Cleaning up Plants and Starting to Till the Soil

This past week was perfect to start cleaning up plants including blueberries and hopefully will be cleaning up strawberries very soon.  I need to remove the straw from these plants before the good spring weather arrives.  At the moment my strawberry plants still have straw covering them, but many of them are starting to grow through the straw which is a good sign and I will start removing the straw very soon.  Hopefully this week as long as the weather is good I will remove the straw from my plants and start loosening up the soil for them.

I have cleaned up my blueberry plants by removing any weeds that started growing around them, removing old or dead branches, and loosening the soil for them to provide some air circulation.  I will be adding a mixture of manure and peat most around them in order to give them the nutrients they need to produce delicious berries this season.  As long as the flowers open and don’t wither I should have a decent season.

Yesterday I decided that it was time to get my potatoes into the ground before it starts to rain for quite awhile.  I also was able to get my pea seeds and radish seeds into the soil.

 

 I started tilling the garden yesterday and only did a portion of the garden instead of the whole thing.  I only need a portion of the garden in order to plant my spring crop plants and seeds.  The next plants that will be added to the garden will be spinach, lettuce, and possibly some flowers before the month is done.

I am still planting seeds indoors and when I get a good day of weather I place my plants outside to ready them for planting them into the garden.  I would probably say that my flowers will be the first to get ready to the weather because I need to get them into the garden as fast as possible.  These flowers are important to get as many beneficial insects to the garden as quickly and early as possible.

Running out of Time Planting Seeds into the Garden

It looks like time is starting to run out and I only have a couple of weeks to get all my plants and seeds into the ground.  Weather and other factors have prevented me from getting everything in on time and this can happen from time to time.  I will just have to work as fast as possible in order to get everything done before the month is over.

I do have my spring crops in the ground which I placed in the garden about a month ago and they are thriving with this cooler weather.  I am hoping to start picking the leaves off my lettuce real soon because they are growing really good.  Both my green and red plants are just about ready for harvesting which may be done by this week.

Even though I haven’t picked any lettuce leaves I did pick some of my strawberries that were ripe enough to eat.  I picked about four pounds worth of strawberries which is large for a first harvest of these berries.  I am hoping to get another harvest from these plants within the next week or so, then I can start focusing more on plants that need to be transplanted right away.

 Along with transplants there are some seeds that must be planted in the garden including beans, carrots, and corn.  I have planted my corn already and they have been sprouting and I have thinned them out this week.  Now I just need to till some more of the garden and get my beans into the ground before planting any other seeds.  My pole beans need a little bit more time to grow and produce beans and that is why I like planting them in May rather than June.

What’s Left of My Spring Crops That Need to be Transplanted?

This week I actually started placing my spring crops into the garden.  I have plenty of plants that I think I should get a decent crop as long as the weather cooperates for the time being.  Spinach was the first plants that I needed to get into the garden.  They were starting to get a little bit pot bound and running out of room within the container.  Some leaves were also starting to fall which means they need to get into the garden right away. 

 Next I decided on placing the Brassica plants that I planted into the garden.  Unfortunately I lost track of which container had cabbage, broccoli, and brussel sprouts.  Since these plants all look the same when they are young it is very difficult to tell at the moment what they are.  In a couple of weeks they should start to take shape and I can tell you exactly what plants I added into the garden.

Next I wanted to get a new type of lettuce into the garden.  As you know I planted a large crop of lettuce seeds this season in an effort to make up from last year.  I planted seven different varieties of lettuce I was planning on having a great crop as long as they sprouted.  Some did not sprout which was disappointing, but I still have plenty of lettuce plants that did sprout which I hope to place in the garden very soon.

Once I get all my spring crops into the garden I will then start my summer tilling and get my corn, beans, and carrots planted right away.  I need to get them into the ground in the beginning of May and we are now getting close to mid May which means I must start planting them as soon as possible.  I am hoping to get them into the soil this weekend, but I am not sure if I can accomplish this with the time I have.

Many Fruits and Vegetables Appearing on Most Plants and Vines

It looks like this is the month for harvesting which may include tomatoes, beans, zucchini, melons, and many more.  At the moment I will be definitely harvesting zucchini, onions, corn, beans, and possibly cherry tomatoes.  All the others I might not be picking this month, but most likely in the month of August at the latest.

First on the list is between zucchini and onions.  Since most of my onion plants have fallen over this is the sign that I use when it is time to pull them from the soil.  I would say that my onions are going to be the next harvested vegetable from my garden.  Although I don’t use them right away because I let them dry in the hot sun, my zucchinis may be the first to be used for a meal sooner.



I have a few plants that have zucchini vegetables on them.  The earlier planted zucchini plants will have the first crack at harvesting.  The seeds that were planted a little bit later will obviously take just a little bit longer for some vegetables to be growing from them.



My pole beans are also on the list to be harvested very soon.  Some of the vines already have beans that are ready for picking which is quite soon for them.  The other vines are still in the process of growing and producing flowers and are not ready for harvesting just yet.  I will probably pick all the beans that are ready at the moment in order for the plants to continue producing pods.



Corn is also early this year and is usually picked in August, but this may be due to the new variety that I planted this season.  This is most likely an early picked corn that is growing in the garden right now.  I feel that I will be picking them this month at the latest.



Tomatoes I am also looking forward to because I have many plants this season and I might have enough to last a little bit longer than usual.  I also use many of them for sauces and salsas so none of these tomatoes will be wasted.  Whatever is not used for sauce will be used for sandwiches or salads.

First Watermelon Harvested for the Season

This week was a little exciting with the first watermelon picked.  Although I did pick the smallest of the four that are growing in the garden it still was a pretty decent size.  The other three are much larger and I am definitely looking forward to picking them sometime in the near future.

I also had some cantaloupes that were ready for picking and I picked two of them which only leaves one more left in the garden to harvest.  I had a good crop of cantaloupes this season even though they were medium sized they still were very delicious.

Got the last beans of the season this week as well.  They were done a little bit earlier than past years, but still picked enough to store for the winter months.  I also had another harvest of cherry tomatoes and some peppers that are still growing in the garden.

What Has Been Happening in My Garden?

If you are wondering what has been going on this week with my garden, then you need to read the rest of this post.  I will be discussing a few things that have been going on including some events that have taken place and what plants I have left to transplant into the garden.  I also was able to accomplish some tasks this week as well.

Last week I was able to get my tomatoes, squash, and sunflowers into the garden with some great success.  This week I only had melons, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, and some late growing tomatoes left to be added into the garden. 

Melons and peppers are what I was able to get done because they can take a while to adapt to the soil compared to other plants.  This coming week I will finish up with the rest of my fruits and vegetables and after that I will add my flowers to the soil.

Watermelon

Peppers

So far only the bush beans and corn that were planted earlier have been showing signs of life.  The pole beans should be coming up very soon and I would think sometime this week they will begin their sprouting process as well. 

Corn

Beans

Other than this it has been a pretty normal gardening season to start the year.  Some strawberries are starting to turn red and they will soon be picked maybe by next week if the weather is good.  I will keep you informed of what is happening in the garden in future posts.