What’s Happening in the Garden- May 13, 2017

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the moms who may be reading! One of the many luxuries I allowed myself this weekend was taking the time to snap some quick photos for a blog post.  These were taken yesterday before the inch or so of rain that we were hit with today.

Spring has finally sprung here in Salem, Massachusetts!

Since we’ve had a lot of rain everything is lush and green… a very different scenario from last year when we were in a severe drought all. season. long.

Michael welcomed spring last weekend by replacing four of our five raised beds. They’re sturdy and should serve us well for five years or so.

I haven’t had time to do much seed starting this spring so I’ll direct sow some things and I purchased spring seedlings a few weeks ago. I saw these celery plants and decided to give them a try. We had a cold snap about ten (?) days ago and they suffered a little but they seem to be greening up again.

I also purchased  Brussel sprouts which were quickly chomped on by someone, a bunny or deer? Yes, we have deer in our yard here in the city of Salem. They’re beautiful creatures but not so good for the garden.

The sweet peas grew quickly from seed and the spinach is quite happy. They all just push those rocks to the side, don’t they?

My little row of Swiss chard is also being “tasted.”  I think those are bunny tooth prints.

The lettuce is starting to sprout. It needs some vermi-compost and rock removal, stat.

And then there’s the kale, always easy, always happy… you can’t go wrong with kale.

I did go wrong with this passion flower that I plunked in late last fall. I bought it on sale and I can’t find the receipt or container or I’d take it back.

On the brighter side, the liatris that I planted last fall are starting to bloom.

I scattered them in front of the garden fence. I may move more mid spring blooms into that bed to keep them company next year.

Our apple trees are full of blooms too. We may have a real apple crop this year! We bought some organic horticultural oil to spray on the trees to keep the pests away and it helped them get off to a good start. We’ll repeat it after the flowers start to turn to fruit.

I believe that this is the first time I’ve photographed an apple blossom. 🙂

Our horseradish is prolific and about to bloom.  I think it’s funny that these flowers will surely smell like horseradish.

In the beds closer to the house the bleeding heart are beautiful.

The lovage came back beautifully and I replaced some thyme with fresh new plants.

Soloman’s seal, iris and lamium are thriving in a part sun/ shade area.

And I’ve got a few tomato plants that are ready to go out in a week or two. I started these sweetie tomato plants at work with the participants in my program and brought some extras home when we thinned them out. They’re a bit crowded in their pots, but I think they’ll be okay for a little while longer. I’ve been watering them from the bottom in hopes of forming strong roots systems. I’ll keep you posted…

We got new chicks this  year so I made my first video!  You’ll hear me taking about them toward the end. I’d like to do more of this and work on making it a little zippier, but it’s a start!

 

I hope that all is well in your garden, wherever you are.  Thanks for stopping by and don’t be afraid to leave me a comment and say hi if you’d like to!

Love to you all,

Michele