Garden Journal Update

Warning! Long post!

Wow, the weather warms up and things start growing! I know that soon enough it will be too hot for stuff to do much growing, but I'll enjoy it while I can.

Here's all 4 beds lined up. One is raised, sort of, with potatoes in it. Right behind has huckleberries and herbs, and one pepper plant. Behind that is tomatoes and peppers, and behind those are carrots, onions and lettuce. I plan to raise that back bed end of May.

Here's the pea plants and several birdhouse gourds. You never know how many seeds will germinate, and I hate to throw out ones that are growing, so I've got 6 bird house gourd plants growing.

Something is eating the mint. I haven't figured out what, yet. But the mint is putting out new leaves where old ones were eaten, the plant isn't done for yet.

The sparrow nest in the tomato pot is full of baby sparrows. They are almost as big as mama sparrow, and their eyes are open. If I counted right, there are 5 or 6 babies pilled in there.

Tomorrow I should harvest my first tomato. These are in hanging pots on the patio. They don't get quite as much sun as the ones in the garden, but they are full of tomatoes.

The tomatoes in the garden are producing. I figure it will be a few weeks before harvesting any of these.

The peppers are full of flowers, I'm very excited about these proto-peppers. I think Hubby is, too. There are two chilli peppers and two cayanne peppers and three or four sweet peppers. He is most excited about the spicy ones.

The huckleberries are covered in fruit. I'm wondering when to harvest them. I think I'll wait till they are easy to pull off.

The cucumbers have little, baby cucumbers on them. I put them up on a trellis to make mowing easier for Hubby. I did the same for the gourds. the pumpkin are staying on the ground, I'm not sure the bamboo would support them, as the vines themselves are huge (third picture from here).

Gosh, I'm so proud of my garden and I want more beds come fall growing season. The lettuce is being allowed to bolt, I just want seeds. The leaves are rather bitter, I guess its warmed up too much for them.

We got a mower with a bagger, so we can compost the clippings. When Hubby mowed this week, he dumped all clippings into the compost bin; unfortunately, it was more than the compost bin could hold! I'm hoping to get some wood pallets soon (next Thurs?) and add two compartments to one side, then it will be easy to flip the pile when it needs to be turned and I can hold more compost. Currently, it smells like hay -- and in the heat, its not so nice.

:::sigh::: its a long post, but seems to short to have told of all that is happening in my garden!