This is the Garden for Spring 2009. For last years' Garden page click here
Early Spring wasteland	I think I saw the lawnmower cringe when I went near it!

Sammy in the hayfield!

Untouched since Spring thaw, early May.

Wild raspberries growing next to the fence for the second year, have to trellis them.

Karma guarding the patio (I think I can put away the snow blower!).

So it's now early May 2009, I'm at the end of a hard semester and need to get the garden tilled and plants growing. The yard was barren until one day I realized the lawn was like three feet tall!

So after picking up the 400 dog toys (and other stuff!) that had been lost in the snow and mowing the lawn about three times, it's time to start some stuff growing. I'm going to have the Parlsey and Basil and maybe some Dill on the patio. I'll trellis the wild raspberries growing by the fence. They are in their second or third year and will start to produce much more berries as they get more mature. Last year we just got a light smattering of berries. This year I'm going to plant the squash on the other side of the yard so it can have it's own light and not steal the garden's light like it did last year.

OK, added come compost, some peat moss and some fertilizer, tilled soil. I planted some plum tomatoes, some Early Girl and Big Boy tomatoes. I have a row of hot peppers, a row of sweet peppers, a bunch of Blue Lake green beans, some cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, broccoli and brussel sprouts. The sprouts are already showing bug damage as seedlings, for some reason the bugs love brussel sprouts! I tilled a small plot by the fence to take plant the sun loving, garden light smothering zuchinni and summer squash. I planted dill, parsley and chives in the big spice planter and basil in it's own pot, these will stay on the patio. Here are some pictures of Late May, early June.

Garden ready for summer!

What a good boy!

Basil

Plants, early June

Spice planter with parsley, dill and chives, I might have to move the dill, the parsley could overcome it.

Getting a little bigger

Raspberries getting bigger, it must have been raining for about three weeks, now

Separate plot for squash, Sammy dug them all up before I added the fence.

For the last three weeks, it's been raining like every day or every other day and the garden is getting way too much water and not too much sun, if it wasn't in the raised bed, it would be pretty flooded in this clay soil. The zuchinni and summer squash are very small because of the excess water, but the rest of the garden seems to be growing OK, although it would be better with more sun. Spices are doing good

Spices, doing well

Plants, June 27

Squash, stunted from the excess rain, Basil growing slowly

Rear view

OK, July 4th, it's still been raining pretty steadily but we've had one or two days of sun. The cucumbers and squash are beginning to grow, somewhat. Spices are doing well.

Spices, doing weller

Plants, July 4th

Squash, getting somewhat bigger, looking more healthy Basil growing, needs more sun.

Tomatoes loving the wet weather, growing thick, they'll have a bountiful harvest

Alright it's July 26 and it has been still raining like crazy, almost every other day with few sun breaks. We are 8 inches over normal rainfall for the last few months, but only 2.38 inches over this time of year's rain totals. My tomatoes are showing some signs of fungus from the excessive moisture but they are still growing tall, we'll see what the harvest looks like. They are starting to show clumps of juvenile tomatoes. The squash is starting do ok with a few ripe summer squashes coming through. If it hadn't rained this much, I would have had ripe ones a lot sooner. The broccoli is starting to produce good heads but unfortunately this is one plant I should have separated from the rest of the garden as the big leaves have overshadowed my peppers, although I have some peppers growing still. The beans have been overgrown by both the insanely growing cucumbers and the large broccoli leaves but are producing some beans and started producing earlier before the other plants took over! The cucumbers are exploding all over the place and looks to be this years bumper crop. The raspberries are also exploding and are producing an abundance of ripe delicious fruit.

Basil going strong, gets clipped daily for cooking. Parsley a bit waterlogged and dog-nipped, but doing ok, dill growing tall, chives on other side of planter growing real well.

Plants, July 26

Cucumbers busting loose from the garden, growing voraciously! A few ripe ones, many, many small ones, some ripe pickling cukes.

Broccoli heads

Squash now growing well, three or four ripe ones.

Raspberries starting to fruit well