Monday, May 17, 2010

It's About Time

So, sorry the blog has been super lame lately but, well, these things happen. I would tell you that I lost the camera, and felt hesitant to publish pictureless posts (because that's the truth) but honestly how many times have I used that excuse? It's startin' to look a little thin. Anyway, found the camera! Things in the garden have been keeping me on my toes. Also I helped my BFF Nikol put in her very first garden, exciting stuff. And I was put in charge of a gardening bulletin board display at church. It's been a month for gardening, to say the least. We're beginning to enjoy the fruits (and vegetables) of our labor, we had zucchini orzo for dinner last night, and jonas and I have been eating the first few strawberries and green (or purple) beans right off the plants. Can't wait til everything's coming full force. I broke down and bought a harvesting bucket (at target for like 2 bucks, you can't beat that) because the kitchen collanders we used last year were less than ideal. Now we eagerly await things to fill them with.


Here's our avocado tree that was started from a pit YEARS ago. Who thought things would turn out so well? Finally it's in the ground!
What a face!
Our herb garden in the works, I'm really pleased with the way it's starting to fill in. You can see the raspberries in the background. They've certainly taken off this year, 20 new plants at last count, and all from last years 1 plant!
Check out the size of this chard root. I finally dug up the super chard about a month or so ago. It was a sad day.
Our newest cleared spot. Eventhough it's halfway into May I have just gotten around to weeding and mulching this bed. Honestly it's not my favorite, eventhough it gets the most sun of anywhere else in the yard, a large chunk of it is riddled with fusarium wilt. Life's just not fair. But the tangerine tree is coming right along, as you can see all of the weeds went toward mulching said tree.
I'm staying my hand and allowing the lettuces to go to seed...hence I'll have seed for next year.
This is one section of our square foot garden, shown here are Sunberries, Sunflower, corn, beans and alyssum.
Here's our square foot garden from afar. It is a thng of beauty. I keep saying to my husband: LOOK HOW PRETTY OUR GARDEN IS! I just can't believe it, after living here for 4 years we're finally cookin' in the gardening department.
Our pitiful little three sister's garden. The soil in this area hasn't been worked as much as other areas of the yard. It sorely needs some mulch, maybe I'll get to that tomorrow.
A row of tomatoes, including: brandywine, beefsteak, yellow pear, jelly bean, speckled roman and other random heirloom varieties. I took this picture a few days ago and already the plants are much bigger. I dug a few out today and transfered them to my mother-in-law's garden. They were just too crowded.
Jonas kept saying "picture me by the strawberries, Mom! Picture me by the strawberries!" The kid loves his strawberries, and his awesome sesame street underpants...perfect for swimmin'!

Hope all is well at your homesteads!

3 comments:

NIKOL said...

Your garden is indeed gorgeous! And the corn doesn't look like it's doing so badly. I'm so envious that you already have zucchini and beans you can harvest. Can't wait until it's my turn!

Is there any hope for the area with fusarium wilt? Is that something that stays in the ground forever?

Clong said...

Fusarium wilt doesn't stay in the groud forever, Only 7 YEARS! Which feels like forever. The good news is that it doesn't affect all plants. However it does affect most plants that I want to grow, beans, tomatoes, peppers, cucurbits... it's a major bummer. Always remember to be careful about the manure you add to your soil. Try to make sure it's not from the eastern US, where fusarium is quite rampant.

Heather said...

How wonderful to be able to grow avocado outside. Now I've got to go find out what jelly bean tomatoes are, sounds like a must-have.