Garden Update

While off to a slow start, I still have high hopes for our harvest this year. Not only did I slack on starting seeds inside, but we had a freeze the night before last (yes, June 6th), so it was a good thing I didn’t transplant. Carrots, lettuce, chard, zucchinis, yellow squash and some flowers have been planted. Although, if they weren’t frozen on the 6th, they may have been washed away with the torrential rainstorm we had for 2 straight days immediately following their planting. A few tiny carrot sprouts have emerged from the soil in the last few days, so I am hopeful.

Our chives from last year wintered over, so seeing at least something green offers a small sense of inspiration. We have tomatoes and lemon cucumbers yet to put into the ground, hopefully this weekend. Tyler still needs to build the trellising for them and the cover for the final garden where they will be planted.

We decided to grow raspberries this year, they are native to this area so they should flourish. I bought 2 plants on the fly a while back from a nursery. Then I did some reading (silly me). They are not good to plant with other foods, as their roots will take over the entire area. Since we are working with raised beds, that means we would have to dedicate a whole box to just raspberries. SOOO, for my 2 $15 each raspberry plants, Tyler agreed to build a whole new box. We need the boxes with the fenced lids so that the animals can’t munch on our garden for their lunch, or we would have just planted them anywhere on the property. If we are going to take the time to nurture these fruit bushes, I surely don’t want to donate my yield to the wildlife. So we spent another $160 for the raspberry box (wood and “Mel’s mix”) and another $30 on two more plants to fill the box up. YIKES! Our first raspberry, which we won’t even see this year, will be worth around $5.

So here are the gardens, Tyler does such a nice job. This time we stapled string along the squares (per the square food gardening principles www.squarefootgardening.com) instead of planks, like you see on the original garden, so the lines are less intrusive.

The thinner box up towards the fence is for the raspberries, I plan on getting those in the ground today. Hopefully my next update will include more greenery.

 

 

These are just some pretty wild flowers growing near the gardens.