Garden Roll Call

Here's the current status of our garden. Yes, we've got lots of plants, but no, we're not eating 100% of our own food yet. Our yard is becoming increasingly edible and the kids munch on it while they play. Our salads these days are to die for, and there's so much more on the horizon... should be a yummy Summer.

Aside from the spearmint which grows around our hose spigot,

the lavender, which is in full bloom throughout our yard,

and the dill and watercress, which likes the more shaded, wet fence line (both seeded together about three weeks ago),
we've got the perennial herbs together in one bed:

the chocolate mint (the kids' favorite)

the sage (hard to believe this was in a little plastic cup about 3" x 3" last Spring!)

the thyme (hasn't grown much in a year, but has stuck around)

lemongrass (new this year, dug up from Kenny's garden)

oregano (been here since Grandma shared some from her yard last Spring)

rosemary (4 plants, all planted last fall. I'd tried rosemary in the past a couple of times and killed my plants. Perhaps the fall timing was key?! Who knows!)


fennel (2 plants, just planted about 2 weeks ago, already larger!)

We also have chives seeded between two rosemary bushes, near the fennel, but they've not yet sprouted. And then there's the garden proper, which contains:

broccoli (2 rows, about 10 feet long each)


peppers (varieties include: pimento, thai dragon, espinoza, jalapeno, serrano, ancho-- a total of 8-9 plants, planted three weeks ago through yesterday)

squash (varieties include: sunny delight scallop and salmon, about 6 plants)

pickling cucumbers (about 4 plants)

peas (2 rows of snow, and 1 of sugar snaps)

carrots (nantes variety, 2 rows)

beets (ruby red variety, 5 rows-- anyone want beets?)

lettuces (mixed varieties)
About half of our lettuce made it all year, but in the gaps we seeded more a few weeks ago.
tomatoes (about 20 plants, 4 varieties... should have enough to share, no? some planted about a month ago;

the last few were added yesterday)

and artichokes. We'd had these 2 plants since last Spring, but not until last week did one bloom. Can't wait to eat some home-grown artichoke!

And then over on the west end of our yard, beneath the hammock, we've got pumpkins sprouting (Jack O'Lantern variety, three plants going). Hopefully we'll get to carve our own this year!


Next on the garden to-do is the melon bed, which we'll probably plant in about two or three weeks. Also, we're going to need to string some twine in the next week or so to support our growing peas, and put up a lattice structure (or something like that) to train our squash and cucumbers to grow vertically to save space. We also plan to add hay over the soil to help keep moisture in as the temperatures rise.

This is only our second year attempting a garden, but we learned a lot in our first year and we're hopeful to have more crop than our last harvest. We also consulted our good friend, Kenny, who helped us prep our beds, placed a seed order with us, shared seeds, and even started some of our seeds for us. His encouragement and advice is invaluable to us newbies. A big, fat THANK YOU to Kenny!

We'll check back in a few weeks so you can (hopefully) see the progress!