Almost Summer Garden Update

Spent some time this last winter clearing out not just the morning glory that had been taking over the vegetable garden area, but also arum, another perennial that had established itself in the area through my neglect. I know I didn't get it all but thought I could give the veggie garden another try. Here's where it's at now:

The bed in the front center of the picture is fava beans I planted over a month ago. They're doing pretty well. What you can't really see in there is the potatoes.

One potato kept popping up in that bed over the years. I pretty much let it go but dug it up this year to see what it looked like. One big potato and a bunch of smaller ones so I scattered them around and put them back in the ground. Now they're all growing. I'm gonna turn that into a full time potato bed after the fava beans are done.

This bed is off to the left of the above bed. I started some bush beans a few weeks ago. You can see them at the top of the bed. Snails got some of them already. About time to put a trellis up to support what's left of them.

That wide wet row below the beans is where I just planted turnips a week or so ago. They're just popping out of the ground now.

Lots of grass below that row still, despite having been turned over at least twice. I may turn it over again and plant something else later, or I may not. We'll see how things go.

This is on the far side of the fava beans in the first picture. Bush peas I started quite a while back are getting peas on them now. Doesn't look like a whole lot, though. I don't know if we'll be able to make an actual meal out of them. We'll probably just add them to something else, depending on how many peas we get.

That clump of green all by itself to the right is my zucchini. It's doing ok but way behind in growth. Had snails attack my starts early on. Then it just wouldn't grow while in the starter pot. Maybe the potting soil? Once I put it in the ground it took off at a good pace. I've never had such a hard time getting a zuke started.

On the far side of that last bed is another bed with bush peas on the left. They were started 2 or 3 weeks after the other row. You can barely see them but there's a row of onions to the right of the peas. Only half of them survived the snails and the cats laying on them.

To the right of that, under the water wand, is a week old bed of beets. They haven't sprouted yet. Not sure whether to call some of these rows or beds. They're maybe four inches wide at the bottom and I spread the seeds all over so they don't grow in a single line. Never tried it quite that way before. I figure it's a good compromise between row planting and planting a whole bed.

Hard to see but this is broccoli. Only five plants this year. Had a hard time getting them started and my best one died right after I put it in the ground. I actually have a head forming on one now which is a bit of a surprise. I was thinking they might "button" with it being so warm this year. Buttoning means they don't develop good heads.

If the rest get decent heads, the next question is whether they'll go to flower right away, which is known as bolting. That's what they do later in the summer when it's usually this warm. The heads form and almost get yellow flowers the same day. We'll see. I'm not expecting much from them.

There's also a small bed of beets between the two broccoli in the upper bed. Leaf miners are damaging the leaves but I've been using Neem oil. Hard to say how much it's helping but the miner damage might be being held in check.

In the far back corner I started a couple rows of carrots, something I haven't grown often if only because I've never done well with them. These Red Cored Chatenay sprouted real quick and seem to be doing well. The proof will be when they come out of the ground. Usually my carrots are small, not shaped very well and not real tasty.

That's a volunteer fava bean plant behind them from the beans I grew over the winter. I'll probably save the seed from it to grow more.

With the area we gained when the neighbors put in their lame fence, we decided we had room for some more artichokes. Connie started some from seed last fall. I believe we have eight good survivors now. One died after planting. Not sure what the problem was with that. These seem to be doing ok and a couple even have a single small artichoke now. This variety has purple artichokes. Not my choice but no big deal if they good for eating

Off to the left of the new fence is the area we used to have a large compost bin. The bin has since fallen apart. The area also became overgrown with morning glory and arum. I spent hours clearing the area out and have at least part of it mostly cleaned up, but I have to keep going back and pulling up more baddies.

Despite my herculean effort, all it takes is one little piece of morning glory root to start a new plant. They're still popping up but are easy to remove with everything else out of the way. You can see the back part is still overgrown. If I can keep this one area clear I'll plant here again. Maybe more artichokes? Of course, Stinker the cat likes it just the way it is.

Eventually, I'll have to start clearing out the area beyond. Believe it or not, that can actually be fun at times.