Wow...growing fast.

I've started the second tier of beds.  The first has nine cherry tomato plants.  They were late purchases from Richters.  They came as plugs and were incredibly healthy plants.  I need to put in the second bed soon.  It will hold the last three cherry tomato plants and the broccoli and turnip plants that I've started from seed this week for a fall crop.  Next year, both the boxes will house blueberry plants.

Rachel's garden is growing nicely.

I've done five gutters of strawberries.  They seem to be doing ok.  The test will be to see how well they over-winter.

The garlic has 1-1.5 loops in the scapes.  In the first row, I've clipped every other scape to see if it makes any difference in the size of bulbs.

Bed 1 has done well.  The cabbage plants are being eaten by earwigs.  I've treated them with corn meal and baking soda.  I've also put out little bowls of beer.

The letters in the gutter is thriving!

We've harvested three or four beets.  I froze the greens and will make beet chips for Rachel out of the actual beets.

The gladiola nursery is amazing.  Silly bulbs may actually make flowers!  Given how small some were, I'm stunned.  The zinnias have grown at an astonishing pace.

The kale plants have produced a lot more than I expected.  I've put away a dozen bags of it.

The herb garden is so pretty.

The romaine lettuce has done really well in the gutters.

And the potato towers grew so fast I couldn't keep up with them.

The raspberry plants are two years old and are putting on berries.  I got bird netting on them this evening.

So, I did that witchy thing again that I do.

While David and I mowed the yard yesterday, I pondered the old flower garden.  It is a garden that was in place when we moved in to this house.  It is an overgrown disaster.

So, I made a decision.  I mowed the garden down to the ground.  I decided to redesign the entire thing. David and I talked about what we might do.  I mentioned I wasn't sure where we would put the swing.

Well.....the universe must have agreed with the plan.  Within an hour or so, we had a weather cell come through with incredibly strong winds.

The swing and tree aren't really a design issue anymore.

Harvesting Herbs and Mock Orange Starting to Bloom

I started harvesting herbs and came up with the idea of using my microwave chipmaker to dry the herbs.

Cilantro, Tarragon, Lemon Thyme, Thyme, Oregano, Basil,  Curly Parsley, Flat Leaf Parsley, Sage

The Lemon Thyme smells heavenly.

And, on a different topic, the mock orange out front is starting to bloom.  The smell is amazing.

Final plant order for the spring/summer

I've spent way too much money on gardening this spring. However, this should be the last order.

 Lavender, Hidcote Plug pack           

This is to fill in a couple of gaps on the front Lavender border.

Mint, Orange Plants          

Uhm....this is because....I thought it would taste good.

Sorrel, Profusion® Plants     

I ordered this for Rachel.  She loved Sorrel when she tasted it and I couldn't fine any locally.

Thyme, Purple Carpet Lemon Plug tray   

These are to replace all the seeds that didn't germinate.  There 120 plugs.

Verbena, Lemon Plants      

For the herb garden.

Tomato, Sweetie Plug pack             

Can one have too many tomatoes?

Edelweiss Plants                       

For the rock garden in front.

Front walkways and edging

I grabbed 40 Bugle Weed plants from Home Depot yesterday.  At a $1 a plant, it was good, cheap ground cover.  So, I finished the edging under the front window and planted Bugle Weed between the stones.

I don't think the Thyme seeds I planted on going to germinate, so I ordered 120 plugs to put between the stones heading from the driveway to the house.

I still need to finish the edging around the butterfly garden and add one little piece of edging to the street-side bed.

We also added two cucumber plants to the garden to replace the two that mysteriously disappeared.  I also dropped in an eggplant plant in an empty spot.

Finally.

I finally got the Harry Lauder Walking Stick Tree/Bush planted.  I put the Elder Berry Bush next to it and a trellis behind both where I will plant moon flowers.  The idea is that the dark leaves of both the bushes will be a nice contrast to the moon flowers.

Harvest

I am stunned by how well the vegetable garden is doing.  Between the amazing growing medium I put in the raised beds and the regular rain, the silly plants have gone bonkers. (Yes, that is the technical word for it.)

Tonight, I brought in another huge bunch of kale, spinach, micro greens, and just for fun, we picked a beet.  It was still pretty small, but it was definitely big enough to make small chips.

I started adding more supports to the tomatoes (and pruning them a bit).  I also prepped another ten-foot gutter to mount on the fence.  I have 3-4 more strawberry plants I want to put in.

I bought some netting to put over the strawberry gutters.  Something is nibbling the berries. :(
I need to get it mounted tomorrow.  I'm still thinking about the best way to do this.

Cabbages

Beets