Rebuild Time Part 2

Last spring, we replaced half of the old wooden beds in our garden with metal ones. This year, we finished the job. There were still two 4-foot by 11-foot and two 1-foot by 11-foot wooden bed to replace. One of the smaller beds was filled with asparagus, which we relocated outside the garden. Part of the other smaller bed had horseradish, which we pulled out and deposited along the back treeline. After that, there was just a lot of dirt moving to do.

Garden bed rebuild in progress.

It has been a very wet spring. Because of that, and my lack of enthusiasm for hard work, the rebuild took several weeks to finish. My husband really did most of it. He built the six new metal beds, shoveled tons of dirt, added compost, and relaid the stone paths. I helped by decided which type and how many bags of new soil we would get to fill in and I added those bags to the beds. And finally, it was all done.

All the bed replacements finally finished!

But that was not all of the rebuild. For the past couple of years, the deer have been making themselves at home in the garden. Beyond the nibbled plants and obvious hoof prints, we got photographic proof last fall.

A taller fence was obviously needed. Our original fence was four feet tall. We got a couple more rolls of 4-foot wide plastic mesh fencing and 6-foot long bamboo poles for fence posts. The process of adding height to the existing fence actually went more smoothly than I expected. I had a plan, of course, but was still surprised that the plan worked so well. We wove the bamboo poles through the mesh fencing then lifted them up and zip-tied them to the fence posts that were already there. Then I went around and hand "sewed" the seam between the two fences so there wasn't a gap.

"Sewing" the fence seam together with some garden twine.

The result is an 8-foot tall fence all the way around our garden (except for over the gate).

Let's see those deer jump over this! (I know they could so please don't.)

With the garden now better protected, I got the rest of the seeds and plants into the ground. I had planted the hardier seeds - radishes, arugula, pak choi, chard, and peas - and the direct-sew tomato seeds (as directed) before the average last frost date and before we finished the fence. 

A lovely row of sugar snap peas.

After the fence I planted the bush beans, turtle beans, rattlesnake beans, blue Jarrahdale pumpkins, and glass gem ornamental corn. I also transplanted pepper, zucchini, yellow squash, and cucumber plants.

The young plants hardening off a few days before transplanting.

The spring rains continued and I mostly stayed out of the garden. Yesterday, I finally thinned out the seedlings. I also added a fence for the peas. Everything is growing, though much of it is unhappy with the large amount of rain. 

Corn and radishes before thinning.

This poor little cucumber plant isn't well.

One other thing we planted outside the garden was some luffa plants. We had very good luck growing them a few years ago. We still had some seed left and they were still viable, so now there's a tall teepee in the back yard near the new asparagus bed. There is also one long pie pumpkin plant under the teepee. 

I don't know why I didn't take a picture of the whole teepee.

You grow, luffa!

So far, the pumpkin and luffa plants have been left alone by our backyard wildlife. We'll see if that lasts. 

Oh deer, oh deer.

A sweet, fluffy bunny.

 

Planting Time Again

This year, we haven't had much of a spring. We jumped right into summer even though summer is still officially a month away. As the days got into the 80s and then into the 90s, I thought about planting my garden but I resisted the temptation. The average last frost date for our area is around May 15. Last spring there was a late killing frost that devastated a lot of delicate plants. I didn't want to risk it this year. I kept to my conservative schedule that has worked well for me over the last ten years.

Let's get this party started!

Step one was to start some seeds indoors. I did this on April 18. It wasn't a big year for seed starting. I decided to take the easy way and purchase my tomatoes and peppers from the local nursery. All I really planned to start were some herbs. I used Jiffy starter pellets (love them!) and my long-used starter trays to plant three cells each of parsley, thyme, and basil. And since I had the whole grow light set-up going, I checked the viability of some seeds. We had some old adzuki beans lying around that I added to the tray (spoiler: not a single one sprouted). We also had some seeds that we had saved from a Long Pie pumpkin given to my husband by a coworker some years ago and some One Too Many pumpkin seeds I took from our fall decor purchased at a local farm stand. Side note: I got some gorgeous mums from the same stand so I plan on making the effort to get more this fall. I planted three each of the pumpkins and one of each grew. 

Two out of six ain't bad, I guess.

Step two was to directly sow the cool weather seeds. (cool weather, ha!) I did this on April 27. I put in peas, beets, carrots, chard, arugula, and baby pak choi. As of today, the pak choi and arugula are going like gang busters. I have about half a dozen pea plants, a few more tiny chard plants, and maybe a dozen beets slowly growing. The carrots are non-existent. That's probably because of the age of the seeds. They were from 2018 but I figured I'd try anyway. Oh well. A few dill plants seeded themselves. As for the perennials, the chives are doing beautifully, as always, the asparagus is producing faster than we can eat it, and the rhubarb is thriving after I split it. I finally got enough in one harvest to make a full pie rather than just a tart.

