Spinach Harvest and Photo Update

I've been harvesting lettuce and spinach for a few weeks now, but the spinach was starting to bolt, and weeds were starting to get a bit out of control, and I had lima beans in serious need of transplanting... so....

Today, I harvested the last of the spinach, which I intend to saute soon. Then Dave tilled up the area where the spinach was, as well as the grassy row where I wanted to plant limas, and some of the slightly overgrown paths. And the garden looks beautiful. At least I think so. Check it out.



And I've got plenty of space ready to plant/transplant my lima beans, green beans, watermelons, zucchini, and tomatoes (yes, I gave in to temptation and the lure of more space than I planned to have and will be planting Italian tomatoes with the intent of making salad, tomato soup, and spaghetti sauce). I'm excited.

Flowers to Line the Front Walk

I finally have flowers lining our front sidewalk. Last year, I put white vinca, which were very pretty. This year, I went with a white theme again, but branched out to some new varieties. At Ann's suggestion, I went with geraniums, petunias, and nicotiana. They're all hardy, good for a sunny location, and have pretty white flowers. To line both sides of the sidewalk, it took 8 geraniums, 24 petunias, and 24 nicotiana. That's a lot of flowers. But a very nice effect. :)

Gardening Update

I've been busy lately, speaking at a conference, photographing a wedding, so I've gotten a bit behind in the weeding... and in the reporting on my blog. So, here's where things stand in the garden.

The fence is working GREAT! Things are growing without disappearing. I've got lettuce and spinach ready for harvest, the peas are growing tall and flowering and I even see a few pods forming.

I planted both varieties of corn on May 12, once the rows of black plastic and black fabric were down, and then I planted carrots and spring onions on May 13. I hadn't planned to plant these, but I had a bit of space in the row of spinach so I bought some 50 cent seed packs and stuck them in the ground.

The seeds are from American Seed.

Carrots - Danvers Half Long - Very uniform, heavy-cropping carrot 7 to 7 1/2 inches long. Flesh is bright orange, tender, and sweet. Excellent for table or freezing. (70 days). Sow in well worked, stone-free soil, after danger of heavy frost (April-June here). Thin seedlings when they are 2-3 inches high with the final spacing of the plants 3 inches apart. Thin ruthlessly; they need room to grow. Water lightly as too much water can cause cracking.

Spring Onions - White Lisbon Bunching - A mild green onion. Tops remain fresh and crisp well after harvest. Green onions are not suitable for winter storage. (60-75 days) Sow in a sunny location after danger of spring frost (April-June). Thin to 1" apart when 3-4" high.

The corn is already well established. Hurrah! No sign of carrots or onions yet, but I'm waiting patiently.

Rabbit Solution

Yesterday, Dave and I put rabbit fence around the entire garden, weeded the row where the peas had been, and replanted. It was a big job, but I'm glad we did it. Here's a picture. Like the sign?
The darker brown row is mushroom soil, meant to be used as weed control near the plants. Ann and Bill are trying this too. Hopefully it'll work well. Since the picture was taken, we've also cultivated between the rows, taking care of most of the existing weeds.

I am very glad to have the fence up and I'm really hoping we'll have better luck with the garden now that we're protected against rabbits.

Rabbits and Ants

I got Matthew to take a nap around 11 and went out to do some weeding in the garden, only to discover that the rabbits ate my peas.

Out of a 20 foot row of peas, only a dozen plants remain. Of those dozen, most are short stumps. Only 2 are untouched. I suspect the rabbits have been thinning the spinach too, although there are still enough healthy plants I can't tell for sure. And the lettuce are too young for them to even bother with yet.

To add insult to injury, several ant colonies have taken up residence in my garden.

I think I'll be needing some fencing for the rabbits. That won't help my peas though. (Sheds a tear.)

Watering, Weeding, and Asparagus

Yesterday, while Matthew napped, I went jogging and then buckled down to the garden. I rearranged soaker hoses to start watering the front flower bed, where the pansy seeds are. I watered the veggie garden, the flower bed, the peach tree, and the asparagus patch.

Then Matthew awoke, actually I accidentally woke him up - oops. But it was nice warm weather out, so I plopped him in the stroller and he watched me weed the veggie patch. I got a lot done before he started getting antsy. Then I delivered him to Dave to watch flint knapping for a while. Matthew enjoyed the change of scenery.

While watering the asparagus, I discovered my first asparagus stalk. It's an itsy bitsy wimpy asparagus stalk, but I think that's to be expected since it's the first year. Seriously, it's almost as skinny as a blade of grass, but it's standing proud. I'll be watching for 9 more baby asparagus stalks coming up soon.

After all the watering, it rained last night, more or less negating the effort. Nevertheless, the soaker hoses needed rearranging, and I got quite a few weeds pulled.

Bill gave us a wheelbarrow full of mushroom soil that's weed free to use for fertilizer and mulch. This is the first year they've used this stuff so it's kind of experimental. I'm really hoping it's not only weed free but also mushroom free because if mushrooms get started, I have no idea if they can ever truly be stopped....

By the way, the peas are looking great, and the spinach is starting to show its first true leaves.

Weather today through Tuesday: 56/36 T-storms, 56/31 sunny, 54/36 sunny, 56/43 chance of storm. We may get even more natural watering. :)

Pansies and Lettuce

It's late to be planting pansy seeds. I wanted to plant them a while ago... 2 to 4 weeks before the last frost. But this was the first time since I bought them that it wasn't raining and the cultivator was ready and I wasn't out of town. So I dug up some ground and sprinkled some seeds and raked a bit of dirt over them. We'll see how they do. The daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths in the same bed are looking lovely.

I also planted some lettuce today, so now in the veggie garden, I've got a row of peas, a row of spinach, and a row of mixed lettuce. The first two are well sprouted. Unfortunately in the last week I've been away a lot for a conference and visiting friends, so the weeds have gotten ahead of me. But the cultivator seems to do a very good job of loosening the soil enough to get them out without too much trouble. Hurrah!