We're in that time of year where temps can swing quite a bit over the days and nights, with the trend gradually pushing toward warmer and drier weather as spring gives way to summer. I'm not looking forward to the heat.
This year's garden is not an ambitious one. Dan had a knee replacement in early March, so we adjusted our expectations to allow for recovery time. Most of the planting is done for now, so garden chores revolve around watering as needed, mulching as plants get tall enough, and weeding until we get to that point. I work in the garden most mornings until going on 10, when it's getting too warm in the sun.
Here are my late spring garden photos:
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These early peppers are a treat. This is one of the 3 surviving pepper
plants I overwintered in the greenhouse. One of the others is flowering, but the last one probably won't make it. |
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Another greenhouse survivor, a volunteer cherry tomato plant. We'll have tomatoes on our salads early this year! |
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| My red raspberries are doing abundantly well. |
EXCEPT!
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| A groundhog has taken up residence under the raspberry bed! So far, it has eluded attempts to be captured and re-homed. |
Said groundhog has done quite a bit of damage in the pea and lettuce bed.
All my pea plants have been pulled down and the ends eaten off. The last of the spring lettuce has been eaten as well. It will soon be too hot for lettuce, so I haven't replanted. I've sprayed the peas with a critter be-gone product, but I'm not hopeful. We usually eat peas abundantly through June, but not this year.
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| Even so, I've had a few peas to pick. But we're missing our customary pea salads. |
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| Raspberries and kefir for breakfast, with a sprinkle of ginger and cloves |
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| Cantaloupe in the African keyhole garden |
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| Slicing tomato flower |
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| Volunteer lambs quarter |
The photo above was taken in the old Buff Orpington yard. They had pretty much scratched and eaten everything down to the dirt by the time we moved them into the large chicken yard. Everything in there now is volunteers. We have tons of lambs quarter and black oil sunflowers! Those are from the chicken scratch. We also have a few elderberry trees and kudzu, which I feed to the goats.
We eat lambs quarter fresh in salad and steamed or sauteed as a green.
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| The clusters of leaves can be harvested all summer. |
This year instead of canning some, I've been dehydrating it.
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| Dried and chopped lambs quarter leaves. |
It's a great addition to soups, stews, or to make lambs quarter lasagna or quiche.
And here's some living art. The Egyptian walking onions grow in the most interesting ways.
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| Red raspberries and horse radish leaves in the background |
So that's my garden at the end of May. Care to share yours?
Garden Notes: Late Spring © May 2026
Dang those groundhogs! I would be so upset if they ate up all my peas. Our trouble is with squirrels eating our chicken feed, so our girls can no longer eat whenever they want to. I have to have certain times when I can leave the feed out and close the run doors. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteYou've got a good amount of produce up and ready. We have mostly lettuce and kale growing, as that is what I eat most.
Aren't those walking onions magical? ;0D
Looks like we are getting a week of respite from the heat this week. Thank goodness the rain cooled things off.
Enjoy your weekend!
Daisy, we're still waiting on rain. It's definitely cooler, but I don't know yet if the rain will come or skirt around us.
DeleteI know what you mean about the squirrels! Ours are all quite fat, maybe because Dan doesn't try to deter them from the chicken feed. Actually, I suspect either they or the birds have been eating our mulberries. We might not get any this year!
So much going on there! That groundhog is very irksome! Hope you can get that dealt with soon so you can enjoy your greens.
ReplyDeleteShare mine??? Give me a month!! Mostly bare soil, storage onions are up, as are garlic and peas...and I have old windows placed to warm the soil where peppers and some vine crops will be going. There is white frost all over this AM. Wild cherries and the crab-apple tree are blooming, and colour is beginning to show in the apple blossoms.
Rosalea, it sounds like you're quite a bit behind us. I'm amazed you're still getting frost. Nice that you have ways to warm the soil for your summer veggies.
