May Garden Tour: The Main Garden

It seems that almost every blog I visit has lovely photos of gardens in progress. I feel delinquent in that regard so without further ado, here are the beginnings of my 2010 gardens.

This shot of the main garden is taken from the bottom of the hill. The house and front yard are just behind the dark shadowed hedge. I started my planting at the top, and have been working my way downward. The white square is the first of my cardboard mulch. The little stakes mark hills where buttercup winter squash was recently planted. The growth on the right is out of control "weeds" trying to encroach!

The garden itself looks pretty weed free here, though I am having problems with blackberry vines, which just don't want to go away. The other thing is the annual rye cover crop, i.e. what didn't get tilled under. Some stubbornly survived and in spite of my best efforts, popped up seed heads which I'm sure will be a headache in the future.

English peas went in first. Sadly, only one seed out of a double, 30-foot row grew! Very disappointing. At least we can have one salad with fresh peas.

Even though I ordered cabbage seed, it arrived to late for me to start indoors. I ended up purchasing plants, which you see growing on the left. To the right of those is broccoli. And of course onions in front of that. I have onion seed for fall planting as I would like to try to make my own sets for next year. I am proud for you to see that these have all been mulched! Behind the broccoli are the remains of daffodils, vetch, and out of control grasses.

My potatoes are doing well. As you can see, I am in the middle of mulching the rows.

The top rows are starting to bloom.

And my potted horseradish! It's growing like crazy! I'm worried now that the pots will be too small. Unlike the three roots I planted in a bed, which have been a no-show.

I have a mixed salad bed with Romaine lettuce, chives, radishes, and a later planting of broccoli. We've harvested almost all the radishes.

These are Cherry Belles , and I have to say that I've never grown such beautiful radishes.

Swiss chard is doing well. It needs to be thinned and then mulched when it's a bit taller. I like a good thick mulch, so I have to be careful to not bury the little plants in it! I do also use newspaper and cardboard, though my supply of both of these is limited.

These are bush beans. The seeds were a substitute. I originally ordered two types of beans for dried shelling: black turtle and white half runner bean. We love black turtles, but I was hoping to find another dried bean to like. I've experimented with them and know some we don't like (adzuki and kidney for example) and some are just blah, like pintos. The white half runner is a popular dual purpose (both fresh green and dried), southern variety which does well in our heat. I'm guessing Shumway was sold out and so substituted State Half Runner, a green bean type. I've already planned to plant Kentucky Wonders for that, from my saved seeds, but figured I'd give them a try anyway. I don't know if these are an open pollinated type, but should check, just in case we really like them.

My Roma tomatoes grown from seed are doing pretty well. First I was worried that I'd started them too late. Then I didn't think they would make, but they are looking good now. I admit that I did use a tablespoon of tomato fertilizer on each plant to give them a boost. Now that we have chickens and goats, (i.e. manure machines), we should be able to crank out more compost, which is my preferred fertilizer.

I have some marigolds scattered between my tomatoes, which are just seedlings at this point.

Five of the six green peppers I started from seed survived.

Can you see the sweet potatoes amongst the weeds? Probably not. I have to say though, that weeding has been pretty easy, thanks to my new hoes. Eventually I plan to get it all mulched. The sweet potatoes are Porto Rico bush, which are supposed to do well in my part of the country. I could have made my own slips, from grocery store sweets, but really wanted this particular variety. Making my own will be next year.

I started watermelon seeds early, and about half of those made it. I recently planted more seed directly into the ground, to extend our watermelon harvest.

My sweet corn though, has made a very poor showing. That's disappointing.

Can you see any corn in there? Or just weeds. Cat included for size.

There are quite a few gaps in the rows. I was planning to plant my Kentucky Wonders here, but now I'm not sure there will be enough corn stalks to serve as bean poles.

Planted but not up yet:

• Black turtle beans
• cucumbers (actually just sprouting)
• nasturtiums
• sunflowers
• Buttercup squash
• sweet basil
  

Still to plant:

• summer squashes
• maybe more winter squashes
  
• Kentucky wonder pole beans
• pumpkins
• dill
• fennel
• misc flowers & herbs
• something new & different for me, as challenged by Maggie (Please Be Edible)
  

I'm not sure when I'll get the rest of the planting done because it rained Sunday and Monday, and there's a light drizzle today. I'm not especially early on my plantings, but I'm not late either. Hopefully the weather will cooperate soon and I can get everything else in soon. Then it's on to mulching!

Have you posted your garden update yet?

May Garden Tour: The Main Garden text & photos copyright May 2010 by Leigh at http://my5acredream.blogspot.com/