7 Quick Takes: Really Boring Garden Progress!

In which there is lots of brown, and not enough green...

--1--

Cari's garden post reminded me that I've been meaning to do one as well, just because I LOVE looking back and seeing how far we've come in a short time!  So here's where we are right now...

We made a teepee out of bamboo poles and I set the kids to work starting some snap pea seeds in a dollar store seedling container.  A week went by and there was no sign of sprouting...  Then I happened to notice a cluster of purposeful-looking plants in the bed that we had reserved for tomatoes - apparently they decided to plant every single pea in the same spot and had been dutifully watering them!

So I transplanted them and they're actually doing pretty well, despite being in a SERIOUSLY weed-ridden bed.  It's BAD.  But it's so much work to get rid of all those weeds...

And speaking of weeds, those of the flowering variety are ALL over the yard, so I don't feel bad about letting the kids pick as many as they want!

Yes, she found a random roller and insisted on putting it in her hair...

--2--

We planted the pole beans and bush beans last weekend in another weed-ridden bed, and they've just started coming up!

I pull up the stupid violets as often as I can, but the roots are DEEP and they keep coming back...

And SOMETHING has already started eating the pole beans.  Grr.

--3--

I was pretty sure I had read that oregano is an annual plant.  But apparently not, since ours has come back with a VENGEANCE!  Seriously, leaves as big as my thumb.  And the sage is back too, which makes me happy!  The rosemary died over the winter, but I picked up a new plant at the farmer's market this past weekend so once I get the basil planted we'll have pretty much the only herbs I use.

Apparently I'm allergic to getting the camera in focus these days...  Anyway, I'm trying my hand at splitting the sage so I have more plants, so I've buried the middle of a couple branches to see if they'll take root.  Fascinating, I know!

--4--

We also planted summer squash and zucchini last weekend, and I think every plant has sprouted and is looking good so far!

In that same bed we have a bunch of random marigolds that we started from a dollar store seed packet - the germination rate is ridiculously high, and I've already thinned them twice!

--5--

The strawberries are trying to decide how they're doing...  We bought a few different everbearing varieties last summer after the season was pretty much done.  Then we pinched off all the flowers until July or August (because you're supposed to do that to encourage greater production in later years), and it seems to have worked for some of the plants - you can see the two in the front are CRAZY, but there are some teeny tiny ones too...  So we'll see how those do!  Still need to find some straw mulch somewhere...

And there are teeny tiny little fruits making their appearance already!  Think we can keep them away from the squirrels?

--6--

The lettuce is growing slooooowly, and I started some more this past weekend.  We had a mishap with John Paul falling into the bed after using the side as a balance beam, so noooot a lot of the seedlings survived!

And I have onions from seed growing in the same bed - I don't anticipate that they'll get very large, but have you ever had grilled spring onions?  DELICIOUS!

Right next to those I have cucumber seedlings that we picked up at the farmer's market last weekend...

And carrots!  Probably time to sow some more...  A stupid squirrel started digging and disrupted a row or two :(

--7--

Tomatoes!  Some are still alive, since the squirrels seem to have given up on ripping the leaves off...

And the peppers are alive but not thriving - it was really too cold to transplant them, but they were NOT doing well indoors so I kind of had to!  Luckily I have a whole tray inside of seedlings that will be ready to transplant at the end of the month, so we should have tomatoes coming out our ears if those do well :)

I get such a kick out of this - some of our garlic started sprouting and the kids were pestering me, so I sent them out with a bunch of cloves and told them to plant them.  And they did, and they started growing immediately!  I'll be interested to see what actually comes of it...  But the cloves would have been composted otherwise!

Cecilia's working hard at identifying what qualifies as a weed, and is hard at work weeding for me.  Heck, the kids and I are pretty much at the same level of weed identification skills!

And John Paul helped me plant sunflower and zinnia seeds in the front yard last weekend, so we'll see if they actually sprout...  

The goal for this weekend is to get a Mary statue and maybe start a Mary garden!  What better way to celebrate Mothers' Day?

Check out more interesting Quick Takes at Jen's!

And go read her book, Something Other Than God, while you're at it!