Well, it has been more than a week, but here we are again today for another garden journal. The garden has really changed in just a few weeks’ time, and I’m excited to show you all of the progress we’ve made.
We are officially past our last frost date (!!!) which means its time to really get to work in the garden. I couldn’t be more ready. Over the last couple of weekends we’ve been working on getting our new raised beds built and filled, and they are now ready to go! I’ll be talking about how we built our raised bed in a post very soon, so stay tuned if you are looking to build some simple, cost-effective, and nice looking raised beds. I transplanted everything out of the old garden box, which included a row of snow peas for one of the new boxes. And… after much babying and coddling and hardening off… I was able to plant out my tomatoes this week! One of the moments I look forward to all season. I decided to do a bed of determinate tomatoes (no trellising or pruning) and a bed of indeterminate tomatoes, that I will stake and prune to a single leader stem. I’d also like to play around with interplanting some root vegetables and maybe even flowers with my tomatoes. Peppers and cucumbers will fill up the third bed in a couple of weeks when its just a little warmer. I couldn’t be more excited. Unless of course there were more raised beds to plant in. I am always greedy for more garden space, and I’m already thinking to how we could expand our little backyard garden further next year.
Speaking of more growing space, we also put in a new little flower bed! My goal for this space is to have cut flowers available to make bouquets for the house in the summer months, and also to beautify a space that is otherwise a bit of an eyesore. Some very special sunflowers self-seeded in my old garden box (more on those another time) and so I moved them over to the new flower bed. There were exactly enough sunflower seedlings to fill the back row! I also planted a row of snapdragons and zinnias (both were winter-sown) and I plan to add cosmos, hollyhock, nasturtiums, poppies, lavender… basically the plan is to plant until I run out of room. I have very little experience growing flowers, especially from seed, so I am really looking forward to seeing this space take shape. I’m hoping for a wild, small-scale cottage garden kind of a feel.
In the perennial bed, my hellebores are finally (and sadly) past their prime. They’ll continue to look lovely and age gracefully throughout the season, but the flush of spring has passed. My hostas are well on their way now, and soon they will add some nice bright color and texture to the area. Both of our trees in this area are in bloom at the moment, and the scent is heavenly. I forget almost every year that these trees bloom in the spring, and it is a welcome surprise every time.
The container garden is thriving! I moved all of the spinach, arugula, and chives from the old planter into various pots and planters to live up by the door. It is much more shaded in this spot so they will last longer here as the days get warmer. In fact, some of my spinach was trying to bolt after just a couple of unseasonably warm days. I harvested all of those plants since I was needing to clear that bed anyway. I have already had two major spinach harvests (with a bit of arugula mixed in) and lots more to come! I also have lots of lettuce that is nearly ready for harvest, and I just transplanted out some kale I had started indoors. We also found a handful of rogue radishes while cleaning out the bed, which my three year old and I enjoyed promptly.
I just love this time of year in the garden, where the enthusiasm is still running high and you’re just starting to see some of the fruits of your labor. I hope you have been enjoying the sunshine and getting your hands in the soil this spring.
Vine & Harvest 