Positive Focus Sunday - Week 5 in the Garden

This past week has been a bit cool and very, very rainy. So rainy in fact, the kiddy pool I have which was for Lady K is filled. And overflowed!

The upshot of the rain is I have SO MUCH mowing and weeding to do. And while the mowing will get accomplished as soon as the grass is at least semi-dry, the weeding will have to wait. I have a ton of planting to get done. Lots of tomatoes, some of which I have grow from seed and others I have 'acquired'. Plus I have plans to 'acquire' more tomato plants in the next week or two.

But the good news is the tomatoes I have already planted are doing well. I do want to go out and move up the hog wire fencing up the poles by a foot or two. Something I have seen on some of the gardening videos I watch. Duh! I don't need to tie off the tomatoes until they get a couple of feet tall! 

So as the grass grows taller, my list of to-do's grow longer! At least I won't have to worry about watering for several days.

Anyway...

One of my plans for the garden this year is to introduce more of what I call 'winter squashes'. One of them is this Angel Hair Winter Spaghetti Squash. It's smaller than a regular Spaghetti Squash, so it should be great for one person. And they are flowering! So I'm not sure if I should be worried about it or not. Live and learn.

Another squash which has started sprouting is my Smooth Criminal Hybrid Summer Squash which I direct sowed. It is a yellow squash which is supposed to grow vertically rather than a spreading horizontal plant. I will be looking for recipes to cook them which do not involve cooking them to death so they are mush with a bit of onions. 

My first sowing of Fordhook Lima Beans are starting to emerge. In the next week or two, I will give it a try by sowing lima bean seeds in a cell pack and then transplanting them into the garden. I'll be doing the same with corn. This is so far removed from how I grew up gardening. 

In the past, beans and corn were always direct sowed. In long rows. In a tilled garden. So what am I doing? Transplanting into a no-dig garden in a grid pattern. Talk about changes.

On the other side of the lima beans my Cocozelle Summer Squash. It's a zucchini-style squash, which if nothing else, I'll make a lot of zucchini bread. I hadn't planned on these, but I received a packet of seeds during a swap. 

My rhubarb is on its second year. I may harvest one stem (they are large) and make some rhubarb-strawberry jam this year. 

The beets and chard are starting to grow nicely. The onions are looking good. And hopefully my sugar snap peas will put on some growth soon. 

In the front yard, I did manage to strip the leaves from the bamboo and cut the larger pieces into 5 foot lengths and place around the herb garden. However, the chicken wire I have is not long enough to go around the area. So I have to pick up a roll of chicken wire this week. 

I think it will look really nice once it is up. I have some iris I will plant on the outside of the fence. And redo the mulch in the herb area. I have to transplant some of the amaranth which is in one bed. I'll put a lot of it in the veggie garden and some in another flower bed I am setting up. 

And yet more banana trees to dig up. Some will go to the plant sale this coming weekend for the Master Gardener group. The others I'll put around on the other side of the house with the others I dug up last year and moved.

And my bare 'bulb bed' from earlier this year, is now FULL. I threw some poppy seeds in there. The lilies are coming up, along with a couple of amaryllis. There is also some coneflower in there - white I hope. Yes, I could thin it out a bit. But that will wait. Until after the rest of the garden is planted.

Well, the rain is coming down. Luckily, it has been more of a steady drizzle than storming over the past week. But I am definitely singing 'Rain, Rain, Go Away'.