april showers

japanese maple, lettuce (growing everywhere), dwarf sugar peas, raspberry bushes are getting some leaves, tulips, and thinned out the lettuce, which means we'll have a tasty salad for lunch and it also made a pretty bouquet!

We did some weeding today, transplanted some of the black eyed susans around the garden, and planted more seeds, including more peas, lettuce, mesclun mix, carrots, kale, sweet peas, cilantro, cosmos, cockscomb, and jerusalam artichokes. All three of our rhubarb plants have come up and our asparagus is a bit on the tiny side, but it came back this year. The weather reports are predicting a lot of rain, so don't forget your umbrellas if you are heading out!

basil

regular basil (seeds were saved from last year's harvest) on the right and purple basil on the left

seeds!

seed exchanging, okra seeds, itsy bitsy Italian Heirloom Tomato plants {bliss}

started inside:
-Tequila Sunrise Pepper
-Thai Hot Pepper
-Italian Heirloom Tomato
-Pruden's Purple Tomato
-Basil (seeds saved from last summer's plants)
-Purple Basil (from Jessica)

planted outside:
-Dwarf Sugar Peas
-3 Red Raspberry Bushes

More Raised Beds

Here's another big post to get us caught up to yesterday's work in the garden. (I should also mention that this post is being co-written by David AND Rebecca.)

In anticipation of our second truckload of soil, we again spread out cardboard to smother the weeds. Then the big day came for the truck to arrive.

We thought we'd include some pictures of the truck delivery, since the size of the truck was so ridiculous compared to the houses on our street. We also thought our nephews, who like trucks, might enjoy seeing the pictures.


We knew the pile of dirt would cover up the path and cardboard we had set up, but we didn't have much of a choice since the lot is so compact. Later on, we had to dig out the path that had been covered by the giant pile of dirt.


We spent almost an entire day shoveling dirt into the beds on the front end of the property.



Yesterday, we were able to plant annuals. We were surprised that we were this far along. This past winter, while we were imagining what the garden would look like, we didn't anticipate having the raised beds with annuals and cover crops planted by mid-May. We are experimenting this summer with interplanting vegetables and flowers. The theory is that mixing several different plants together is beneficial.


Under all that straw, we scattered a blend of cover crop seeds. I think we'll save the info on the cover crops for another post, though.


Here are some awesome aerial shots taken from our second story window. You can see the keyhole beds have been filled with annual flowers and veggies.

And below, you can see the soon-to-be-demolished fence. Our property line is about 13 feet beyond the old fence (with the open gate). That's our neighbor's table with chairs out there on their side.