Somehow after that initial garden post, I haven’t gotten around to doing much. It could be because of my sprinkler debacle, which was only repaired last week. But a few days ago, my friend Anisa gave me a tour of her garden, and I saw all she had coming up: beets, lettuce, kale, chard… and I thought, “What am I waiting for?”
So without further ado: the garden.
Here is the bed with the rhubarb. Those on broccoli on the right, and buried under the recently added compost are last years potatoes. I didn’t notice them, and now they have new plants. I’m hoping to harvest new potatoes and then pull them up to make way for whatever M wants to put in. (I’m hoping carrots and cucumbers.) There is a row of beets just to the left of the broccoli.
The bed below is two further back from the one above. It has a bunch of last year’s spinach which will soon be pulled for a spring soup (sausage/greens is my favorite, but I have a new spring minestrone that’s a contender). I put another row of spinach just between it and the edge. On the left are rows of peas (way late to start them with how warm it’s been, but… oh well. I do love peas. If I get any, it will be a bonus.), beets, carrots, and boston lettuce.
This is the strawberry bed. We planted them last year and got a fair crop, but I’m very hopeful for this year. Lots of flowers already…
Wow, this is an exciting photo. We put in two rows of beets (don’t tell Sam) and a row each of spinach and lettuce.
I don’t have a photo of the rest of this bed, but it’s full of potato plants that keep erupting through the compost I’m layering over them. I take that as a good sign. Eventually, when we’ve pulled the beets, lettuce and spinach here, I’ll put tomatoes in this bed. They’ve never grown here, so I’m hoping to avoid any nightshade pests.
Below is a rose-bush my mom pulled out of her garden. It was dwarfed last year by the native grass that she inadvertently gave us as well, which Sam pulled out. Hooray. It seems to like being alone.
This is a photo of our fabulous dandelion crop. The strawberries have never done much. I can’t decide if I should transplant them [the strawberries, not the dandelions] or compost them. Ideas?
This year my peonies are looking great. (So great that SweetP snapped a bunch of the shoots off and gave them to me as a bouquet. They don’t seem to have minded.)
This is the first year the bleeding heart has bloomed.
And this is one of the last tulips. But my mom was just in Holland, and I have a tulip package coming across the sea in the fall. Thanks, Mom!
What’s happening in YOUR garden?
Learning As We Go 
Good growing! As to the extra strawberry plants, if you don’t have room for a limitless berry patch, I’d offer them to friends & neighbors, or on Craig’s List or Freecycle…or compost ’em. Your plants this year will put out babies (MANY babies.) You’ll want to start the process of replacing your mother plants with those babies so your plants stay vigorous and productive. Bottom line, you’re going to have more plants this year than you already do, so get rid of the extras now to someone who will be grateful to have a few starts of their own this spring 😉
Happy gardening,
Terry
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Spring is such an exciting time in the garden! We were a little overzealous this year, what with our new-found yard…ripped out a bunch of grass and put in some chard, arugula, kale, bibb lettuce, mustard greens, beets, and carrots. Oh, and asparagus, blueberries, and raspberries. And 23 tomato plants, and still more room for peas, cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, corn, basil…. One additional item in our garden (besides the never-ending grass): bunnies. The result: several fewer crops in the garden (chard, beets, bibb lettuce).
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Wow! Sam would say you’re lucky to have the bunnies to eat all those greens!
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I love bleeding hearts – so pretty! And I envy you your garden. Here in Oregon, the ground is still too wet to till!
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Our friend in Chicago had bleeding hearts growing in her shade, and I’ve always loved them.
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