May has come and gone, with lots of rain and cool weather.
I decided to buy another
blueberry plant, since only one of the three I had was actually blooming. I bought a really nice, healthy plant from Habig with lots of leaves and blooms.
I dug up the "stick" that I planted back in
September of 2011 and planted the newest, biggest plant in it's hole. I then put the "stick" into the new blueberry's pot.
So, we now have four blueberry plants. One stick in a pot and 3 in the ground, small, medium and large. :) I also mulched around the three in the ground and have enjoyed seeing the blooms begin to turn into berries.
Medium:
Large, medium and small:
Looks like we'll finally get some blueberries, in our 3rd season!!!
All my
pepper starts that were planted in the garden are not looking well. The leaves look like they have been eaten up by something.
My nursery
jalapeno plant is looking better than the starts, but it too has had some nibbles:
Carrots are sprouting! After my double fail last year where both my plantings failed to germinate, I am hopeful to get some good carrots this year. I am pretty sure my seeds from last year were sterile. This year I bought Nanates from a local seed shop and am very happy with the germination rate:
The herb update:
Dill has sprouted. I think some thyme may have sprouted, but it's too early to tell if it's a weed or not. :) Basil didn't really sprout. I planted two nursery plants given to me by a friend.
The sage flowered and it is gorgeous!!! I love the flowers on it:
Far left is the oregano which always does amazing. Middle are the chives, which had pretty flowers. They are indestructible. Far right I had no luck germinating the cilantro seeds I saved from last year. I planted two basil plants (again from my friend) and ordered a cilantro start from my co-op which I'll plant when it arrives.
Strawberry patch:
They are doing super! I am picking off all the flowers this first year, to encourage root development. Next year I hope to be harvesting some berries (if I can beat the chipmunks to it!)
As you can see, two of the raspberry bushes are doing great, while one still has no signs of life. I won't dig it up since there's nothing to take it's place, but I have little hope for it. If the other two do well, I'll order one more trio next year and plant those next to the original two.
Greens are all doing well: Mesclun, Crisphead and Romaine, Spinach and Kale. Yum!
I planted some marigolds around my tomato plants this year to see if they help with bugs. The tomatoes are flowering and looking OK, but I wouldn't say they are thriving. At least they are still alive!
I have two zucchini plants sprouted and looking well! They grow so fast. :)
My columnar apples are also alive and kicking. The right one is looking better than the left.
See, this one dropped all the lower leaves. The top still has lots of leaves, but they have some brown spots on them. Not sure what that means?
Let's see, what else...
Oh yes, the onions are all doing very well. However, yesterday I noticed four had been dug up and a bunny nest was in the making right smack in the middle of my onion patch. Grrrr!!! I removed the nest, found the spot in the fence where they were getting in and fixed it. It's good to check the garden daily to nip things like that in the bud! Maybe the bunnies were eating my peppers, too?
Here is the overall garden view. I planted white wonder cucumbers and they are starting to sprout. It's my first year for cucs and I hear these are good for pickles. Hope so! I'm excited to see how the trellis my dad built will work for them. The white buckets hold another new experiment for this year. Compost tea! I'm using the "
Ray method" from the Praxxus55712 YouTube channel. Easy to do, but we've had so much rain I haven't used it much for watering.
Finally, I had to come up with something to do with my leftover starts and some Serrano peppers that my friend gave me (along with all that great basil!). I decided to try a container garden on the deck. The two green 5 gallon buckets have tomatoes, the white one has 2 Serranos and the others all have bell peppers. We'll see how that works! If my peppers in the garden die, these will be my backups.
That's it for May! A fun month for getting out in the garden. Now we get to sit back and watch what happens. Every year I enjoy learning new things, experimenting and enjoying the fruits of our labor.
