A Month's Time Passing

"Gardens are not made by singing 'Oh, how beautiful,' and sitting in the shade."  ~Rudyard Kipling


Over a month has passed - my apologies for the radio silence.  We've had some family members ill and it takes time to get back into the things we want to do.  But you're here for the garden.  :)

The Herb Bed - May 2015

Everything is really starting to take off and take shape.  The Herb bed is filling up - I had to make some adjustments to the original plans, but I think I have all the spaces filled but one. We've planted lavender, curly parsley, savory, leeks, delphiniums, common sage, purple basil, genovese basil, purple sage, chives, rosemary, french tarragon, tricolor sage, lupine, spicy globe basil, cilantro, plain leaf parsley, nasturtium, lemon thyme, english thyme, morning glory, evening glory, lemon balm, mint, lemon verbena, bay laurel, and chamomile.  *whew!* 

May's Herbal Failures:  

1. We lost the horseradish - I think we waited to long to plant it, then kept it too moist.  It molded.
2. The spicy globe basil from Richter's didn't make it - either of them. I replaced with ones from Allisonville Nursery.  Note for next year's order.
3. We've lost a few of the lemon and english thymes but I think the others will fill in those spaces just fine.  They were put in from plug packs relatively close together so I don't think it will be a problem.
4. Chamomile seeds did NOT germinate.  I filled that spot with 3 plants from Allisonville Nursery as well.
5. I'm not sure I'll call it a failure, per se, but the genovese basil from Richters has hardened off well and is growing - it's just leggy and spindly looking.  We are pinching the tops as it tries to flower, so they're starting to produce more growth, but this is something to think about for next year.  Shipping from Canada may not be the best idea.  These were also plug packs, and the price can't be beat:  1.00/plant and we got 36.  So far have only lost 4.  

Vegetable Garden:

Bean Bed May 2015

Finally, everything is planted.  it finally warmed up enough for the corn and squash to go in, and that was the last of it.  I've gone back through and re-seeded some bare spots, but overall everything is lush and growing well.  

However - we have a bunny.  The little bastard.  And he's a hoity-toity picky bunny to boot.  He only eats the snap bean leaves (not the french filet or lima beans - not even the peas!), the parsley leaves, pepper leaves (the pepper plants are beginning to look like small trees with bare trunks), he ate all of the beet greens right up - right down to the ground - he must have really liked them!  But he left the turnip greens, radish greens, and TWO kinds of salad alone!  So far that's all he's messing with - though I've a suspicion he was eating my morning glory vines too.  I've tried the repellant sprinkles and my husband has put out live traps (humane ones) so maybe we can catch him, but he's basically giving us the finger as he eats our garden. :)

I've already picked two quart bags full of dill when I thinned out the plants - they're freezing until I find a use for them.  Mr. S also made a killer wilted spinach salad with spinach from the garden the other night - we'll have to eat a lot more of that, it's ready to be picked!

Cukes, Dill, Romaine,,
and Spinach bed May 2015

I realize this is a long post, but it HAS been a month and in the life of a springtime garden that's a TON of activity time!  Hopefully the next one will be a little more timely!

Weekend Work

"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt."  ~Margaret Atwood~

2015 Garden - April

...and boy, did we ever!  We worked very hard this weekend.  Mr. S and the little one helped to fill the large herb bed that we built last weekend with dirt and I planted seeds and a few hardy plants.  We have more work to do, but we're waiting on warmer weather and a shipment of herbs from Richter's.    Should be a couple of more weeks.  My knees and shoulders will appreciate the time to rest up before the next onslaught.  We worked very hard on Saturday to get it all done - rain was supposed to move in that night so we felt the need to hurry.

I don't know what we did without Pinterest.  :)  I've used so many helpful tips, if for organization if nothing else, that I'm amazed.  This year's gardening would be a lot less organized and more stressful without both my obsessive need to control and the tips I've learned from users of Pinterest.  For instance, seed books.  Bulky, but effective.  When I came across it, as in so many other instances, I thought, "Why did I never think of that?!"

Turnip Seedlings

We have a few small sprouts already, from what I planted last weekend - radishes and turnips mainly have shot out of the ground.  We also noticed yesterday that our potatoes have pushed through the straw covering them.  This is momentous for Mr. S. and I because we've attempted potatoes before and never even gotten that far!  So actually seeing plants was very exciting.  Some of the small lettuces are just beginning to sprout, but not on the scale of the turnips and radishes.  This is the part of the year when the first thing we all do when we get home is go out and check the garden for new babies. :)  It was fun for us last year, I think it will be this year too.  We are attempting some different things this year, so the newness hasn't quite worn off.

The Potatoes Are In!

