Karen

The garden snapshot is back! I’ve been trying to post these photos for about a month, so I hope you’ve got a while to read this…

A late spring freeze got all my fruit this year. I covered all the trees, but it wasn’t enough. Of course, immediately afterward I read a tip about stringing Christmas lights on small trees to provide extra warmth. I have to try that next time! I took these photos before the fruit fell off. T_T

I got a ton of stuff done in the garden after it warmed up a bit. Here’s what it looked like earlier this month.

At this point I had planted cucumbers, zucchini, corn, peas, lentils, onions, leeks, thyme, dill, cilantro, lettuce, kale, arugula, spinach, bok choy, squash, pumpkins, watermelon, and cantaloupe.

Here were all the little bok choy plants. They have since bolted prematurely, so I won’t be getting any bok Choy this year.

Here is the garlic then.

And now. It’s looking great this year, although I didn’t plant nearly as much of it.

Here are the strawberries a few weeks ago, which I just started picking last week.

This zucchini plant had just come up.

And here they are now. They seem to be off to a slow start this year.

Check out the corn in perfect little squares!

This year I’m using a garden stamp to plant my seeds. It’s such a simple yet brilliant tool for square foot gardening! And the best part is that I don’t have to bring a measuring tape to the garden any more. When we installed the edging I placed the stakes every two feet and stapled the plastic pathways every foot. Between that and the garden stamp my plants are perfectly spaced, which makes me so happy. And the perfect corn is a little taller now.

These peas had just sprouted.

Last week I made a pea trellis. We already had the bamboo poles, so I just attached some pea netting. I really like the way it turned out.

Right behind the peas are the lentils I decided to try. Neither of the seed companies I ordered from carried lentils, so I just got some from the bulk section at Earth Fare. Nearly all of the French lentils germinated, but only a few of the pink ones did. I’m very interested to see if they produce well. They’re pretty little plants.

Right beside those are the parsnips.

And green onions.

I decided to try a new trellis system for the tomatoes this year. Most of the varieties I grow are indeterminate, and the regular tomato cages weren’t cutting it (although I think they’ll be perfect for the peppers and eggplant). We had great success with using cattle panel as a giant trellis archway last year, so we bought a few more panels and cut them to size for the tomatoes. I think they’ll work great.

I just finished planting the peppers and eggplant last week. I’m trying Anaheim peppers this year (poblanos were too spicy!) and several kinds of eggplant, which look better than ever.

This is cauliflower, cabbage, and broccoli right after I transplanted them.

And yesterday, from a different angle.

The mesclun greens are finally big enough to be picked. I’ve been waiting forever for salad!

These are the beans from earlier. I’m trying more drying kinds this year. I’ve had great luck with growing beans, but a surplus of green beans which Matt isn’t that fond of.