May in New England

camprn wrote:

SwampCatNana wrote:Yes, I clicked and it took me to camprn post about her gardens in 2010. Was trying to see her album for 2011 but can't seem to find it in the Gallery.
Lee

P.S. Just found out how! Duh!!!

Nana in the above post, click the words that say 'May Garden Chores'.

Another thing I learned today. I have so much to learn not only about SFG but posting!!!!
Lee

Couldn't resist adding more growing space to my garden! Took an old cement form we had in the garage (we were going to make a cat tree with it but got lazy), cut it into 12 inch lengths, put some weed block under them and filled them up with store bought potting mix. Then I planted garden peas in one, turnips in another, chard in another, and some herbs in the last one! I also got a long porch planter out in the garden filled with potting mix that I plan on putting sprouted celery from the store in!

littlesapphire wrote:Couldn't resist adding more growing space to my garden! Took an old cement form we had in the garage (we were going to make a cat tree with it but got lazy), cut it into 12 inch lengths, put some weed block under them and filled them up with store bought potting mix. Then I planted garden peas in one, turnips in another, chard in another, and some herbs in the last one! I also got a long porch planter out in the garden filled with potting mix that I plan on putting sprouted celery from the store in!

Pictures, pictures, pictures!
Lee

I just picked up 2 30" pallets at the transfer station. I needed more tomato and pepper space and other than labor it was free!!!! I even have enough left over MM for it! Thought hubby might be disgruntled, but he didn't seem to mind since it was free!

Yay, ok!





The concrete form planters are the round yellow things in the four corners of the garden, and then the long celery planter is the long grey one in the front corner there. I'm very excited!

I was thinking plywood forms, but a sono-tube is perfect and for anyone out there looking. It only costs like $5 for a 4' length and comes in diameters up to 18"

Way to recycle!!

hruten - great looking boxes. Love the layout too.
Lee

@littlesapphire.....I love your garden and that you have it fenced against critters is ideal. Good for you. I can't wait to see it producing.

I spent most of today mowing the lawn for fresh grass clippings and turning over my monster compost pile. Man, I wish I had a little bucket loader. And then there was a robbing situation going on with the bees, those silly girls, but we got that taken care of. I placed the Queen excluder and a honey super on the old hive. Maybe I will get honey this year. The carrots and chard are finally up. Transplanted some lettuces. The strawberry plants I got from Martha (Thanks Martha!) are starting to show signs of life. The raspberry plants are taking their sweet time letting me know there's life in those sticks!

Well, the sun has gone down and I'm heading for the couch with some tylenol, a cream soda and a romance movie...

Camp, only 3 of my howevermany raspberry plants look like anything other than sticks.

But, why, oh, why, didn't you invite me up for the cream soda and the romantic movie?

(Oh, yeah, I'm working and would have had to say no. darn, it sounded so good for a minute there!)

And what was the bee robbing about?

martha wrote:Camp, only 3 of my howevermany raspberry plants look like anything other than sticks.

But, why, oh, why, didn't you invite me up for the cream soda and the romantic movie?

(Oh, yeah, I'm working and would have had to say no. darn, it sounded so good for a minute there!)

And what was the bee robbing about?

LOL, I know those berry plants will come along and eventually put out some growth, hopefully this week as it warms up. So I don't obsess about it I need to turn my attention elsewhere, like getting the potato bed built, that's on the agenda today.

The movie was Pride and Prejudice, perfect. Martha I hope you had a good night at work. When are we going to see photos of the altered garden?

The robbing, this is where bees from one hive go to another to invade and steal food. Last week I split my hive and made a smaller one. The large hive is doing well, bringing in lots of nectar and pollen, but the new hive need a little help because they just don't have a lot of bees bringing in food, so I feed them some sugar water with some essential oils, and the bees from the strong hive were coming over and taking the syrup. I took the feeder out of the hive and had to plug up the entrances. Hopefully the strong hive bees will look elsewhere for food today.

Naughty bees!