• High:  60
• Low:  38
• Clear, Windy

Well, I'm a couple of days late, but we did get the potatoes planted before the rain came on Sunday.  I wish I could also say I got plenty of pictures of the process we used......but I did not.  I did, however, get a picture of my littlest helper:

Mr. S helped too, but more often than not he refuses to be photographed.  Here Little S was using his own garden hoe to help us turn the dirt in the bed.  We added compost and some more garden dirt to the bed and turned it all in, then planted the two types of potatoes, in two long, hilled rows.  The bed for the potatoes this year is only a 3x5, so we opted for just single rows of each type.  We chose Yukon Gold and French Fingerlings for our potatoes.  I didn't want to do Kennebecs because we can get them anytime from the store and really have nowhere to store them through the winter.  So we're doing this smaller amount of potatoes that we can likely consume before winter.

The garden paths and beds are still quite wet (we'd covered the potato bed in black plastic to heat it up througout this past week so it was good and dry).  I think we might be jumping the gun yet, but everything says that potatoes go in early, so by goodness, they're in early.  I'm trying to gauge when the peas need to go in, which should be relatively soon - cool weather plant and all.  These two cold weather starters we've never had luck with, as I've said before.  I fully expect the heavens to open up and unleash torrential downpours anytime, as has happened in past years when we've attempted potatoes.  They all rotted in the ground, of course, the poor, waterlogged things.

I need to dig out my good SLR camera and take pictures more often through this year - but I think it's missing parts.  Might be a project for this weekend.  After the Easter festivities, of course.

Dreary Week and Randomness

This week has mostly been very cloudy and rainy, and we're supposed to have chances of snow tonight.  Low of 18 tomorrow night.  BLECK.  We are still plugging ahead on our garden plans, however.  Last frost last year was April 18th and that'll be upon us in no time.

The potatoes have been curing since Sunday and are looking sealed over.  We've never done this step when we've attempted potatoes in Illinois so maybe that's why we never were able to succeed with them.  :)  It looks like next week should see a steady increase in temperatures, so the peas and onions will be going in the next few weeks as well.  We've never succeeded with peas either, but we have always planted them in late spring when we plant out everything else and it was always too warm.

We did onions last year and actually managed a pretty good crop......which we never got around to curing so that they could be stored in the basement - they ended up rotting and we had to toss them out.  :(  What a waste!  I am hoping this year to put a little more effort into the harvesting and make sure we have as little waste as possible.  Don't get me wrong, we processed ALOT of food last year - between freezing, canning, and drying, we had quite a harvest.  So essentially I'm doing more research. :)  Our garden was actually quite prolific last year and I'm hoping to continue that trend with some of the new plants we're attempting and with the addition of the herb bed.  (I'm very excited about the new herbs!)

Herbs are kind of my "thing" in the garden - at our old house I had herbs mixed in with the border beds as well as in raised beds near the kitchen.  I love them dearly.  People ask me why I like herbs so much and I think its the same as with the vegetables and why I love the potager gardens so much - they're useful.  And in the case of the potagers, pretty.  Useful and visually pleasing is the whole package.  Even if all we do is add the herbs to our dinners or dry them for later use, its satisfying to know that we are using the product of our hard work.

I am working on some of my problem health conditions so perhaps I won't be as tired and sick every night when I come home from work and will be able to get something done! Heat is always a problem for me in the days of summer and fall that are primarily harvest time.  I tend to work in the garden after 8:00 PM on weeknights or before 10:00 AM on the weekends, but even then sometimes the heat is too much and triggers migraines. Then I don't get anything done for two days.  :(  We'll see if the new therapies will be helpful.

So in closing, we're hanging in there, waiting anxiously for true Spring!

The start of a new year!

The 2015 growing season has started for us here in Indiana - or very nearly.  We've had several random days of wonderful weather and despite the rain (and maybe snow!) to come, we're making plans.  Mr. S and I have been hard at work planning the rotation of our raised beds and contriving layouts for a new, exclusively herb bed.

One of the surprising things about gardening that I've learned over the years is the benefits of a good and continually kept garden journal.  I used to think the concept was silly, and never thought I'd use it, let alone keep it maintained.  However, I've found that the exact opposite is true.  It's really come in handy!  Mine is a vibrant green, blank, lined journal I found at a local big box store and it's worked marvelously.  Its nothing fancy, so I'm not worried about it getting ruined by being outside and in the dirt.  The bright color means I can usually find it after I've carried it around the house/yard/garage, and it can fit in my purse if we go to the nursery and I need to consult.  We have really come to depend on it, especially as we are beginning our planning for the year.  I recorded the high and low temperatures for much of the early part of last year's spring season, so we have something to go on in regards to frost dates for this year.

This week's tasks include:

• Cutting and curing the seed potatoes for planting (hopefully) next weekend.
• Aerating the lawn
• Fertilizing the acid loving rhododendrens as well as the azaleas, roses, and bulbs. 
• Planning, planning, planning

We are pleasantly surprised that the irises and the 200 tulips we planted last fall are starting to come up.  We were afraid that the irises were planted too late as the rhizomes had become quite dry by the time we got around to planting.  It looks like some survived after all!

We're holding off on cleaning the borders out and removing the winter cover of leaves, etc. as the weather is supposed to stay cool for the next week at least.  Hopefully more to come very soon!