Seedy Saturday - Garden Update May 14, 2022

I am so excited about this breaking the surface of the soil. My Voodoo Lily! Not only is it a funky plant to begin with, I would love to have the weird bloom to occur for me, even if it is stinky. 

Plus, I had dug it up and overwintered it inside in a paper bag and then repotted it this spring and set it outside. So for me, that is a win in that I didn't kill it or forget it. 

These are my potato containers I planted at the end of December and the beginning of January, I think. Anyway...

I used soil from the containers from last year and free potatoes they were going to throw away from the store because they were sprouting. Win-win. But they have grown and are starting to bud up, so harvesting shouldn't be too far off. But I didn't really think about the fact I will have a lot of potatoes to store. Hmmm...

This bed is mainly for herbs, but is sharing space with kale for now. I'm picking the kale small in order to put it in salads. 

And this bed is FULL of lettuce. I'm picking a gallon zip lock bag every few days. And then giving it away as I am being overrun with lettuce.  There is my rosemary which I have managed not to kill yet and in another corner, some dill. 

But both beds look so lush and full and I am loving it. 

This is one of my flower beds. And all the 'stuff' which still needs to grow up some and then be planted out. Hopefully, I can find homes for some of the million (it seems like) of tomato plants I have. 

But the flower bed is getting to be the overgrown, lush bed I want. I know I will have to move stuff around in the fall or next spring as a lot of the plants are perennials. However, for now, I am loving it. My poppies are growing larger and larger and I hope I can get blooms this year. 

On the fixture in the middle of the bed I have cypress vines and moonflower vines I am hoping will grow up the poles during the summer. 

These are mainly peppers I need to plant out. Right now I am thinking I am going to plant them around the inside of of the 'fence' where my 4x4 beds are. But I also want to plant sunflowers around the perimeter of that area. So I will probably do both - sunflowers on the outside and peppers on the inside. 

There is also some sage and thyme I need to plant in the herb bed, along with planting some basic basil in one of my big garden beds.  In my herb bed I do have a cinnamon basil and a variegated basil planted. Needless to say, there will be a lot of seed saving in my future. I just need to remember to label them better!

This is the first of the 'large' beds I have started for veggies to be planted in ground. The front part is where I planted some potatoes which are coming up (and another reason I am worried about my potato storage in the future. At the back of the bed I have two teepees set up. One is for Italian squash for a co-worker and the other one, three types of pole beans. Also, I have 4 tomatillos behind the potatoes.

Then along the edge of the bed I have planted the first of the tomatoes. There are 25 tomato plants in this bed. Most of which I grew myself from seed, with 9 I bought. 

This is also the bed I covered with leaves from my neighbors yard in the fall. I plan on grabbing her leaves again this fall to cover my beds with. 

This bed is slightly larger than the other bed. It's about 32 feet long by 4 feet wide. And I am having to clear out grass and weeds as I go along. Hopefully, in the future, there will be less and less of unwanted growth. I'll dump my grass clippings on this bed, along with the other beds I will be creating.

So far I have 26 tomatoes planted along the outside edge. Then down the center I have lima beans, green beans, brown field peas and bi-color corn planted in squares down the center. Not sure if my 'arrangement' is practical, but isn't gardening all about experimenting and seeing what works and what doesn't?

In the coming week, I will finish clearing and planting this bed. I may switch out the planting arrangement and put the tomatoes in two rows down the center and then beans on one side and peas on the other side with a square of corn at the end. 

Once this bed is finished, I will start on creating beds which are behind the house. I have had cardboard on the ground and some leaves, so hopefully it won't be as hard to create rows there. I have some watermelons (sugar baby) and pumpkins (Jack-o-Lantern) to set out. Along with more corn, peas and beans. And tomatoes!

The new beds will only be 3 feet wide and the the length will be the width of the house, which is about 16 feet. The space I plan on making them in will give me about 4-5 new beds, I think. More corn, beans and peas will be planted with the melons and pumpkins.

Can you see that a freezer will probably be in my future?

One thing I do have to do is to figure out what I want to rotate in later in the summer and into fall. And probably things which I can overwinter. Kale, I know, will be one. I'm not really a broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprout person. So not sure what will be planted later on. 

Plus, I want to try taking suckers from the tomato plants I really like in late summer and let them root in water and plant them out in fall to see how long I can keep tomatoes coming. Same with the beans and peas. I would like to get my hands on some more Fordhook Lima beans too. But there will be some researching on veggies for the fall/winter - other than lettuce.

With the creation of the new beds, it will be an automatic succession planting this year. I figure it will take me a few hours every week to create a bed, so by the time I get the bed planted, it will be a week or two since the bed before it was planted. That way I can keep a harvest going strong.

But it's not all veggies.

The borage is going strong. I love the bright blue flowers and with the fuzzy look of the clusters of flowers, it seems to shimmer. I have been warned I will now have borage everywhere, but there are worse things in life. 

I bought these little orange zinnias at a nursery in my area. I love them. They are so bright and cute. Yes, I will be seed saving these babies hopefully. But with the blue of the borage and the purple of the salvia, the flower bed is popping with color on the 'older' end. 

This was a rescued phlox and I let it sit over winter in its pot. I am loving the striped leaves. I did put a ring around it to keep it upright and not flopping over. 

The sweet peas are flowering. And such an intense orangey-red. It is a mixture of different colors, so I can't wait to see what other colors grow. Once again, I will hopefully be seed saving. 

There you go - my garden in mid-May!

I still have to clean up the porch and pot up seedlings, mainly flowers. I need to plant sunflowers and hope I'm not too late to start some amaranth. All the indoor plants need to come outdoors for the summer on the porch. So there is still a lot of 'chores' in the garden. 

I am learning to work early morning and for only 3-4 hours. That's my energy level in the heat and humidity. The evenings are for watering (need to pick up a sprinkler) and a garden check. Plus, Slider doesn't like the heat. Poor baby gets hit hard by heat and humidity, so I have to watch and not let him get overheated by being outside.

But for now, this is where I am. While it does seem like never-ending work, I love it too much. Stay tuned for more updates.