DeleteWe have so many tunneling things here, we think we may have many moles and a gopher. Always a challenge! I love lambs quarter, but it seems our patches always get hit with leaf miners. I harvest what I can early. Our potatoes are looking really good, and the sweet potatoes are coming along. Onions and garlic seem to be doing well. It seems every year I disagree with hubby about acclimating the tomatoes and peppers before putting them out. I had them on the porch many days, but it's not the same as strong sun. Sure enough, we've lost 10 tomatoes so far, and many of the rest are badly sun-scalded. Sigh. Cucumbers and summer squash are coming up nicely. Lettuce is finished, and broccoli is just beginning to form. I love seeing what you're doing there. The keyhole garden is intriguing!
ReplyDeleteLaurie, those tunneling critters can be such a nuisance. We don't have gophers, but we do have moles and voles!
DeleteThat's too bad about your lambs quarter. At least you get some early. Nothing seems to bother ours (knock on wood).
I envy you the raspberries but not the groundhog. He knows when he's onto a good thing. Walking onions are the strangest plants, like something from outer space.
ReplyDeleteLiz, walking onions as space aliens is a good description! Happily the groundhog isn't paying attention to the raspberries, so at least I'm getting something!
DeleteCorn, cucumbers, beans, okra(especially), tomatoes and sweet potatoes used to be obnoxious weeds and we had to tame them...
ReplyDeleteKevin, and when we tame them, they become less resilient! Doesn't seem fair somehow.
DeleteI am hesitant to make a firm comment, as it seems too early. My beans are doing great, tomatoes okay, sweet potatoes got zapped by the first major hot day we had here. I am working on observing my fellow "neighbors" to see what they are doing as I am not doing as well as I had hoped.
ReplyDeleteTB, well, you've got a learning curve for a new location. I think that's where an allotment is nice, you can see what others are doing and talk to them about their experience. All very helpful.
DeleteMy pics are on my blog this morning though of about a week ago. We are harvesting lettuce, onions and new potatoes as needed these days. Our radish crop is over and done with. For some reason, our peas were very slow this year. Although they love the coolness of spring, I think it must have been just a bit too cold for them. They are blooming now but at this point, we will be gone on vacation before they are ready to pick. I think we have someone who will pick them so they won't go to waste. We just started some mulching yesterday with the goal of getting everything mulched before we leave.
ReplyDeleteEd, I'm looking forward to reading your post. It's curious how things vary from year to year. Germination and growth are often not the same every year. One of nature's mysteries.
DeleteVery interesting Leigh! Pesky little critters. My fences are boundaries so it is a drive by as the the fence "herds' them onto an area that the squirrels go away from the garden. I am not sure if the cats know what they are doing. I think they are thinking about a meal on the run.
ReplyDeleteTo date I have a wonderful 14 artichokes that I share with my family. The Black Fig is working on a amazing potential for a large harvest mid summer. I have two new items a dwarf lemon tree doing very well ! And a olive tree yes edible?
I had a small but yummy asparagus season that tended to slowly spread the harvest over a couple of weeks. Blue Berries were dismal. I have two huge water troughs of portatoes that are ready to roll. Tomatoes two varieties, a black bell pepper and two cucumbers alot of yellow blossoms. I planted a flower garden for the first time of gardening here. I am hoping to have some beauty all summer.a
I also have several wait and see what you are. I am going to add some late starts tomatoes, squash . I have over a half dozen sunflowers that volunteered for duty. The bulk of them is in the temporary pig pen and I fed a mix for them that had, guess what? Black Olive sunflower seeds. LOL
Goatldi, wow, your garden sounds so productive! Pretty amazing about the artichokes. Maybe I need a groundhog maze to direct ours away from the garden. :)
DeleteDid you plant your own lamb's quarter? Or does it grow wild. I would have to plant it here. Ha, you have a ground hog issue, and we have a chipmunk issue. Pesky rodents for sure. All of your goodies look fantastic. No greenhouse here, but it's still on the wish list. With the cost of plants, my husband very well may build me one yet.
