Pea Harvest

Reviewing the garden in recent weeks, it was becoming increasingly clear that the teepee trellises were absolutely inadequate for the peas. When I went out there today, I found them leaning well to the east, squashing some of the bean plants. So, I made the decision to cut them down, harvest the peas and do a second planting.

Half the pea plants cut down and waiting to be gone thru.

Handfull of peas

Harvested pea pods

Garden Update - July 2010

Overview

Me next to the corn (I'm 6')

From on top the ladder

Looking back at the house

Other corner, on top the ladder

Radishes, Peas and Tomatoes

The largest one is about the size of my fist. I'm not kidding.

Peas have set flowers!

And two early, early tomatoes!

One week later

Oh, dear. I'm not sure how we're going to eat all this...

Garden Update

Tomatoes

Peppers, Jalapenos, Habaneros, Onions

More tomatoes, eggplant, tomatillos

Radishes, Lettuce, Carrots, Onions, Shallots, Collards, Kale

Corn, squash, garlic

Kale, Collards, Cucumbers, Squash

Beans, Beans, Beans

Peas and Spinach

More beans

Chard and Carrots

Photos from around the yard

Seedlings!

Some of these you'll have to enlarge to see them better.

Peas

Spinach

Chard

Carrots (towards the bottom of the photo)

Radishes

Transplans: lettuce, carrots, onion, shallots, collards, kale, garlic

To-do update

I'm thinking we're ahead of the game this year.

• Re-do the fireplace bed
• De-thatch the yard
• Finish overseeding the last of the backyard
• Plant out the front walkway beds
• Get rid of the barberry bush
• Fill in holes in the yard
• Buy and install a rain barrel
• Put in stepping stone path
• Outdoor lighting
• Design, create and install screens for the arbor
• Finish master plan of the yard

Fireplace Bed is DONE!

This particular item has been on the to-do list for two years now.  The bed always starts off pretty in spring and then goes to hell quickly.

So, we decided to revamp the bed.  The difficulty was that the bedding was little rocks, which had to be removed before anything was planted.  All the old plants had to be removed and sorted.  And, lastly, there was a tree that had started growing along the foundation that needed to be destroyed.  I had cut the tree down but the stump still needed to be removed.  And all of that even before things were planted.

In all, it was a daunting project to start.  But we decided today that now was as good a time as any.

First, the stumps were removed:

Then the stones were removed and dumped out back.  All of that work apparently scared up some ground bees.  I'm utterly terrified of bees, so I layed out the plants and let Eric do the planting.  The end result:

In the bed went hostas, native columbine, bellflower and bee balm.  Feels really good to have that done.  It'll be nice to see things bloom this summer.

Garden Beds 2010

So, the garden is finally taking shape.  It started with a very large pile of dirt:

Said pile of dirt was meant to fill the three raised beds.

Over 40 wheelbarrow loads later:

That was step one.  We figured that'd be good enough and then we could plant.  Until the dogs started tearing thru the beds, eating the dirt, and digging in it to create a cool spot to lay in.  That's generally not good for seedlings.

So step two was fencing the beds in with chicken wire.  Once that was installed, we could plant early seeds and transplants:

The far right bed contains two rows each of chard and carrots, 4 teepee trellises for peas and spinach, and 2 bean transplants.  The middle bed contains a row of radishes, a row of alternating carrot and lettuce transplants, two sets of kale and collard plantings, then rows of onions, leeks and shallots.  The far left bed will be planted at the end of the month with tomatoes, etc.