Well, seeing as though it's almost July, I thought it would be time for a gardening update! I have been enjoying my gardens quite a bit this year, have already harvested some out of my vegetable garden and have seen lots of new flowers blooming this year in my perennial garden.
The vegetables I planted late this year -- at least later than last year -- since we had such a cold spring. However, shortly after I planted everything, it spiked into 90 degree weather (and then back again!). My plants haven't seemed to mind, though, and we've been getting plenty of rain. I planted my seeds at the end of May, and you can see what my garden now looks like a little over a month later. I did break down and buy a few tomato and pepper plants, so you will see some of those are larger than the others.
I got some spinach, many more strawberries than last year and tons of snow peas--which are still coming! Now I am waiting on peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, green beans, zucchini and watermelon. The green beans are flowering, so I'm hoping that means there's not too much longer! I did plant way too much zucchini, but I was a little disappointed at my crop last year, so I decided to plant a lot. I may end up with a plethora. My concern now is that the plants are going to overtake the broccoli and the watermelon, though. I haven't quite convinced myself to properly space my plants yet. They just seem so far apart when you first plant them ;)
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| tomatoes, spinach, peas |
I discovered a few plants that re-seeded themselves from last year: tomatoes, cilantro and parsley! The parsley is actually from 2+ years ago. I had this bunch of parsley that basically refused to die or to flower. It lasted all winter indoors, and I finally planted it last spring. Of course, as soon as it was in the ground it quickly flowered and/or died. I was surprised the other day to realize that everything I thought was cilantro, in fact, was not! The parsley that wouldn't die lives on...sort of.
I am very excited about my perennial garden this year. When we moved into our house a couple years ago, this space was mostly empty. It was my goal to fill it as quickly as possible so that it was nearly covered in plants and flowers. I think I've succeeded....though the plants do die off in the winter, giving the space that barren look again. You can see below where I started off this year and the series of flowers I've had so far: daffodils & round 1 tulips; round 2 tulips; salvia, chives, irises, dianthus, columbine. Now, I have a few delphinium flowers and hostas blooming; and yet to come are phlox, sunflowers, sedum, chrysanthemums, and potentially some gladiolus and wildflowers. I'd say this little garden is pretty packed! Next step: another rearrangement of my plants until I figure out the proper order based on height/season.
