Late Start

Well, it's been a late start to the garden this year.  Our weather was crazy and we seemed to have gone directly from winter to summer in the matter of 2 weeks.  One year I remember planting some of my peas as early as mid-April (which, believe-you-me, is early for around here).  But this year I only got them planted on Monday (May 13).  A few peas were growing on their own, so I re-positioned them and have a few plants that are 4 or 5 inches tall at this point.  I also had 3 carrots survive in the ground over the winter (thought I got them all, but there's always a couple), so they are now in pots and I will try to get seed from them like I did with my lone second-season carrot last summer.  You see, carrots have a 2-year life cycle and only go to seed in the second year.  More information on carrots can be found at the carrot museum!  And there are about 6 onions I missed last year, too.  They are all sprouting.

I've gotten most of my plot weeded, although there is still a lot left to do.  And I did manage to plant a couple of potatoes that had very long "eyes" as well as the garlic.  So today I will go out, continue weeding, maybe thin out my raspberries, and possibly plant some lettuce.  Spinach should be planted now, too, BTW.  Although if it's too hot, neither will do terribly well.  We might have missed the lettuce/spinach window, but no harm in trying.

As a lot of you know from FB, I have extra tomato plants if anyone in my area is interested.  Most of them are heirloom, but not all.  I'll be most likely planting mine on Sunday as it seems any threat of frost is past (famous last words).  Of course, if frost does come back, we cover all our plants with old sheets, buckets and towels.  Never throw them out, they come in handy in early and late summer when frost threatens our little crops.

I'm going to be slightly less ambitious with my garden this year.  Every year I just pack the soil and the garden ends up like a jungle by the end of the summer.  This year the plan is to stick to the plants we really utilize, and not to crowd everyone.  To that end, I've planted my pumpkins in a separate area by our fence - not technically a garden, but I guess it is now.

Hope you all have a chance to go out there and get dirty.  My toenails won't be clean again until fall - so don't look at them!