Hit the Road, Jack! ~ With the last frost day came much gardening!

According to the Famer's Almanac website, this past week was our area's last frost date. Since that old Jack Frost hit the road, I decided to do some major gardening this past week! I estimate that I spent 20-25 hours outside forming beds, sifting dirt and planting seeds and seedlings. It didn't hurt that our area also had an unseasonably warm week with sunny days in the upper-60s/low-70s!! It was pure gardener bliss. Let me show you what I accomplished!

I had to post this "before" picture so you could see what a grubby mess the area was just a few weeks ago. We tilled up an area that had previously been partially grassed, partially taken over by blackberry vines for years, used for a driveway the last couple years, and obviously used for a dump by previous owners in years past...

It is now a tilled, sifted, shaped thing of gardening beauty! Well, it is getting there, anyway...

Let's take a walk through my garden.
This is the first year I've tried to grow corn. I wouldn't have thought you could do it successfully here in the Pacific Northwest, but we have a friend who has done great for several years now with his corn ~ we get to enjoy it every 4th of July. I want to enjoy my own all summer long, though. Hopefully this year I can. I bought a variety that was made to grow in planter pots, believe it or not. I chose it so I could move it around and place it in the sun to get the most hours of sun each day. However after seeing how much sun my garden gets all day long this past week, I decided to just try it out in the ground and see how it does! Grow, little corn, grow!

Because of my  utter failure with growing broccoli and cabbage from seedlings (check that out in this blog from 2 weeks ago), I bought some starter plants this week and stuck them in the ground. It sure is an easy quick way to feel like a successful gardener, isn't it?! haha.

The whole bottom half of the garden is filled with my vining plants. Here are five mounds of zucchini. I also have 5 mounds of cantaloupe, 5 mounds of pickling cucumbers, and 5 mounds of salad cucumbers. The bottom of the hill will be the pumpkin patch!

This is a much better picture of my onions and garlic ~ check out how much they've grown since only 2 weeks ago! The foremost section of the photo are walla walla sweet onions I bought as starters from the feed store. the second row back are onions I planted as small bulbs, then the garlic are behind them. (Do you like my rock paths that separate my beds?! I do! Because I dug each and every one of those rocks out by hand!)

I also bought several sweet and hot peppers this week and planted them in pots. Well, most of them are in pots. I got curious about what would do better - pots or ground, so there are a couple in the ground as well in the way of experimentation!

MY FIRST POTATO PLANT!!!! When my husband pointed that out to me yesterday I literally shouted with joy! I read so much about the different ways people do potato towers and I tried a little bit of each suggestion, so at least one of the versions is working! haha

These are the shelling peas I planted, and I've never done those before ~ they don't grow as fast as sweet peas, or at least this variety doesn't, so I'm glad to see them reaching up. (Look at all those darn pebbles that are still in the dirt! Ack!)

Yay for easy-to-grow sweet peas! I think every Northwest gardener should grow sweet peas for that quick and satisfying success early in the season! ;-)

I've never tried tee-pees to support my peas before, and I think the "flaw" in this plan is that there is nothing for the peas to grab onto until they are several inches tall and ready to fall over. So I added some string around the tee-pees and that seems much better since most of the peas are tall enough to need something to support them already, but can't quite reach the nearest pole.

This is the sad state of my rhubarb that I posted about on Facebook earlier this week. I had these big boys in pots and I don't think I was watering them enough in our little dry spell last week, and they suffered a bit. Not to mention, the one on the left is the one my neighbor just pulled out of her garden last month and blessed me with. Now they both have a permanent home next to the compost bin where I think they'll perk up and be quite happy.

I want to continue to show you the celery I grew in water from the leftover stub I bought from the store. Yes, they do grow quickly in water, but eventually the outer stalks wilt away and they need something more for nutrients. They seemed to have stagnated in the ground; however, I checked and they are sprouting roots, so I still have hope.

One of many tomato plants I potted this week... There is just nothing like a garden fresh tomato.

 

I also wanted to update you on the sweet potato slips I'm trying to grow from store-bought organic sweet potatoes inside.  Here is a picture from 2 weeks ago and today:

 

 

 

 

That first little sprout you see in the top photo is the tallest leaf  you can see in the bottom photo! Only 2 weeks! Amazing! When they are about 6-inches tall, I'll pop them off the potatoes and move them to a glass of water until they sprout roots. Then they'll be ready to put in he ground (where will I put them!? I'm running out of room!!!)

 

Thanks for taking a walk in my garden with me. I love talking about the new life that is growing all around me! Now that Jack Frost is gone for a while, I expect to see a whole lot more of it, too! According to all those little seed packets, I'll have lots of fun seedling photos to post in, "7-14 days!" ;-) I'll be sure to show you when everything sprouts!

 



How does your garden grow? - An update on what's growing on in my garden!

