BACK TO BLOGGING IN THE GARDEN!

planting the new herb garden

Spring is in the air and I am so happy to finally make time to return to the garden blog with a fresh start. The garden and orchard are doing well as are we.  We have been harvesting and enjoying greens all winter.

   

three types of kale, a variety of lettuces, and rainbow chard harvests 

 

kale & chard, spinach, butter crunch and mixed lettuces

It has been a crazy spring with lovely warm weather followed by a HARD freeze on April 12th.  It got down to 26 degrees Fahrenheit here and we lost most of our fruit.  I think apples may be our only survivors.  Cherries, apricots, almonds, plums, peaches and nectarines succumbed to the freeze.  We had a LOT of fruit set and were looking forward to a bumper crop with lots of jamming and dehydrating. I suppose, looking on the bright side, the trees can now put all of their energy into growing bigger, stronger, and healthier in preparation for next year.

Fava beans surrounded by spinach  and romaine lettuce

Despite the hard freeze and abundant winds, things are shaping up in the garden. In addition to assorted greens and fava beans, we have garlic, shallots and more growing.  Short day onions have been growing for months and on April 30th we planted intermediate day onions and leeks.  

short day onions planted earlier in the winter

intermediate day onion and leek starts ready to go in the ground

 

Jim prepping the bed

 

planting onion and leek starts

As usual, we started our chili pepper and tomato seeds indoors in early February (the 6th this year) and enjoyed watching them grow in the living room for two months. After weeks and weeks of nurturing them along, on April 30th, it finally was time to get the peppers in the ground.  

pepper plants ready for planting

Jim preparing labels for the pepper plants

happy to be planting peppers

So much has happened since I last posted and I have about a dozen draft posts which I may  upload at some point.  During pandemic lockdown, I hosted  “In The Garden,” a weekly program on Zoom with a short video update followed by an informal chat.  It was really fun and when/if I get a bit more organized, I may start those up again or at least link the recordings to this blog.  For now, it’s a fresh start and I'm looking forward to tracking and sharing all that is happing in the garden. 

Along with the chili peppers, tomato seeds were also started on February 6 and nurtured indoors till they were ready for the garden.  After transplanting them once, we planted the tomatoes in the garden the first weekend in April. The tomatoes are outgrowing the insulating walls of water so we need to free them and set up their supports over the next week or so.  See the slideshow below for an overview of that process:

SLIDE SHOW:  Starting Tomatoes 2022

Garden overview April, 2022