The spring has come to a close, and it has been my favorite spring on this property so far. This was just our third spring here, but it was the first time that we’ve had capacity to do some of the extra things simply for the sake of beauty and pleasure, rather than focusing solely on utilitarian needs. The kitchen garden feels established now. I know my soil and how it varies from one corner of the garden to another. I know what grows well here and what grows well there. I know what some of my pests are and I know what thrives. And while the kitchen garden still consumed much of my spring, it wasn’t as all encompassing as it was the past two years and that has felt great. Having a one-year old baby rather than a newborn has contributed to this as well. He LOVES the garden.
It’s been a VERY rainy spring, which has been refreshing for the land as we come out of a drought, but also challenging as a gardener to get things planted and keep them weeded. I’ll take the rain over a drought anytime, though! The children have also thoroughly enjoyed the mud!
The garden is much the same as last year. I rotated a few things, but others I left right in their same places with hopes of adding more compost as the season progresses. Last fall I planted a larger garlic patch than I have before, with hopes of having enough garlic to get us through until next year’s harvest! We made it to April this year on last years’ bounty, so I’m hopeful this year will get us into the summer. I planted 20 tomatoes again, but went with more paste tomatoes and fewer slicers. We made it through the cold months with canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, pasta sauce, and salsa, but I’d like more tomato sauce and definitely more ketchup this year! Who knew that homemade ketchup was ABSOLUTELY worth the effort?! It is. My family agrees.
The biggest change for this year was that my sister-in-law and I started all of our plants ourselves! I’ve always purchased plant starts for the hot weather crops such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and basil, but this year we started these under grow lights in our basements. I wish I could say it was a raging success, but alas, I learned an important lesson that not all potting soil is created equal as I happened to buy the crappy stuff with no nutrients in it. This meant that my plants started off great - everything sprouted quickly and was thriving, but then they just stopped growing and started looking sad. Thankfully, I ran out of that soil and what we bought after was much better, so a few things I started did very well. The plants that I started in the poor soil are still working to catch up. My peppers have hardly grown, even though they’ve been in the ground for a month! Oh well. Hopefully they still produce a decent harvest and now I know better for the future.
Another change to the garden this year is that we added two raised beds along our chicken yard fence. The soil and drainage were very poor in that section of the garden and because of that it’s been unusable space. The raised beds not only remedied that, but they also provided me with space to grow annual herbs like cilantro and dill where I can let them reseed and come back year after year and also where I can grow a few cool weather crops like beets, carrots, radishes, and lettuce mid-season in the shade that the beans will provide.
The last change for this year is that I added a cut flower bed along the outside garden fence. While the cut flowers will be a lovely addition, the bed will also provide a barrier for the vegetables that I grow up the fence. You see, the geese and chickens LOVE to come along and snip the peas, cucumbers, and squash vines that I grow up the fence and the cut flower bed will hopefully help prevent that. They may still snip a few cut flowers, but I’d rather lose those than a whole cucumber vine! For cut flowers, I planted hollyhocks, zinnias, cosmos, poppies, and calendula. I got them in a couple weeks later than I would have liked, but I think they’ll still have enough time to shine in late summer.
I hope your gardens are planted and thriving whether they are in pots on a patio or in an acre in the ground. Cheers!