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| GreensMixed mustard, kale and turnip greens from the garden for braising.
We only get good greens from our garden for a short period of time since it gets hot with a vengeance in late May (the greens tend to bolt and the bugs tend to find them as it warms up) but we do enjoy the season while it lasts! And some farmers at the market extend the season with row covers, succession planting and other nifty tricks, so after our greens bed is given over to the squashes and peppers of summer, we'll still be able to enjoy a few weeks of other growers' greens. | | |
| Mid-May Garden Update First off, belated Happy Mothers Day all you moms! Here's my mother's day present -- a very excellent concrete turtle. We have been creating a trail through our woods (we own a second wooded lot next to our lot) and I have seen a box turtle along the trail and I was so excited about our visitor that my husband and daughter got me a turtle to grace the trail all the time:
And the garden is growing wonderfully. Here are the pole beans and nasturtiums, preparing to climb the bean tipi frame:
And here is my daughter's Pink Girl tomato, which she picked out at the farmer's market (you can see the marigolds she planted around it, one of the bean poles next to it, and my peppers and squash in the background). This tomato is ready to be staked! (Adding that to me "to do" list...):
And finally a Mystery Squash:
My husband is not particularly crazy about summer squash. He really only likes it prepared certain ways and only likes but so much of it in a season. I, on the other hand, love the stuff and can eat it every day, especially grilled. So since I'm really growing this mostly for me, I decided to just plant a packet of "Summer Squash Mix" which could contain yellow crookneck, zucchini, pattypan, round squash, or any number of other options. I like them all, so I figured this way, my three hills of squash plants would be a fun surprise. We always seem to have trouble with vine borers in the south, so when the lettuce is done on the other side of the bed, I'll plant some more summer squash over there as "insurance."I also read a tip that putting a foil reflector underneath your squash plants can deter the borers, so I may try that, too.
And how does YOUR garden grow?
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| Another Garden UpdateWe are now eating lettuce out of the garden daily and we'll have braising greens to go with our dinners this week. The squash have teeny blossoms and so do the tomatoes. I have 17 tomato plants planted, which is INSANE. I also have jalapeño, cayenne, poblano, and another hot pepper. The beans and nasturtiums are up and will be climbing the trellis by the end of the week. I need to weed -- we have some grasses trying to come up in the garden, but it's supposed to rain tomorrow so if I can get out there on Monday when the soil is still moist, I should be able to pull them up. Once the cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, and peppers have a little more size on them, I'll mulch with some straw which should keep the weeds down after that.
Today, I planted some native wildflower seeds and one native plant, all of which I bought from the NC Botanical Garden shop. I put in common bluet (Houstonia caerulea), black-eyed Susan (rudbeckia hirta), butterfly milkweed (asciepias tuberosa), eastern bluestar (amsonia tabernaemontana), cardinal flower (lobelia cardinalis), sundrops (oenothera fruticosa), seashore mallow (kosteletzkya virginica), and Small's beadtongue (penstemon smallii). If you want to see what any of these look like, the USDA Plants Database has a ton of photos of plants that you can look up by common or Latin name. I planted all of these in windowbox planters located near the house so I can tend them carefully -- as the plants get to be good sized, I'll transplant them to flowerbeds around the yard. With the dry summers we've had the last couple of years, it seems like native perennials that are well-adapted to our climate are an excellent choice!
And elsewhere in the yard...I posted a photo of, basically, this same shot in the winter and thought I'd take an updated photo with the leaves on the trees:
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| Strawberry Pot (sans strawberries)
Oregano, sage, chives, parsley, and several kinds of basil. I have another one of these that I'll use for more herbs, flowers, or whatever else seems interesting at the time later on.
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| Very Short Garden UpdateThe rain has stopped and the sun is supposed to shine for the next few days, which should be great for the newly planted seeds and seedlings.
Today, I planted morning glories (Heavenly Blue, Star of Yalta, which are purple, and a mix of white, pink, and purple) and moon vine along the fence by the road. There are already cosmos and sweet peas growing in that general area, but the morning glories and moonvine will bloom for much more of the growing season. | | |
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