It has been weeks since I've blogged, and I can't really say why. Things have certainly been hopping around here, and lots of learning has been going on with chickens and gardens and kids and, well, life in general. But, the sun was shining today and I got to spend some time in the garden, and I got bit by the writing bug while I was out there. So I thought I'd share what's growing on in the garden right now!

Well, this isn't exactly outside in the garden, but it is the only thing I have growing in my indoor "greenhouse" right now. (AKA: unused bathtub. Which, in my opinion, is the *perfect* place to put an indoor growing area!)
These are sweet potatoes that I am attempting to grow "slips" from. Did you know sweet potatoes aren't planted the same as potatoes? Turns out they are more related to the Morning Glory flower than 'taters! (Who knew?!)
Supposedly, if I keep these in water for a couple weeks I'll have very pretty vines growing off of them, that I can then pop off and continue to grow in a glass of water before planting outside when the weather is nice and warm!

I've only had these in for three or four days, and the shoots are starting already!!

These are the blueberry bushes I got at Costco ~ I'm happy to see them growing.
 

Sorry about the side-ways picture (darn thing won't let me flip it), but I wanted to show you the Romaine lettuce I've been growing IN WATER for several weeks now. There are four crowns here, and just like you see on Pinterest, the center leaves have continued to grow and are now big enough for me to harvest some for a tasty salad if I so choose. I imagine I'll put these in the ground next week, but I really don't have to ~ they're growing fine as they are & I feel like I'm getting double portions out of the lettuce I paid for at the store!

 

 Well, things aren't ALL fun-and-games around here, and I felt like I should fess-up and show you the failures as well as the successes... These are the third (Yes, 3rd!) set of seedlings I've tried to grow of broccoli and cabbage.
I tried them inside under the lamps in this special tray that has a watering pad underneath to keep them moist, so it wasn't a water issue. But then they grew tall and spindly and fell over like this, so I added a fan, which I read online would help with that. Nope. That set I tried to put outside in my greenhouse and on an unusually sunny day a couple weeks ago they all fried. Now, this third set, again started under lamps and with a fan, I've set outside and they just aren't doing much. I don't hold out much hope, and I'll probably keep an eye out for broccoli and cabbage starters at the local nursery.

This is one of three celery that I started from stumps of celery I'd bought from the store and grew in water for a while and transferred outside a couple weeks back. They are doing great, and I'm very hopeful I'll be harvesting plenty of stalks this summer! Thanks again, Pinterest.

Sugar snap peas, anyone?! Yes, please, and thank you!!

Rhubarb! One I grew and the other from my generous neighbor. Really excited about these, but I need to find them a permanent home since they are perennial.

Speaking of perennial vegetables! My asparagus is coming up!!!! :D I couldn't be more excited! This is like free food that just keeps coming back again and again every year. Love it. (Although, I won't be able to EAT any of these for the next couple years...)

Potato towers! Yep, Pinterest, again. ;) I have read many blogs and websites about how people do their towers - some do dirt, some all compost, others all hay. So, I decided to do a mix of all of that! ha-ha. There are three different varieties of potatoes in here - white, russet and Yukon. Some are seed potatoes and others are from the store. I've had people swear by both methods. Some are cut down to two eyes, some are whole. Again, I've received varying advice. SO, this is ultimately an experiment and hopefully I'll be able to gauge what is successful for how I want to do it in the future.

Raspberry canes my generous neighbor gave me. (one bunch is red, the others are golden) They are waiting for their new home along a split rail fence my husband is building next weekend.

These are my shelling peas. They are much shorter than the sugar snaps and I'm not sure why. I'm assuming it has to do with the different variety, or the fact that there was a bunch of grass growing up around them and trying to choke them out before I weeded today... (oops!)

These three rows are: walla walla onions I bought as starters (put them in these last few days), sweet onions I bought as bulbs (put in the ground about 3 weeks ago and they are 2-3" tall), and garlic bulbs (I put in shortly after the peas in late-February or early-March that are several inches tall now). I wish this photo would have come out better so you could see how tall the garlic is.

 

These are my sad, dilapidated herbs I would love some advice on... I have thyme, sage and oregano (with some stray crocus flowers jutting up through the thyme) and I don't know how to tame them. I thought they'd need to be cut-back at the end of summer, so I hacked away at them. That didn't seem to do much for them. Any advice anyone can give me...? Do they need to be pruned at all? They seem big to me!



This is the mint I am happy to see is returning. The sticks are the branches from the end of last year's growing season. I guess this year I know I can cut them all the way down to the dirt-line and they'll grow back. I would love to put this in the ground, but I hear it will take over the area you put it in, so I need somewhere to plant it that I don't mind it taking over...

 

Well, that's all for now!

Thanks for checking in on what's growing on in my garden right now. I'm very excited that our last frost date is next week because I'll be putting much more in the garden very soon!