Our version of cooling the rhubarb pie on the windowsill.

So, that brings us to step three. I planted the rest of the garden today. I always like to plant on Memorial Day weekend. Step 3a was transplanting our seedlings. Along with my nine herb plants, two pumpkins, and five Greek basil cuttings propagated by my husband, we had a beefsteak tomato, a grape tomato, a tomatillo, and a pepperoncini pepper purchased from one of our local nurseries. (I was a bit disappointed when I saw the plants were brought into the nursery from a larger company but it was still supporting a small business.)

We gave the young 'uns a week of hardening off before putting them out into the big world.

I've always heard that pumpkins resent being transplanted. I'm not sure how true that is. The last time I tried starting pumpkins indoors then planting them out, crows found the seedlings within a day and tore them out of the ground. If I was a pumpkin, I'd probably resent that. I'm hoping our big guys will settle into the garden well this year.

Come on buddy! Think happy thoughts!

Step 3b is putting in the seeds. This year I planted my usual round of beans (purple, turtle, and rattlesnake), as well as, zucchini, cucumbers, parsnips, and daikon. I put in more peas as well to fill out the row and tried my version of a three sisters garden with strawberry popcorn, the long pie pumpkin, and rattlesnake beans all in the same bed together.

If you look carefully you can see the beans below the twine and the red popcorn in the foreground. And don't forget the pumpkin lurking in the back.

So, there it is. The garden is in! I patted the seeds and told them to "do their duty." Then we watered them in and did a little rain dance so it would rain this afternoon. (It did but not yet as much as I would have liked so far.) I'm looking forward to see how everything grows!

And now on to the obligatory critter shots. Here is a rabbit chilling next to our house.

We had to make some repairs to the fence to keep the bunnies out of the garden this year. I know we've let them have babies there for several years (see here and here and here too) but the inn is now closed. So, we added a layer of chicken wire around the bottom of the fence where the rabbits had been getting in. It doesn't keep the chipmunks out but we seem to be bunny-free so far. (knock on wood!)

Notice how the black mesh is neatly chewed off to allow bunny entrance.

 And finally, here's a baby bird in our cedars.

Maybe a baby cardinal?

 

Planting Under a Red Sun

After the last few turbulent months, it seemed fitting to put in this year's garden while wearing a KN-95 mask. Long story short, we moved away for three months, decided it was a mistake, and came back home. That doesn't explain why I haven't posted anything new here in nearly three years, but I hope it gives a little context as to why I'm embracing the weirdness of gardening while the sky is yellow and the sun is red from wildfire smoke drifting down from Canada.

A photo can't do justice to the otherworldly color of the sun and sky

Part of me feels like I'm cheating this year. I have often been lazy in my gardening (hence the three year gap - not that I didn't plant, I just wasn't very active about it) but never have I relied almost exclusively on store-bought plants.

We bought the plants from Lowe's - and they were on sale!

We moved back into our house in early June. After unpacking everything and getting resettled (it was done quickly as I can't stand living among boxes), I turned my attention to the garden. Last summer's growing season fell in a shmita year, so I put in some wildflower seeds and let the garden do as it liked. (Click here to read my post about it.) I had done some cleaning up of the garden last fall, so it wasn't too much of a chore to get it back into planting order.

The garden before

Some flowers had come back from last year including one strong daisy plant (which I transplanted into one of the flowerbeds), and a lovely California poppy that I weeded around. I pulled out the sweet alyssum, forget-me-nots, and pretty little orange flowers that I couldn't readily identify to make room for my veggies. There was also quite a bit of dill growing in one of the beds. I decided to keep it and planted the cucumbers with it.

Dill and cucumbers, a perfect pairing

As has been typical of the garden, it was once again a bunny nursery this year. The munchkins were still resident when we first moved back but by the time I was ready to plant, they had moved out. I did make sure to repair the holes in the fence through which they had been coming and going. I love bunnies but I don't feel the need to actively feed them.

Bunnies hiding under the rhubarb on a hot day

Mama bunny made her nest in the pathway this year

So, with bunnies out and weeds pulled, I put in the plants I had purchased at Lowe's - two types of tomatoes, yellow and green squash, cantaloupe, basil, cucumbers, and sweet potatoes - and a few leftover seeds from previous years - chard and radishes. As I wrote before, I feel a bit like I cheated by using so many purchased plants but I'll just have to live with it.

All planted!

And while I actively made efforts to keep the rabbits from getting back in a eating my garden, I was more lenient with some other tenants - black swallowtail butterfly caterpillars. I haven't seen them again since the heavy rains we had a few days ago, but I hope they're still around.