Amy in the Garden

Time for a status update. I still have seedlings in my office window, but I have been steadily moving them out to the garden, and I have been direct-seeding the cold-weather crops — namely lettuce, radishes, peas, beets, and spinach. I thought you’d like to see how things are growing.

Let’s start with the peas. I tried a new technique this year, suggested by Good Neighbor. Instead of having the pea vines clamber up a panel of polypropolene netting, I stuck brush in the ground, and let the wee pea tendrils grab on. What I did not expect was that the brush itself would root, and I now have pea vines growing up past the buds on the brush!

I planted three varieties of peppers this year, that will result in green, yellow, and red fruit. I planted them in the three sections of the bed, in that order, reasoning: If I can remember the order of colors on a traffic light, I will not have to label these plants:

I tried a new variety of radish this year: Easter Egg. They are darling, and come in shades of fuschia, red, light pink, and white. I love their appearance, but the germination rate has been poor. So my satisfaction with every radish harvested is a little skewed. I shouldn’t have to be this happy about every radish:

On to the beets, with their gorgeous deep red leaves:

And the lettuce. Six varieties this year. This photo shows Leprechaun:

I practice rotation-gardening, to discourage pests from becoming too comfortably entrenched, and to keep the soil healthy by not having it depleted of one nutrient or another. I have my plants on a 4-year cycle, and as luck would have it, none of my 5 trellis beds were scheduled this year for plants that required trellising. So I chose to grow bush beans instead of pole beans this year, and I will allow the cucumbers to run riot over the garden at ground level, which they’d prefer to do anyway. (Cucumbers are a lot like toddlers — tough to restrain.)

So….I knew this was the right plan, but I did hate to see those beautiful Husband-made trellis poles go unused. I had a thought: why not allow a flowering vine use of the trellis poles, weaving up and across the garden below? I love the idea of flowers in the air.

I selected scarlet runner beans, as I understand their blossoms attract hummingbirds. I loosely looped twine around the trellis poles, and planted a seed at the base of each. Because the winter has been so warm, and spring came so early (in February, actually), the seeds germinated quickly:

I also planted scarlet runner beans in the urns outside of Husband’s studio. Last year I planted Grandpa Ott’s Morning Glory seeds, and they were pretty. But I grew tired of the purple-blue, and as I had seeds left over from the garden trellises, I planted the urns with these seeds, too. Look at the Photo of the Day to see the status of these plants.

As I said earlier, the winter wasn’t, and spring was early. Even so, I admit that I’ve tempted Fate by planting several varieties weeks early. I created a Safety Climate for these early starters by placing them under my milk jug cloches. On with the jugs in the late afternoon, and then off with them once the sun is up. Labor intensive, but it is a pleasant activity, again akin to taking care of a toddler: Tuck them in, wake them up, start and stop your day with the little ones. These are Calypso, a variety of dried shelling bean:

And wee kale, released early from the cloches, because these plants can take anything:

And even wee-er broccoli:

The other corner of the garden has some burly boys popping up. First, the potatoes:

And (push your chair back from the computer) here is this year’s crop of rhubarb:

Peeking beneath that Acreage of Leaf are the gorgeous reddening stems, also burly:

If there is such a thing as a manly Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie, these plants will provide.

I had another surprise in the garden this year. I planted this year’s crop of garlic in last year’s potato bed. Apparently, I did not harvest the potatoes completely, and I have some volunteers peeking up between the garlic plants:

As I was working in the garden this weekend, I was dismayed to see another crop appearing: chipmunk. It was peeping out of the drain pipe at the top of the garden. This will not be tolerated. I set the first chipmunk trap of the season on this May day:

And one final photo to end the status report for May 6th: Gordon and MacKenzie followed me faithfully around the garden and yard, sitting while I took each photo, trotting behind as I moved to the next plant, and finally, they had had enough. I was in the driveway, taking a photo of the studio urns, and they sat down with finality. That shift to the hip means they are done. There will be no more leaping up to follow me. In fact, the next movement will probably be to lie down on the warmed asphalt.

I have to agree with them. It’s been a long day. I will share photos of the flowers on the slope garden soon. They, too, are lovely and full of surprises. For an unremarkable day in May, there has been a lot to share.

WORDS FROM OTHERS:

“Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today. “

~Cherokee Indian Proverb