I managed to get almost everything planted in the vegetable garden over the Memorial Day weekend. To finish the tomatoes, I also was out there on Tuesday afternoon, but now everything except the peppers are in. All beans (pole & bush) were planted 5/27, tomatoes were done 5/29.
Below is the upper garden. The lower right bed has roots and greens - look how pretty the black-seeded Simpson and Merlot lettuces look. The lower left is snap peas, spinach (behind the peas) and newly planted pole beans Fortex and Purple Podded Pole. The little center tepee bed has Roma pole beans, saved and passed on by a friend. The upper right bed has cucumbers and zucchini, while the upper left bed with the fence contains fingerling potatoes and Blue Lake bush beans. The very upper left bed is still empty, except for lots of thistle. I plan to put in garden huckleberries there, but I need to get the thistle out first.
Below on the left is the lower garden. Herbs and cherry-type tomatoes are in the front two beds, main-crop tomatoes are in the back two beds. On the right is a close-up of one of the tomato beds. I planted 17 total tomato plants. Four are cherry types, two are drying types, and two Green Zebras. The rest are main-crop tomatoes, which are all new varieties for me this year in my quest for the perfect main-crop, all-purpose tomato.
It all mostly went well, except that I managed to snap off the top of the only Sungold plant that I had! My mistake is that I gave away all of the seedlings I didn't need before I did my own planting, so my two extra Sungolds were already gone. Lesson learned: never give away your extra seedlings until after you're done with your own planting! I kept the stem planted - who knows, maybe it will sprout some leaves and do okay. I hope so, because I've heard nothing but good things about this cherry tomato.
Lastly, a few close-ups of things already growing. The photo on the left shows the potatoes doing quite well. I just planted one-third of the rest of the bed with bush beans, and will plant the rest with more bush beans next weekend. I'm really hoping to get two potato plantings this year. I've saved my seed potatoes in the basement, and if they aren't too squishy and rotten, I'll plant more in July.
The photo on the right is a close-up of the snap peas which started flowering on about 5/27. This year I planted Sugar Ann from Johnny's, and I really like the growth habit. They are short enough so they won't fall over and/or shade the other things on the trellis like the standard Sugar Snap peas did last year. Hopefully they'll be just as prolific and delicious as the sugar snaps!
Your garden spaces look very cool - I like the design. Sounds to me like you've been very busy. I only plant tomatoes and herbs and rhubarb. I'm thinking your summer and winter eats are going to way better!!
Posted by: kris | June 01, 2007 at 08:08 PM
I did the same thing with one of my tomato plants! Only I did it well after I planted them, so I couldn't honestly wish that I hadn't passed along my extras. (Though I've been asked to help plant those extras this weekend, so I guess I could have kept them...) I hope it recovers.
Posted by: Jenny | June 01, 2007 at 11:24 PM
Kris: Thanks so much. We put in the garden three autumns ago, so this is my third year planting in it. I really enjoy it, and since our screened porch overlooks the garden, I like that it looks nice.
Jenny: Isn't it a bummer when you ruin your own plants? I'm going to wait and see, though - two years ago I had rabbits eat some of my tomatoes down to just stubs, and about half came back. We'll see in another week or two if it will work.
Posted by: Tracy | June 03, 2007 at 11:46 AM
I have extra Sungolds, think I could mail one or two to Minnesota?
Good job on getting the garden in! I just finished seed planting in mine today...
Ali
Posted by: Ali | June 03, 2007 at 07:11 PM
Those beds are beautiful! I will be back, to see how things are growing.
Posted by: Sandy | June 05, 2007 at 04:11 PM
Ali: I didn't see your comment until now - thanks so much for the offer, but you don't need to do that. That's the beauty of gardening - there's always next year.
Sandy: Thanks for stopping by - I hope to see you back this summer!
Posted by: Tracy | June 07, 2007 at 05:15 PM