Last frost date here is the 31st of May, so I'm being cautious about putting all of my seedlings into the ground early. Our weather has been unseasonably warm for the most part, but we did get down into the 30's last week, and they had a decent frost down south in Banner County. As unlikely as it seems, it wouldn't be unheard of for us to get a hard freeze or possibly even snow, so my tomatoes are happily living in plastic greens containers until June.
Here're some photos of what's up in my garden as of this afternoon, and some of the flowers that my landlord has around the place. Keep in mind that the iris I've photographed are some of the last to bloom this year. Last year I moved in on June 2nd, and the iris were in full bloom...this year, they're nearly done. They've even moved the iris festival up by three weeks to accommodate the early bloom.
One of the iris along the south side of the front house
Journey to the center of the iris...
I'll start with my main garden, located on the east side of my apartment and featuring a spectacular view of the back alleyway (not pictured). The soil isn't the greatest, but between charley carp and compost, the quality is slowly being improved. This dry weather hasn't been the best for my compost pile, especially as I keep forgetting to water it, but by the end of the summer there should be some good soil in there.
Swiss chard: they were planted a month and a half ago, went outside about three weeks ago,
and are now almost 5 inches tall.
Lettuce: their life story is the same as the chard thus far, except these little guys are barely 3 inches tall. You can see how dry the soil is around these plants, and I watered thoroughly on Monday, just two days ago.
Onions!! These onions I started from onion sets. I've also planted onions from seed, which are growing just in front of these larger plants, only they're so thin still that they don't show up on film too well. I'm looking forward to early June when some of these will be large enough to harvest as scallions and I can make Rochelle's amazing scallion/sour cream/yogurt dip. Yum!
Purple bush beans and popping corn! Planted 10 days ago, and sprouted up in the last two days.
I am so. excited. for dilly beans and homegrown popcorn.
What happens when you plant baby bok choi plants, and then the weather takes a turn for July in April? Flowering bok choi in the course of two days, that's what. They're so pretty though, that I decided to just let them continue to grow and bloom. My potatoes are lurking behind the bok choi.
Moving around to the south side of the house we find my second bed. Which is the one where I've slipped vegetables in between iris, daffodil, and crocus plants. In this bed I've got more onions, sugar snap peas, and one lone arugula plant (who will only be a loner for a short while...arugula breeds like rabbits).
The south bed in its entirety
Sugar snap peas are one of my favorite spring vegetables...I might try a fall crop too so I can have two rounds of them.
The last place I have plants growing is on and around my front steps and the driveway that my apartment faces. Here is where I grow my herbs and where I've been keeping my plant starts: tomatoes, more lettuce, and spinach. I also have a few spider plants who are enjoying a few weeks' vacation on the steps before they come back inside.
The only other iris that is still in bloom. Just last week I cut a good number of them to take into the office, but now the blooms are mostly gone.
The herb garden (front to back): sage, winter savory, rosemary, oregano, chives.
Tomato seedlings: a few weeks old and on their second potting. These are San Marzano, a paste tomato.
Baby Brandywine slicing tomatoes.
Nebraska Wedding Tomatoes: a rare heirloom breed.
Oregano plants like hot, sunny weather...this one was only about four inches tall when I got it back in the fall, and now it's taking over the bucket.
Oregano waterfall!
Roses growing along the south side of the house to the north of mine. I think my landlord planted all of the flowers along this side of the house originally (it borders the driveway).
Roses!
And here ends the May garden tour of Maggie's prairie homestead. I have carrots and parsnips to go in the ground yet, but since I'm still eating the ones from my winter CSA, I'm waiting a bit longer to plant them. Summer squash and melons I'll get at the farmer's market, eggplant seedlings are arriving on Friday, and then I think I'll be set. Next month will bring strawberries from the berry farm in Henry (u-pick!), and I can hardly wait. My frozen strawberries were gone by January, although I do still have a few jars of jam.
This summer I'll be able to put more vegetables up in jars thanks to my mother who found me a canning kettle at a yard sale last fall. I'm excited to try some new recipes for putting produce up as well as canning tomato sauce for the first time (when one buys half a pig, it leaves very little room for anything else in one's chest freezer). I'll keep a running photo log of how the garden progresses over the summer, and what I end up doing with my produce.
