Garden and project updates – May 14

So the garden is coming along.  Things are looking much less gloomy produce-wise than they were in April, and it looks like we may actually harvest something sometime.  Maybe. Here’s a picture of the north bed.  I just planted some pepper plants (a jalapeño and a bell), and we’ve got some spinach, romaine, and a few other lettuces growing.  The radishes are doing fantastic.  Remember how I only had a few random sprouts in there last month?  Well, I don’t know what I was thinking, because they’re not radishes AT ALL.  Now that those are growing, I don’t know how I could have ever mistaken the one for the other.  Obviously I’m still a noob at this sort of thing.  I think they must be green onions that never sprouted last year, but they got a new lease on life when I turned the soil to prepare for this year.  It will be fun to find out!  Some things are taking longer to sprout than others because they just weren’t getting enough water.  I spent part of yesterday afternoon doing some very technical work on the soaker hose—also know as “sticking a needle in the soaker hose to make more holes to make it soak just a bit more.”  It seemed to work pretty well and it looks like all of the squares are getting saturated now.  And here’s the east bed: The oregano is TAKING OFF.  Seriously.  Does anyone need oregano?  It’s yummy!  I’ve got beets, sage, arugula, chard, green onions (that I actually planted), carrots and basil growing in this bed.  I’ve also planted beans and watermelon, but I forgot to put a mesh cover on them, so I hope the birds don’t get them before I can get around to doing that. Flowers are doing great.  Here’s the north flower bed: And the other angle: Someone’s adorable kid wanted to be in the picture.  The salvias have already gone through their first bloom, but they’re still attracting tons of bees.  I only have one Jupiter’s beard blooming at the moment.  I lost 2 due to the freeze, and the others were divided to get me free plants, so I have to wait until they get a little bigger.  It’s too bad, because they’re my favorite.  I moved all the penstemons around since they weren’t performing very well, and I’m pretty sure it’s because they were too crowded.  Sure enough, as soon as they got a little space, they took off: The guy on the top left is one of the penstemons.  He’s about twice as big as he was a few weeks ago.  Also in the picture are daylilies (newly divided), a mum, and a few other new guys to fill things out a bit.  Should look really good next year.  Question: at what point do you pinch back mums?  Mine are already budding.  Is it too late to do it now? Here are a few more detail shots of the north bed.  Everything is xeric, which makes me want to give myself a pat on the back since we’re in the middle of a MAJOR drought.  If we have to cut off water, we shouldn’t lose too many of these plants.  Lawn, yes.  Plants, no.  And that’s good, because it’s a lot easier to reseed a lawn than plant forty thousand perennials. Yarrows, catmint (love this filler plant and it attracts TONS of bees), and artemesia. Jupiter’s beard, daylily, blanket flower, hummingbird trumpet, echinacea, and sedum “Autumn Joy.”  You can see the post of our bird feeder.  We get millions of birds and this thing is empty in a day.  I’m going to have to start buying bird seed at Costco. A bird of paradise that I think might be dead (even if it’s not, it’s coming out because it takes way to long to leaf and flower), agastache (in the background), artemesia, mum, tickseed, and hummingbird trumpet.  Obviously most of these are not blooming yet, but they will.  Oh yes they will!   Forsythia, catmint, salvias, daylilies, and tickseed. Our grapes seem to be taking off this year.  We even have tiny little grapes growing!!  I’m so excited for the pergola to be covered in gorgeous grape leaves and juicy fruit. The east flower bed finally got some plants this year, thanks in part to a Groupon for High Country Gardens. Drip lines are all installed, and the mulching is waiting on cucumber plants to be planted.  You can see the charcoal remains of a near disaster on the right.  Aaron used hickory while his was smoking the ribs, and then forgot about them the next day when he grilled steaks (gotta love the grill in the summer time!).  It’s precarious, because you’ll remember that right now our grill in situated like this: Except now there’s even more stuff on the cement: a slide, a teeter totter, a sand and water table, four bags of mulch and all the kid toys.  So, yes, it was a fire hazard.  The kids came screaming into the kitchen that the grill was on fire, and there were huge flames coming out of the back of the grill.  We were afraid that the grill cart (the blue thing on the table, which is where grill carts are obviously supposed to go) had caught on fire.  Fortunately not, but it did provide a lot of excitement for our otherwise lazy Sunday afternoon. I don’t have a picture of the west bed, since there really isn’t much to see yet.  The rasberries and blackberries are leafing out, and I’m hoping that we’ll have a huge delicious crop this year. So there’s the garden.  Patio updates will be forthcoming, since I’m taking a break from the patio, and Aaron is out there working all by his lonesome.  So back out I go…