In December I started seeds indoors, which led me to yesterday when I declared initial garden planting finished. There are some tasks remaining to be accomplished, when isn’t there in a home garden? The seven vegetable plots and six fruit trees are in production of food for our kitchen garden. There should be excess available to give to others, including donations to the local food bank. It took a lot more work to get this far this year.
Garlic was planted Oct. 15, 2022 and it suffered some issues because of the mulch I used to cover it over winter. Despite some failures, there will be plenty for another year. The main task in the garlic patch before July harvest is weeding. I harvested most of the scapes this week. Next to the garlic is a covered row that produced early greens, radishes, and herbs. There are new seedlings of bok choy and lettuce varieties ready to go into rotation.
The next plot was potatoes in containers, onions, leeks, spinach, snow peas and sugar snap peas. There were plenty of spring onions as I thinned the starts to proper spacing. The main difference this year is being able to weed the onions. It looks like a fine crop of onions is in production, both for storage and eating now. I also stuck last year’s chives, some kohlrabi, two fennel plants, dill and cilantro on the side of the onions. Everything is growing well and there has been no sign of the Colorado potato beetle.
I eliminated the narrow path between the two largest plots and fenced them together with one entrance. Half of this space is the main tomato crop and the rest an assortment of tomatillos, okra, summer squash, zucchini, green beans, fennel, kohlrabi, celery, Brussels sprouts, bell peppers, cabbage, chard, kale, collards, onions I started from seed, and cucumbers. The greens in this plot were started later, so I haven’t harvested anything yet. There will be an abundance of cucumbers, squash, greens, and bell peppers if they produce.
There is a complete plot of cruciferous vegetables: five kinds of kale, collards, broccoli, cauliflower and three kinds of cabbage. Putting these together helps manage the white butterflies that lay eggs on the leaves to produce little green worms. If one doesn’t stay on top of pest control, the crop will suffer. Thus far all the harvested greens look good.
One of the plots is situated under two oak trees grown from acorns. The shade protects squash plants, and this year I picked a variety of pumpkin, butternut squash, and acorn squash. I used a no till method and left last year’s ground fabric in place. The seedlings are thriving. So far, so good.
The last garden plot has hot peppers, eggplant, fennel, tomatoes and celery. There is a bit of space where I plan to plant five seedlings of two varieties of sweet peppers. I don’t usually mix sweet and hot peppers in the same plot, but the space is just right. It appears the peppers will take and there will be an abundance. My main interests here are Guajillo chilies for prepared pepper sauce for cooking, thin red hot peppers for red pepper flakes, and jalapeno and Serrano for eating fresh. Since I am the only connoisseur of hot peppers in our household, there should be plenty.
The three apple trees planted soon after we moved here are bearing fruit this year. The Red Delicious tree particularly has been well-beaten by wind storms and is amazing in its survival. The pear tree is bearing, as is one of the new apple trees planted next to the garden. If there is a good crop, the pantry needs more applesauce, a dozen pints of apple butter, and replenishment of the apple cider vinegar jars.
We started some flowers, which need transplant into the space in front of our house. We are just learning about growing flowers. I successfully started a stevia plant for indoors. I’m not sure how much it will produce, yet we are looking forward to making our own sweetener after this year’s experiment.
The main benefit of declaring the garden planted is the ability to turn to other work, including writing for this blog. There is a period from now until the garlic comes in to organize the garage for some projects.
The garden is ready. Now all we need is rain, weeding and pest management. We feel lucky to have the space for a big garden.
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