Garden Update, End of April 2023

 The garden is coming along slowly this year. After the mattress fiasco, I still am not back up to par with my breathing. I don't know what's up and I don't have a doctor's appointment regarding it until next month.
Anyhow, I'm an impatient person and I am probably putting too many expectations on how things should be coming along.
This is what we have going on so far.

Bob got both greenhouses secured to the ground using rebar.

Technically, these greenhouses are longer than our fifth wheel is.

The rebar and clamps cost around $60.

One down and one to go. The covers actually go on fairly easily. Bob was able to do it all on his own.

I always buy a few lettuce plants to plant so that I can get a jump on being able to enjoy some homegrown salads, etc. I planted this out around 2 weeks ago.

I planted some onion sets so that I have green onions to use. They will be ready to harvest not too long from now. I have another 100 to plant. I wanted to stagger them.

My peas are starting to sprout. I'm most excited about the Roveja Soup variety. It's an Italian heirloom variety that comes from the Umbria region. I've never had a soup pea. I've never heard of soup peas until this year. I figured that I would give them a whirl.

We lost the bottom out of another raised bed. This bed has our shallots in it and I planted a few Egyptian Walking Onion bulbils in there last year when I pulled all of mine out.
Bob will have to take the legs off and set it on the ground like he did the other one.

The potatoes sprouted and they got covered with straw. We'll continue to do that as they pop up.

This is marjoram. It wintered over. I need to do a bit of pruning on it.

This is my lavender that I've had for the past decade or so. I plan on putting it in the ground somewhere.

Rosemary sure has some uniquely beautiful flowers.

This is one of the mint plants that my old neighbor gave me to plant.

The strawberry patch is sure looking scraggly.

I need to have Bob move my pot of chives up closer to the fifth wheel.

This is one of the honeyberry bushes that my old neighbor gave me.

This is a wild mullein plant that grows on the opposite side of the driveway.

This is the spearmint that I planted last year. I took a zoom photo of the moss world that lives with it in it's container.

We're going to put a layer of recycled cannabis grow soil over the leaves in the beds. That will amend them from that junk soil we got stuck with last year. I have 2 more of these cucumber trellises to go in there, too. I am thinking that I need to make some dill pickles this year.

I've had the big raised bed planted out for a month or more now. I have broccoli, red cabbage, brussels sprouts and a whole lot of onions planted in there. I'll add in some bush peas and lettuce in the next few days.

My sole rose bush is starting to leaf out. I want to bring this up closer to the trailer so that it can be a bit more protected from the deer.

My friend, Rose, gave me this plant. I think it's pretty. I still need to figure out where to put it.

The Red Muzik garlic is doing very well.
I have 2 planter boxes of it.

The gooseberries and currants made it through the winter.

We have rhubarb growing and thriving. I'm thinking about putting more asparagus crowns behind the potato bed.

This is one of the snapdragons that I started from seed last year. It wintered over and is still growing.


Thanks for taking the garden tour with me. Hopefully, next week, I'll be announcing that we finally have gotten our baby chicks. Keep your fingers crossed.

Garden Update April 2023

 It's that time again. Everything is waking up. I see the wild currant bushes are blooming. My rhubarb is waking up.

Back behind the potato bed, I plan on getting a few stakes and some netting and fencing off a little area for radishes and lettuce. I'm hoping it will be enough to keep the rabbits and deer out.

Speaking of which, we've gotten a lot of rain lately and the big puddle down in the rock pit has finally filled up with water. It's deep enough for the deer to swim in. I saw them do that yesterday. You can see the pink blooms of the wild currant bush.

Here you can see one of the does swimming. It was pretty cool to watch.

We planted out potatoes a few weeks ago. It's about time to get these covered with straw.

These violas wintered over just fine. I'm glad they did. These are my favorite ones so far.

I bought some onion sets and planted this pot out with them. These are my spring onions. I don't let them get huge. I use as scallions.

I had planted this raised bed out with Walla Walla sweet onions and the bottom fell out of it. They were made from untreated lumber and will only last just so long and, well, its time had come. Bob cut the legs off and lowered it down so that I can get one last season from it. I'll get some onions from it, but I was pretty bummed about it giving up the ghost.

Another bed of Walla Walla sweet onions.

This is a Castelfranco raddichio. It's sharing this bed with banana shallots.

I planted out 2 beds with German Red Musik hard-neck garlic. It's coming along quite nicely.

We have the cover on one of the greenhouses. These only have 1 door on them, so we are going to make it to where they both open in the middle.

It's so much bigger than the one I had last year. I'll really be able to grow some super tender crops inside of there with no crowding problems at all. I think I'll put 3 rows of big pots.

We are tossing around the idea of doing a raised bed on the ground. We haven't quite decided on that yet.

 
I have so many beds of frigging onions! I went WAY overboard.

We let this get away from us completely. This is where the raspberry bushes are. Bob's got his work cut out for him, for sure.

In this bed, I have broccoli, red cabbage, Brussels sprouts and red onions. Yes, even more onions! I also have viola.

I'll be up-potting nightshades this coming week and they will go into the greenhouse.

We're opting to grow our peas at the end of our deck this year. The second greenhouse took up a lot of room, so we figured this would be a good spot to put them. I have 10 different varieties.

I have a few lettuce plants going. I'll have even more to plant out next week. I started 50 different types of lettuce and greens.

And, lastly, our chicken pen. We bought an old 10x53-foot used industrial tarp to put over the top as a roof. It's in the back of my truck. I haven't gotten pullets yet, but we're planning on that in the next week or so. We'll brood them in the coop. It's plenty big enough and we have a heat lamp and a brooder heater in there for them. I cannot brood them inside. The cats would be after them and, with the dust that they would create, it wouldn't be good for my breathing problems.

Thanks for taking the garden tour. I hope to post another one in a few weeks.