ReplyDeleteKristina, all our lambs quarter is volunteers. It just grows. And since it's one of the best every greens, we love it!
DeleteWe have chipmunks too, but the cats pretty much keep them in check. In fact, the neighbor's cat comes chipmunk hunting here. :)
You will love having a greenhouse! It extends both growing and eating seasons nicely.
Yes, our lambs quarter is voluntary. I am still strangely stuck in that area, where you know you need to do some things to change things, but you’re not quite sure what’s going to work.
ReplyDeletePartially it’s because our weather pattern have changed dramatically and also because we have so many native grasses and such in this county that you could shake a stick at it. We had a ton of thistle this year beautiful thistle pink ,purple you just never know what you’re going to get in Mariposa county.
I've noticed a continual ebb and flo to our plant life as well. I figure it's biological succession. I will say that our pasture has done better this year in terms of goat edibles. All my goats are eating well and have round bellies. They look healthy!
DeleteLooking Good!
ReplyDeleteDicky Bird, thanks!
DeleteI think it’s because they’re finally at least for our area. They are used to normal being what used to be abnormal and will read other changes because when you’re with life there’s always change, but I think the abnormal has become normal. And I did make a comment above, but it didn’t come out with my information so I apologize for that. I am on my phone. I still never know what my phone is going to do it and give a moment. Bawahhhhhhh
ReplyDeleteGoatldi, I was pretty sure that was you!
DeleteYou make a good point about "normal." I think the definition is entirely subjective. It's based on either what we're used to or on personal experience, which in the grand scheme of things is merely an eyeblink of all eternity. As you say, what's actually normal is change. Things change. Living systems change. They are dynamic because they are alive. When systems become stagnant, they die. That's just the way things are.
Love these updates! Have you thought about getting a guard dog to protect your animals and scare off things like groundhogs?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, we've tried livestock guardians, but we are dogless at present. Still, it might be something to consider. The cats do great hunting mice, voles, chipmunks, squirrels, and rabbits, but they won't bother with groundhogs, skunks, 'possums, raccoons, or coyotes.
DeleteHello! I just found your blog this week. I've been looking for other garden bloggers to connect with. Enjoyed the virtual walk through your garden.
ReplyDeleteYour peppers, tomatoes and raspberries are looking good. I've started a brand new garden this year, so mine are still pretty small and only the tomatoes have started to blossom along with a few strawberries and beans.
I've just posted my May walkthrough too. Enjoying the digital garden journaling. It helps to go back and see what was done and when.
I'm sorry to see the Groundhogs have caused some havoc. I'm up on a balcony/terrace, so I won't have any mammals to contend with, but we've already had birds, ants, one slug and lots of caterpillars find their way up here!
I look forward to following your garden's progress this season.
Char, hello and welcome! So nice to discover another garden blogger. A balcony garden is a wonderful idea. I have to tell you, though, that years ago as an apartment dweller, I had a second floor balcony garden and we had a 'possum climb up and visit us every night! He didn't do much damage, but he fascinated our cats.
DeleteChar, I tried to leave a comment on your blog but got an "invalid security token" message. Not sure if that's a random issue, hopefully not.
DeleteHi Leigh, Thank you so much for letting me know about the comment error on my blog. Turns out it was 2 incompatible plugins.
ReplyDeleteMy blog is undergoing a massive reset after I changed hosting and theme and in return lost most of my content (a decade's worth of posts) so I've started over. Hopefully I can slowly add old content back again along with the new.
Oh gosh, a possum climbing up to your balcony! Wow! :D Glad he didn't cause too much havoc. I don't think we have those guys in Europe, at least I've never seen one.
We are quite a bit higher up than second floor, so I'm hopeful I won't get any mammals here, but the birds, caterpillars, aphids and mealybugs are already keeping me busy!
Anyway, I think the comments are fixed now. Thanks again!
Char, I'm so glad you checked back and saw my comment about the comments. I just tried to leave another! No error message, so I hope it went through!
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