Berries---coming soon

First: I finished the planting with peppers. Four plants (three varieties) of mildly hot peppers, including Mariachi, Joe Parker, and Ancho Chile, as well as two sweet peppers (found at Home Depot, which has a surprisingly broad selection of pepper plants). Also three different types of summer squash.

And then...the berries. I picked ripe raspberry today, although that looks quite early. I don't think there will be any significant raspberries for a couple of weeks. Also, the blueberries are beginning to turn blue. This year, I promise to be patient and let them ripen for a week or so after they turn blue. Provided the birds don't interfere. The ABD's* are deployed.

*ABD's are anti bird devices. In my experience they work early on, but the birds eventually catch on.

What happens when kholrabi plants start to grow?

You get little tiny kholrabis! Although I now see that I should have planted a longer row and thinned them better. (It's hard to do any thinning when you get so few germinations).

Now, kholrabis are supposed to be a cool weather crop, so I still don't know if they will grow large enough to eat. But I'm hoping...

And it's time for herbs

Got the tomatoes in on Thursday. The garden is starting to look pretty full, but there's still room for the cucumbers and squash. Unfortunately, the Israeli squash seeds I bought this year didn't germinate very well. I only have one plant! Cucumbers and peppers are still small and still inside.

A couple of years ago, I started working on the 5'x5' planter near the kitchen door. The idea is to make a permanent herb garden. This year I got it filled with earth (easier to work with than the foot and half down it used to be. And today we went to the farmers market. We now have:

1. Bay (will it survive the winter?)
2. Rosemary
3. St. Johns' Wart (looked interesting)
4. Oregano
5. Thyme
6. Basil, of course
7. Chives, planted in a clay pot so they won't spread.

A couple of weeks ago I planted some dill and parsley seed, and I saw seedlings today!

It looks like it might make sense to plant a bush of some kind in the back. I'm not sure what would not be too big, but would create a nice background for the herbs. Maybe lavender?

And I planted two more tomato plants in a corner of the garden I might not have used. If all goes well this year, we should have a lot of tomatoes.

Strawberries

Well, strawberry plants. I just put eight of them into new 4x8 raised bed in the back. 9 Junebearing and 7 Everbearing (l made a mistake at the store). I even mulched them with straw--how about that?

Today was the second day of the tomatoes introduction to the outside. I'm trying to do the hardening off thing because I got such poor results last year from my seedlings. Not that these tomato plants, at 8" to 12" tall, are seedlings any more.

Springing up

Lots has been going on, and I've neglected to write. Let's see:

1. I got the topsoil in the planter that is going to be an herb garden and also in the new 4x8 raised bed in the back. Next step: plants for both. It'll be strawberries in the back, but I'm still open to suggestions in the front. I know I want Rosemary, and space for annual herbs (parsley and dill are both popular here). I'm going to plant mint in a separate pot I'll keep next to the planter. As for others, I'm not sure. We'll see what other interest plants I can find in the farmers' market.

2. Planted tomatoes. I waited this year until late March, figuring that was pretty late to start them. Little did I know...they've been big enough to plant for a couple of weeks already! I started peppers, too. The older seeds took longer to germinate, and didn't do so as evenly, but they did start. Looks like three varieties of mildly hot peppers this year. Also cucumbers, which are growing, and squash. But only one of the 9 squash seeds I planted has germinated so far. Did I mention that the squash is Israeli?

3. There are a few little Kholrabi plants and Kale plants. Very bad germination. I know that's partially because I planted them too early, but still...I always have this problem. One piece of good news is that nothing has eaten the plants yet. Last year the d-n rabbits had already done in my Kale.

4. The onions are all up I realize that I could have planted more (that is, I had room for more). As it is, I should have 40-50 of them this summer, which is twice what I've had before.

This weekend: buying plants and starting to harden off the tomatoes.