Garden Update

I think we will have a pretty good garden this year! The greenhouse has made the most enormous difference. This spring being as cold and nasty as it was (and still is) without the greenhouse I'd be at a dead loss.

Here's what I have going on:

snap peas (beginning to harvest)

spinach, lettuces, and arugula (mostly harvested already)

radishes (harvested)

pole beans (just getting started)

cucumbers (in the greenhouse still)

cantaloupe (greenhouse - still quite small, not really growing like I'd like)

chiles - TONS, from jalapenos to cayennes to habaneros to poblanos. Some still in the greenhouse, some already transplanted out. None are really going hog wild - the plants stay mostly the same size. Wonder what I can do for them?

tomatoes - TONS of various kinds - romas, cherries, yellow pears, green zebras, cherokee purples. Some giant Amish varieties. Lots of heirlooms. Mostly still in the greenhouse - which is a problem. They are flowering, but no bees can get at them. May have to move outside today even though it is still cold. As long as it doesn't freeze they should be okay, right?

potatoes - after my first planting of potatoes rotted in the ground due to heavy rains, I waited three weeks and tried again just a few days ago. There is a forty-foot trench planted with yellow finns, and I still have a bag full of russian fingerlings and other heirloom varieties to plant as soon as I feel up to digging another forty foot trench.

broccoli - six plants, looking well chewed by some kind of bug or slug or something.

summer squash - six hills - three green zucchini and three yellow crookneck. All look pretty good.

winter squash - planted twelve seeds from a packet of mixed heirloom varieties - cinderella pumpkin; blue hubbard; turban... etc. We'll see how they come out.

GIANT pumpkin - the feed store is having a biggest pumpkin competition for kids and was giving away free giant pumpkin plants. We planted ours right on top of the oldest portion of the compost pile. I'm hoping for a monster.

eggplants - never tried these before, but the two plants I bought are looking very well in the greenhouse, getting big and bushy. I love eggplants - hope we get lots.

tomatillos - just two plants, to see what happens. Still in the greenhouse.

herbs - cilantro, parsley, chives, rosemary, sage, oregano, mint, lavender. All containerized and doing nicely.

This is my most ambitious garden to date - or at least since my first couple of years in the Ballard house. There are still a few things I'd like to plant from seed - more pole beans, for one. Fresh green beans are one of the loveliest products of the garden. I would love to plant sweet corn, but I can't dig up and prepare a big enough piece of dirt with my hurt shoulder. I will tell Homero that if he wants to plant corn this year, we have about one week to prepare a bed.

Oh and then of course later on I will plant my fall crops of kale, collards and overwintering carrots, turnips, and beets.

I haven't covered the orchard, but it is looking quite nice as well. Photos to follow.