The Garden is In!

Finally dried out enough to get everything in the ground.  We finished planting on Saturday. (Except for the watermelon, which I'm not counting since I don't like them and feel they're hopeless this season anyway.  But Shawn was slaving away tonight with black plastic and high hopes).  We also managed to get everything irrigated, which is good, as today was in the 80s!  Now that's more like it.

Tomatoes on the move.

Best success we've ever had with cabbages.  Thanks to Mia for the tip!

Zucchini time.

Overview.

Also finer heads of lettuce than usual.

Red beets are doing great, but the goldens germinated poorly.

Almost time for peas--such a happy thing to look forward to.

Extra pumpkins Shawn planted after the quail appeared to have eaten them all.

The mini bell that was blooming two weeks ago.

Overview--peppers and eggplant in foreground, fine looking corn in background.

Good beetle.

Bad beetle!

Locust blooms; they smell so good.

Views of foxtail lillies with pollinators.

Baby swallows in the garden.

First Fruits!

We went to the market for the first time this week.  We had leeks, herbs, and radishes to sell, as well as plants.  We did reasonably well.  Thanks to Laurie, I got this picture of a couple of cuties taking home a couple of our tomatoes.

It was nice to eat the first radishes of the year.  They are tasty and as I've said before, I like the garden better when it feeds me.  The main goal of the weekend was to get all the plants in the ground.  We scheduled the planting for Saturday afternoon.  Saturday morning was lovely.  As the afternoon progressed, the clouds built.  Karen and Ralf kindly came over to assist.  But, the rain came.  We stuck it out until we were slipping through the mud and had several pounds caked on each shoe.  About 150 of the peppers made it in.

Sunday afternoon late we put in the rest of the peppers, the eggplant, and the basil.  The poor tomatoes continue to wait.  As you can tell, the tomatoes are really overly gigantic.  The other plants actually look better than usual.  Perhaps it's because we never had too much of an aphid problem.  This year I used a soap:water ratio from the internet.  It was higher than I usually use.  It burned the leaves, but may have worked wonders.

Another focus of the week was weeding the garlic paths.  Teri has been working her way through (with some help from Ramona!), but we needed to engage.  Now there's only about one row left.

The tomatoes eager to get in the ground.

Weeded paths.

New cabbages.  Thanks, Nella!

Bigger beans.

Cilantro and radishes.

The old growth part of the garden.

Incipient pea.

First ladybug in the garden this year!

Younger beans.

Corn with peppers in the background.

Cucumbers are up!

Lots of Colorado potato beetles this year.

Potato beetle eggs--ewww!

Potatoes.

Bring on the pollinators!

Because this miniature bell pepper is ready to go!

The Coldest May on Record

We were out of town the last two weekends, so not much has happened.  Before we left we spent a day getting irrigation set up for everything that might need water.  With our new system and plethora of spigots, we got it to the point where Teri could just turn on every faucet with a hose attached and water everything at the same time.  The carrots were on a timer so they could be watered twice a day.  This prevents the formation of a crust and increases likelihood of germination.  Of course then it rained the entire time we were gone, so no need for any of that water.

Surprisingly enough, the corn germinated--good job Shawn!  So we returned to corn, beans, potatoes, radishes, and cilantro all up!  The greenhouse is now a jungle.  The peppers and eggplant look pretty good, but the tomatoes are leggy and falling over (I forgot to take any photos).  Shawn spent a good chunk of Friday staking them, so no they don't look quite as terrible.  Several are blooming.  All would really like to go into the ground, which requires said ground to dry out.
I had a busy weekend and didn't do anything useful in the garden.  Shawn planted all of the winter squash, gourds, and pumpkins.  He also planted cucumbers the day we got home.  That might mean all of the seeds are covered.  It was supposed to rain like crazy today, but then just showers for the rest of the week, so hopefully the next post will include the news that the plants are in the ground.

Nanking Cherries look good.

Corn!

Potatoes are up!

Someday there will be peas.

Spinach.

Beets

Radishes and lettuce.

Onions.

Leeks, note beans on the right.

Garlic loves the rain.