In The Garden

I realized one day while working on the chicken coop roof that you could get a real good view of the garden layout from up there! So, I thought I'd give ya'll a little tour of the place now that it is starting to fill in pretty good. My garden is somewhere around 43' x 50', so that's like, a little over 2,100 square feet. That's just over twice the footage of my house! I thought that was funny when I first figured it up.
Anyway, We'll go around the garden clockwise, starting at about 9:00. I have several rows of potatoes there and they are starting to bloom, so it may be getting close to harvest some. I may harvest some small ones (new potatoes) and then let the others go on some more. Above the taters is corn (Silver Queen) and some peas mixed in. I think peas anyway. They are volunteers so I thought I'd just let them go and see what they do. Above the corn is the coldframe which still has some carrots in it but not much. Next to the coldframe is Blue Lake beans (2 rows). Moving to the right is 5 rows of okra, 4 of Clemson Spineless and 1 row of Burgundy. Okra is a favorite of mine and I finally found a way to freeze it so it still tastes good. Next over from the okra is tomatoes!! I have one row of Amish Paste, one row of MoneyMakers and a little further over a couple of Black Krim I just happen to find down at the local hardware store. That giant mass of green to the far right is yellow crookneck squash and zucchini. I made the mistake of planting some of these things right next to each other and as a result, may have some trouble with my seeds cross-pollinating. Just another thing I have learned recently. Moving down from the squash is where the onions were and where I still have leeks and spring onions. I harvested most of the onions this week. To the left of the leeks are cucumbers, bok choy, pepperocini peppers and eggplant, which never does good for me. It just sits there stagnant and refuses to grow. In the far bottom corner is my garlic, which is about to die over and be ready to pull. There is also some dill next to the garlic. Separated by the walkway (or future walkway) and on the outer edges, is the fruits and herbs. Raspberries, strawberries, grapes, catnip, lemonbalm, blueberries, and some flowers. On either side of the coldframe is 2 fig trees. I think they are Brown Turkey. I plan on adding much to the fruit/ herb border. Oh yeah, on the outer left edges are watermelon, cantaloupe and hulless oats. There is a fair amount crammed in there. We are planning an expansion on the right.

Some of the past few days harvest! Not a lot but it's getting better. My onions did okay but did not get real big. I must look into this and continue to amend their bed. I did keep the soil scratched back from the bulbs so they would expand but I think they need more nutrients. I will try again on onions later in the summer for a fall crop.
We are also getting about 18 eggs a week, some lettuce still and the raspberries are starting to ripen. Yum!! Won't be long until the wild blackberry crop is in too.

Unfortunately, we have gone many days without rain at this posting and things are starting to show it. I water some but am trying to use a lot of mulch to conserve the moisture.
On a better note, my Asiatic lilies are blooming wonderfully this year!

They are so bright and cheerful: I just love them.

I have also created 3 monsters out of these gals. I took to throwing them grubs as I find them weeding the garden and now they expect grubs every time I step foot out there! They line up at the fence and "talk' to me the whole time I'm in the garden. I'm thinking once the corn gets a little bigger I might can fence off the tomatoes and then let the girls in for a little bit to pick bugs. On the left is Little Bea, then Henny the Red and Big Bertha on the right. They are sweet chickens.