Things are Growing!

It's been a long time since our last post, but that doesn't mean we've been slacking. On the contrary, we spend so much time in the garden, there's just no energy left to write about it!

In the last month, just about all the seeds have come up. The limas are a no-show, which is a bummer, but we had hopes that a few late-bloomers might emerge. No dice, and at this point we're thinking that they're not going to show at all.  We've had a week of really warm weather and things are sprouting like mad, so if they're not convinced to get out of the ground soon, we'll give up and replant, or turn their bed into something else.

We had a cold snap last week and lost nearly all the Vermont Crans, Dutch Browns, and Bumbles. Thankfully we had bought the seeds in bulk so were able to replant most of what we lost, but there was a bit of a mourning period for our lost beans. Here are a couple of the survivors, who really only survived by being very late sprouters, so they weren't all the way up when the frost took the rest of the plants:

On the other hand, the beans, radishes and lettuce LOVED the cold and took advantage of it to bust out with new growth.

I accidentally pulled a baby radish while weeding, and am very excited about the color and size so far (yeah, it's upside down. The photo won't stay fixed. Grrr.).

Sam has been working really hard to get the irrigation system up and running (some soaker hoses seen in the lettuce and peas), and has finally set up 2/3 of the garden on timers. Every morning the soakers come on in stages, so the beds all have a nice drink before it gets too hot. We still need to get the other side of the garden set up, but so far, so good.

He has also been busting-hump to get the potatoes in. We put an ad in Freecycle for tires, thinking we'd get a few for doing the seed potatoes, and ended up with more truckloads than we can handle. With some of them, Sam has set up eight potato "beds" (which will be stacked as they grow) for next year's seed potatoes; the rest of the 'taters went into the garden in a long bed, covered with shredded paper:

Within days, we had sprouts:

This photo was taken three days ago, before the hot spell; today you can barely see the hose through the sprouts. Yeehaw!

The garden plan has changed considerably as we have worked in the new space, so we need to redo the map. Someday we'll remember to bring paper and pen to the garden and write it all down! We are waiting another week or two to set out the tomatoes and peppers, but in the last couple weeks we seeded the watermelons, pickling cukes, pumpkins, three sisters (corn/crookneck squash/pole beans), quinoa, replacement beans, potatoes, beets, nasturtium, zucchini, and yellow squash. The blue corn will go into the tomato row as soon as I weed the bed. I pulled up all the black plastic and logs that marked the walkways when we set up the garden, and have started mowing the grass along the paths - seems easier than trying to keep ahead of all those weeds, and it should keep them from going to seed and spreading overmuch.

And of course, I must close with a gratuitous dork shot of the garden master-mind himself! ;)