In my last post on May 1, I posted a picture of the Foxglove garden. The plants were getting ready to make their big debut. And boy, did they. This garden was really an experiment last year. Sort of an act of desperation, really. Our daughter planted 1 plant in a different location a few years ago. It seeded and created about a hundred babies. I didn’t want that many large plants crowding out the blueberry bed so I decided to move them. But where? The little fenced off area Tygh created to keep Trev away from the fence seemed like a good location. Sometimes things work in the garden and sometimes they don’t. This idea turned out really well. They are so pretty. Bonus. They crowd out the weeds that were taking over that area.
Our spinach has been going gangbusters. In fact, it’s hard to keep up with. We’ve had more spinach salads than I can count. And have been using the leaves on sandwiches for several weeks now. Why use one leaf when you can have four on your sammie? That’s what we do. Definitely don’t need to take any iron supplements right now!
Our garden is fully planted now! Let the waiting and watching and watering commence! We have 7 raised beds filled with tomatoes, tomatillos, lemon cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, okra, japanese eggplant, acorn, spaghetti and zucchini squash. Butternut squash are in the ground as they ramble quite a bit. Our pole beans are in the ground as well. Tygh has been out nightly picking slugs off as they munch away at our little bean seedlings. He’s gone from finding 20 an evening to just a few. So, progress.
Speaking of pole beans, the packets always say to start these outdoors, rather than a greenhouse. But we’ve had much better luck starting them inside and transplanting. I wish I understood why it’s recommended to start seeds outside.
May has been filled with color and excitement in our garden. Our veggies are all doing well. The shrubs we planted last year have filled out and are doing their thing.
As always, I’ve found things that I should have done differently. I’ll try to sort them out next spring. One of the double-file Viburnums needs to be moved farther back in the shrub garden. It’s already getting too big for it’s spot. The Bee Balm I planted last year is almost as tall as I am. I planted it in the front of the border! It needs to be moved.
But for the most part, there have been more successes than failures. I’m looking forward to seeing what June holds in store for us!