubs on the other side of the fence. We’ll see:
Perennial herbs- sage, rosemary, roman chamomile and thyme. All doing well:
Cherries! This is very exciting. When we moved in three years ago the neighbor’s vine plant had completely enshrouded this fence. We didn’t even know there was a tree here. There were actually two, but one didn’t survive the vine strangulation. Drew carefully pruned pack the vines and cut out the dead areas of this cherry. It struggled for the next two years. This spring it produced full foliage and flowers for the first time! We think it just might make it:
I’m very excited about the start of the 2012 gardening year! All my veggies and herbs, except for the peppers and tomatoes, were started from seed. This is the first year I’ve had such complete success with seed starting, so I must be finally getting my technique down. I need to start planning the fall garden soon to make sure I have all the seed stock necessary. Plus, I’ll need to start transitioning a few beds over to the new raised bed design this autumn so they’ll be ready for the first spring planting.
What’s growing in your garden?
