Just beautiful weather today! Highs only in the low 70's and thanks to yesterday's storms, I don't have to water! This is what's going on this morning in the vegetable garden...
Artichoke
Garlic
Brandywine Tomatoes
Peppers have put on a huge amount of growth since they were planted last week.
Tomatoes have tripled in size in the past 12 days
The culvert planted potatoes are all up and have been mulched once already, plain old Red Pontiac from the feed store this year.
Blackberry flowers
Bronze Mignonette lettuce
Mizuna greens are bolting already!
Tango or Salad Bowl lettuce, can't remember...
The insects are have arrived on the broccoli
Piricicaba Broccoli is starting to have shoots, peas in the background
The 1st pea blossom! Oregon Sugar Pod II
Peas & Carrots
I planted the kids' rooftop garden early enough this year (I think!) to get some growth before it gets too hot. Climbing beans will hopefully grow up over the fort and petunias will spill over the side. That's the plan, anyways...
Cascade Hops for the biergarten :)
A couple of you have inquired about how we grow our hops. Below is a trellis hubby constructed - we originally grew fast growing Five-Leaf Akebia on it to block the sun from our outdoor table, but quickly realized it was perfect for growing hops! It's pretty darn high at about 15 feet, but hops can grow up to 30 if they have enough trellising LOL. We find that they reach the top and spill over to come back down creating a dense wall of foliage and hop cones that smell great.
This is also home to "Mr. Mockers" our resident chatty evildoer mockingbird. Some of you might remember my yearly adventures with him, having to bring an umbrella with me into the garden to block my head from his divebombing and other nonsense. Since I have a penchant for neurotic Aussies and Border Collies, his antics fit right in around here and I look forward to him every year. I'm not sure where the nest is this year, but he struts his stuff on top of the arbor since he can see us coming out the back door from here. He then parades around the edges of the raised beds and split rail fence about 3 feet from me squawking at me the whole time! I'll try and get a pic of him soon, he's awesome :)
I still have lots of stuff yet to plant, but these are mostly perennials and herbs with a few trailers to put in randomly.
My garden might be a bit of a challenge this year - I am growing much more than I have before! In years past if the peas or something weren't ready, I would actually pull them up (organized OCD that I am) so I could replant the beds. This year has me tucking in plants all over the place, hence the carrots next to the peas and a few other random things. My pepper plants are all over the place, one here, one over there... I am looking forward to it however, since my favorite gardens to look at are the French Potager gardens where so many things are intermingled. It goes against my nature, but it's what I really want to become good at, plus, no more ripping out perfectly good veggies just to maintain "good order and discipline" LOL! I still have all my direct seeded stuff to go in, I'll be very busy this weekend.
Two last photos:
This is an overview of the gardens from on top of the kids' fort, the main fenced in garden in the first and the second photo is the "side garden" which we seem to add to every year out of necessity. I'm also noticing that I may be getting a bit old to be climbing up here.... :) Also note that I haven't planted my bush beans, edamame or cukes yet and have no earthly idea where the squashes will go... it will be a fun ride for sure!
Simply unbelievable how fast your crops grow! Do you realize my garden doesn't look like yours does now until end of July?? My mouth is hanging open. Everything looks so very healthy and is so beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to go rip out my gardens now and reapply the gravel that was covering the area when we purchased the property.
Gorgeous! Your garden is a real inspiration. I love the hops idea.
ReplyDelete*Correction: I am growing "Cascadia" Snap Peas! I was stuck on last fall apparently :)
ReplyDeleteMama Pea, I am pretty shocked myself - in just 2 weeks it has completely transformed into a real garden again! Which means it will be unbearably hot pretty soon :) I see 44ยบ there? Hold off on that gravel, I can feel sweet peas and chives wanting to have a peek out of your beds!
Hi Michelle! Thanks! You don't know how many bloggers I owe my garden adventures to, too many to count!
I think this is going to be our first really warm day. It's currently 52 in the shade and Papa Pea just went out this morning and hung a thermometer on the south side, near the upper portion of the garden area. I just checked and it's at . . . ta-dah! 74 degrees! Could that be??!
ReplyDeleteAnd to think we are still waiting to plant our gardens here! Your gardens are so well thought out and beautiful. I can't wait to see it all in full bloom.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm ashamed to blog my garden photos. Most of my plants are still waiting to go into the garden, we just can't get a break in this cold weather.
ReplyDeleteFirst day at 60 here-I was thrilled. Spent the day planting onions. Cannot get over your garden. I feel like I'm 8 months behind-LOL!
ReplyDeleteMama Pea, I HOPE you get some relief soon, I feel like hanging my head every time I post green pictures!
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Sparkless, WELL THOUGHT OUT??? LMBO!
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Gran, your garden is always beautiful, I hope the warmth gets to you soon.
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Sue, 60 is perfect to me, enjoy!
Lovely garden photos. I'm itching to get into the garden but it's been cold and rainy here. I'm really, really, hoping that the rain forecast for tomorrow misses us. If so, I may be able to get into the garden on Sunday. Woot!
ReplyDeleteJudy
Very nice. You are so organized. I wish I had all that to work with but wood is hard to come by without buying it and so is mulch so until we can my garden will just be...well, my garden, I guess but it won't be as pretty as yours that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteGreat garden Erin. Reminds me of my brother-in-laws in Kentucky.One of my favorite authors ,"LaVyrle Spencer" from MN. had one of her books"Years" WHERE SHE TALKED ABOUT FINDING "HOPS" IS IT FOR BEER OR FOR BREAD?
ReplyDeleteBecky, any garden is a pretty garden, I hate lawns LOL! It's been a long time in the making, a little bit each year. I do love redneck gardening LOL, I even have a section of culvert that I use for potatoes :)
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Judy (2), I love her books! Especially ones set in LA, even though I like the northern ones, too. Hops is for the beer - we freeze the cones to use later in brewing. We don't grow enough for the beer so we order hops from Northern Brewer in St. Paul, but it's nice to supplement with our own so there's a bit of us in there. We use our own coriander when we make a clone of "Blue Moon", but it doesn't require much of that.