Photos coming soon. It was raining and/or dreary for so long, I didn't want to go out in the bad weather with DH's camera, and now that I have waited so long, I want one more thing to be finished, that should be completed tomorrow....I know the suspense is killing me!

Recent photos, things are starting to take off now that we have gotten a bit of rainfall.
The new raspberry bed, they are a little tight, but it's the best I could do at the moment. I love me my new little tiller!

A birds eye view. A few new boxes :-)


Garlic in the old tomato bed. I will be moving the overhead trellis system to a new bed soon. A new box to the left for potatoes.


A new lettuce box and surprise! leeks that made it through the winter!!


The front box, left to right the sugar snap peas (4sq) are finally coming along, wee spinach (4sq), then red and gold beets (2 sq each) and chard in front (4sq).
in the back, more peas then a mix of breakfast radish and shallots.


Radish and shallots


Front box strawberries, second box white onions, third box red onions, bee hives.


Brassicas doing well under tulle.

Camp - those look GORGEOUS! Your plants always look so healthy and strong! I love the expansion of the beds... I'm jealous of your raspberry bed...but that's next year... Looking good!

What lovely pictures! Thanks for sharing, Camp!

camprn, great pics. Love how your beds are doing so well so early in the season. Hopefully all this rain will improve their growth.

When the celery thread was posted, I planted the end of a bunch of celery, and then read the directions! Well, I am extremely happy to report that the celery that I just plunked into a bed is showing very happy new growth. And I just plunked in a second one!

I asked DH if I should do it the right way, now that I knew what that was, or....and before I finished the sentence he said, "Naaaahhhhhh....." and I was outside to plunk the new one in the box!

Now that's my kind of gardening!

Martha, I like your way better anyway! I had my celery end in a bowl of water for 2 weeks and it hardly had any growth at all. Finally I just plunked it in the garden and OVERNIGHT it started to grow! I think they like soil better than straight water

Besides, this article at Chickens in the Road said she just puts the celery in water overnight.

I couldn't wait.... I planted everything today!! BTW, I also got a sunburn on my nose:oops:

All my little plants look great and healthy in their new homes. Temps are only supposed to get into the hi 40's low 50's at night for the next 5 days so I thought..... Why not? Now that their out I can obsess over whether they are getting too much sun and if the temp is right, if the MM is right etc.

@hruten.....Its a beautiful day for it.

I, too, took the plunge. Zucchini and midget watermelon seeds, more sugar snap peas sown today along with transplanting lettuces and spinach into the raised beds among the cole crops from the A-frame. Tomorrow I'm going to take a chance with some of my larger tomato seedlings, especially the determinates going in pots.

Good luck to both of us.

I planted direct seeds in April as an experiment. My peas are doing great, of course, and the pole beans took quite a while to germinate, seeing as how we did have a few nights below freezing, but they've come up too. The lettuce and carrots did not, I'll have to replant those. The onion sets I got out a bit late are doing well, the box of strawberries I planted last month look great (not edible, of course, till next year). Not seeing anything from the potatoes.

Still behind schedule, have to get 2 more boxes made. Also want to make a sheet mulch and/or Hugelkultur bed (Hugelkultur), for the bigger/permanent things like asparagus and squash (probably for next year), and just to try the method and use some of the brush pile here. I didn't like the way the squash took over my boxes last year.

@NHGardner.......I agree about the 'taking over' part. I got the ends of two of my berms (raised soil, no lumber) beside the asparagus and the cold frame prepped with plenty of compost and sowed seed under jugs for squash and my midget watermelons. It was about the 20th remake of my garden plan which kept me busy changing it all winter.



I've got 3 hills of squash here.



Two hills of watermelons here.

I just checked out the 'hugel' site. Great way to make more beds, especially if you have lots of time, such as leaving it for the next year. If you have enough soil to top it off, you can grow things right away. Sounds good.

It does sound like a good concept, and sounds like you don't need much more than what you have in the yard. Can't wait to try it.

Also found the Wiggler Hilton thread very interesting - anxious to start a worm compost bin. I'm thinking it may take the place of my compost pile, which keeps turning into tree roots.