How does your garden grow?
Ours limps along. Well, that's being unkind. Years of neglect are not overcome in just a few months, so I should not be discouraged.
We got most of the garden beds weeded and planted, or simply weeded and amended a bit where there were already things growing that we wanted to keep. So far, we have planted small plants of tomatoes, horseradish, hungarian peppers, kale, red chard, wax beans and bush beans, strawberries, zucchini, salad greens, sorrel, catnip, watermelon, celeriac, onion, and decorative chamomile. We've planted seeds of two kinds of carrots, beets, and possibly some radishes (the packet burst and spilled on me, so no idea how many actually made it into the trench). And we took a bag of organic potatoes that had sprouted on us and cut those up for planting. Plus we've wild raspberries, some little strawberry plants, oregano and mint, two kinds of lilies, and various other things here and there.
All of the fruit trees and vines have baby fruit. Not sure how much (if any) will wind up edible, but at least we know the plants are healthy enough to bear fruit. The grape vine is doubtless a bust this year, but with pruning this fall, we may have more success next year. It did have at least a few baby bunches on it, so that's something. The two apple trees and plum tree and blueberry bushes all have baby fruit, and we've taken the precaution of covering the blueberry bushes with netting. There are a couple of robins who are now very annoyed with us.
The baby bunnies grew up and left the garden, and at least one of them can often be seen hanging out in the driveway. This is frustrating, because he's not bright enough to move when cars come. So watch out. :)
About the time the bunnies left the garden, I spent all afternoon digging up two beds in which I planted about 35 strawberry plants (I found an incredible deal on CL), including three hours spent on one weed-choked bed alone. Seriously - I've seen rootbound pots before, but I have never seen an entire rootbound raised bed. The hacking and digging required to remove what I think might be quack grass was nearly overwhelming. But I did it, and planted the strawberries, and was very pleased with myself...
Until the next morning when we discovered that deer had come and eaten nearly all of them, plus most of the celeriac, the first hungarian pepper, and half the lilies. I nearly cried. I nearly burst a blood vessel. But Narfy was a prince and took me to hardware store and spent all afternoon repairing the deer fence and helping me scatter blood meal with capsaicin all around the fence line. (New rule: Boys are to pee on the deer fence. Apparently this really does work.)
Now really, I should have known. We knew the old fence (half down, with many holes) was no good, and had seen evidence of deer browsing the old plants, and in fact I actually saw a deer on our property for the first time while planting the strawberries. Still, it was a kick in the gut, after all that work.
The new fence seems to be holding, and we've replaced some of the plants, and the strawberries will do what they do. Some of them may come back. The next big task is the south bed by the house. We intend to turn this into a kitchen garden, with both herbs and edible plants and more tender vegetables that need a protected place or that we want to try to stretch later in the season. Yesterday I weeded it, and dude, I have seen some bad soil, but that bed takes the cake. Rabbit and I have decided that we'll just do herbs in pots this year (overwintering them indoors on window sills - I have cat-proofing ideas), and dump a whole bunch of compost and amendments in that bed for the winter. Come spring, it should be in a lot better shape for planting, and we'll have all spring and summer to get plants established for winter.
Plus, this will give me time to plan and build cold frames for that bed. I'm thinking installing permanent frames with removable glass tops - essentially raising the bed by a number of inches, which will also give us room to put a lot of additives into it. In the meantime, after weeding yesterday and the mowers today, I can smell whiffs of lavender drifting in the windows. That makes it all worth it.
(For those of you playing wildlife bingo, this brings the list of animals spotted to: hummingbirds, robins, rabbits, deer, bears, dragonflies, lizards, and way too many slugs. Plus a ladybug today.)
We got most of the garden beds weeded and planted, or simply weeded and amended a bit where there were already things growing that we wanted to keep. So far, we have planted small plants of tomatoes, horseradish, hungarian peppers, kale, red chard, wax beans and bush beans, strawberries, zucchini, salad greens, sorrel, catnip, watermelon, celeriac, onion, and decorative chamomile. We've planted seeds of two kinds of carrots, beets, and possibly some radishes (the packet burst and spilled on me, so no idea how many actually made it into the trench). And we took a bag of organic potatoes that had sprouted on us and cut those up for planting. Plus we've wild raspberries, some little strawberry plants, oregano and mint, two kinds of lilies, and various other things here and there.
All of the fruit trees and vines have baby fruit. Not sure how much (if any) will wind up edible, but at least we know the plants are healthy enough to bear fruit. The grape vine is doubtless a bust this year, but with pruning this fall, we may have more success next year. It did have at least a few baby bunches on it, so that's something. The two apple trees and plum tree and blueberry bushes all have baby fruit, and we've taken the precaution of covering the blueberry bushes with netting. There are a couple of robins who are now very annoyed with us.
The baby bunnies grew up and left the garden, and at least one of them can often be seen hanging out in the driveway. This is frustrating, because he's not bright enough to move when cars come. So watch out. :)
About the time the bunnies left the garden, I spent all afternoon digging up two beds in which I planted about 35 strawberry plants (I found an incredible deal on CL), including three hours spent on one weed-choked bed alone. Seriously - I've seen rootbound pots before, but I have never seen an entire rootbound raised bed. The hacking and digging required to remove what I think might be quack grass was nearly overwhelming. But I did it, and planted the strawberries, and was very pleased with myself...
Until the next morning when we discovered that deer had come and eaten nearly all of them, plus most of the celeriac, the first hungarian pepper, and half the lilies. I nearly cried. I nearly burst a blood vessel. But Narfy was a prince and took me to hardware store and spent all afternoon repairing the deer fence and helping me scatter blood meal with capsaicin all around the fence line. (New rule: Boys are to pee on the deer fence. Apparently this really does work.)
Now really, I should have known. We knew the old fence (half down, with many holes) was no good, and had seen evidence of deer browsing the old plants, and in fact I actually saw a deer on our property for the first time while planting the strawberries. Still, it was a kick in the gut, after all that work.
The new fence seems to be holding, and we've replaced some of the plants, and the strawberries will do what they do. Some of them may come back. The next big task is the south bed by the house. We intend to turn this into a kitchen garden, with both herbs and edible plants and more tender vegetables that need a protected place or that we want to try to stretch later in the season. Yesterday I weeded it, and dude, I have seen some bad soil, but that bed takes the cake. Rabbit and I have decided that we'll just do herbs in pots this year (overwintering them indoors on window sills - I have cat-proofing ideas), and dump a whole bunch of compost and amendments in that bed for the winter. Come spring, it should be in a lot better shape for planting, and we'll have all spring and summer to get plants established for winter.
Plus, this will give me time to plan and build cold frames for that bed. I'm thinking installing permanent frames with removable glass tops - essentially raising the bed by a number of inches, which will also give us room to put a lot of additives into it. In the meantime, after weeding yesterday and the mowers today, I can smell whiffs of lavender drifting in the windows. That makes it all worth it.
(For those of you playing wildlife bingo, this brings the list of animals spotted to: hummingbirds, robins, rabbits, deer, bears, dragonflies, lizards, and way too many slugs. Plus a ladybug today.)