Outdoor raised bed garden
It’s May, but barely, and I’m still working on getting all my summer crops into the ground. In part, this has taken extra time because we’re still working on our big garden infrastructure project of the year, a few new raised beds and gravel garden paths. As you can see, at the time I took the picture above, the project is still a work in progress. In the newest bed, I’ve planted a few squash plants and a sad six-pack of corn. The corn was the last one at the store and was last for obvious reasons. I also planted a few bean seeds to make a poor man’s three sisters garden. It felt good to get this bed planted. It’s been on my list of tasks for weeks now.
Oh, one more thing about the outdoor raised bed garden. Take a look at my garlic in the upper left corner of the picture above. It is absolutely huge this year! I think I’m going to have a great crop of garlic to harvest. Yum.
Greenhouse beds in late May
Inside the greenhouse, everything is growing like crazy. I use the greenhouse for heat-loving summer crops. All my tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers are grown inside the greenhouse. I also have a few lettuce plants (slow to bolt varieties) and heat-loving herbs, such as basil and cilantro, in the greenhouse. My tomato plants are flowering and have finally taken off after a slow start as seedlings.
Peaches in late May
In the greenhouse, I also have two mini-dwarf trees, a peach and a nectarine. I thought I had killed them because I totally neglected to water them last winter. Well, a few months of spring watering later, the trees are fully leafed out and have fruit. Whew! I would have been really sad if I had destroyed these trees.
In the orchard, most of the trees have finished blossoming. In a week or two, I’ll have a good idea of what pollinated well and what didn’t. I’m pretty sure my Italian prune failed to set fruit again. If so, I think the tree will be coming out. It’s been a disappointment for at least four years and I don’t want to waste space on a tree that won’t produce. I am seeing little cherries on the cherry trees, so that’s good, and I think I’m going to have record blueberry and strawberry crops if the weather will cooperate even a little bit.
Well, back out to the garden to finish the gravel paths. Happy gardening!
Sandy
The 10 Year Challenge 
Sandy, I told Muriel and Allen yesterday about the “potato towers” I had just heard about yesterday. Use any kind of fencing that you can get your hand through, and make a tower a foot to each side over where you plant your potatoes. As the plants sprout and grow, add compost and rotted straw, etc. and keep building up the tower. Then you can pick the potatoes through the fencing, and I think you might also stump anything that would be eating your potatoes underground. It is not too late yet to plant potatoes, so I think this is something I am going to try, since growing things vertically would be good with my small yard area.
The new garden area is looking very good and your greenhouse plants are obviously quite happy. Our garlic is also REALLY big this year. I am growing a new (to me) hard neck variety and it is almost as big as my elephant garlic. Both are doing beautifully. My onions on the other hand are dawdling. Not sure what is up with that.
Thank goodness you did not kill the fruit trees off and they revived with some watering! It is so easy to forget that the plants inside need to be watered when everything is soaked and wet outside.
Hi Sandy, what is the brown sheeting you’ve built your beds on? My garden boxes have recently been housing moles or some other tunneling animal. I put 1/4″ mesh in the bottom of the boxes when I built them, but this year some of the critters got through. So, I’m looking for another type of barrier. Thanks! Kathy
Hello Kathy,
The brown stuff is actually just basic brown tarps. We lined the beds in the greenhouses with the tarps to help the wood last longer. It has nothing to do with pest control. For us, the hardware cloth lining the beds has made a major difference and we haven’t had mole problems since.
Sandy
Thanks Sandy!
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