Could we be later starting our garden this year? This has been a strange gardening year. It’s been a strange spring–rainy, which is normal, but also hot. Last year was a nice, cool spring followed by a mostly (and unusually) cool summer. Then we had an extreme winter. Does a hot spring and summer then portend a mild winter? We shall see…..
We finally determined to forego tilling at all (after attempts both to buy one and borrow one fell through) and we used a vintage row plow.
I thought people just used those for decoration.
Plants and seeds went in for tomatoes, green beans, peppers, and cucumbers–the little ones for baby pickles. I’m wanting to can some of them.
More vegetables, and cutting flowers and herbs, are yet to go in, but for now I have some volunteer mint (and a lot of it).
Luckily that’s confined in one of the raised box beds so it can’t go far. I do love mint, though. I just don’t want it everywhere!
The horseradish looks pretty happy.
And we haven’t killed our grapes yet.
And if there’s anything more pathetic than this scarecrow…..
….it would have to be a puppy shut out of the garden.
Later, it rained and poured and rained some more, but at least we’ve made some headway. We’re late. But we’ll have vegetables when everyone else’s garden is done. We’ll be the envy of every gardener! It’ll start a whole new trend. There will be magazine articles and books and a TV series called The Late Gardener. Media and gardening devotees will flock to our small dot on the map to see the wonder for themselves!
I just hope the chickens don’t eat it all down before we get famous!
Shelly says:
My mint took over my whole garden…
On June 14, 2010 at 1:14 am
christyw1 says:
Girl…. I am not far behind you! I recently planted about four rows in my garden. It happened to be a goat pen over the winter because it was the only fence that would keep the little stinkers in! We had to build a new pen for the goats and I finally got my garden back and got a very late start. Better late than never! I have tomatoes, Peppermint, canteloupe, watermelon, chives, oregano, okra, bannana peppers, green beans, cow peas ( I have no idea what these are but thought I would give them a try) and watermelon. Ok so that is more than four! Not all complete rows, but it felt sooo good to plant! Good Luck on your Garden!
On June 14, 2010 at 1:47 am
CindyP says:
Better late than never! :yes: Everything is changing, why not gardening times?
On June 14, 2010 at 5:26 am
Stephanie says:
Don’t feel bad…it has rained here for almost the whole month of June (like last year), and all my stuff isn’t looking too great. May have to start again. And I personally think the scarecrow has character lol.
On June 14, 2010 at 6:26 am
Johanna says:
I feel your pain. But as Farmer Karl, my neighbor across the road, told me last year when I complained that the ground here takes so long to dry out in the spring, “we’re always two weeks late into the ground, but our yields are always higher!”
On June 14, 2010 at 6:55 am
Linda says:
Puppies are very good at making you feel guilty, too, aren’t they?
Good luck with your garden!
We usually travel in May, so if I plant anything, it’s late going in, too. Just have to hope it survives the heat we’ve been getting.
On June 14, 2010 at 7:12 am
Becky says:
You are not alone. My garden got a late start this year, too. I am so envious that everyone is already eating cucumbers and canning green beans. But they will be envious when we are, so it will all work out evenly. tee hee :hungry:
On June 14, 2010 at 7:28 am
lavenderblue says:
Another Late Lizzie here. :wave: My son made me four global buckets (see forum) and then sort of lost interest in the project. I have peppers yet to plant, boy! I have planters that need emptying of old dirt. I need to fight a forsythia bush to get to my illegal, illicit compost pile to empty them and Saturday night I sprained my ankle so won’t be climbing through the wood pile (also illegal, here), past the forsythia anytime soon. (I have to have the compost back there so the city fathers and the nosy neighbors don’t find it.)
I also need to buy more dirt for my raised beds and haul the compost out to them. My mom always said as long as we have things planted around here by June 15…Oh, wait, that’s tomorrow! :bugeyed:
On June 14, 2010 at 8:54 am
Runningtrails says:
Girl, that puppy is just too cute! Someone is going to steal that one!
You might not get any ripe tomatoes if you let the chickens in your garden. They ate all the baby pumpkins in one of my gardens last year. All of them, in one aftenoon!
I have finally gotten everything into the garden except the tobacco. I am still gradually planting out the baby seedlings as they get big enough. That will be an early starter next year. Everything else is in, thankgoodness. Now the weeding starts!
On June 14, 2010 at 9:42 am
Miss Judy says:
It is so wet here our tomatoes (in our son’s garden) just rotted!I think I’ll “swim” out to the raised bed garden and pick some lettuce shortly. Usually our lettuce is gone by now. I guess that’s an advantage to late planting.
On June 14, 2010 at 10:12 am
monica says:
Planting this late at least you don’t have to worry about frost every night! That can’t be a bad thing–Right?!!!!
On June 14, 2010 at 10:47 am
Susan at Charm of the Carolines says:
You are very ambitious! Can’t imagine gardening in this heat. People are already dying of heat stroke here in middle Tennesse with heat indexes up in the 100s. Would love to have a garden, though. Looking forward to watching yours grow. Keep the pictures coming.
Susan
On June 14, 2010 at 11:33 am
KentuckyFarmGirl says:
I use my old “decorative” plow to lay my rows after we get the garden all tilled up. Sure beats using the hoe to make the row.
On June 14, 2010 at 12:11 pm
lavenderblue says:
Runningtrails, What is the tobacco for? Is it the pretty, decorative kind or real tobacco? And don’t you live in Ontario? Tobacco grows there?
On June 14, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Estella says:
My husband is tilling our garden today. It has rained continuously in our section of the Pacific Northwest. Has been dry for three days—so are trying to get the garden in before the forecast rain on Wednesday hits.
On June 14, 2010 at 6:39 pm
Nancy says:
HA! I just ate a snack of FRESH PEAS from my garden. Yup! The first time I ever planted any. A real, fresh, home-grown snack of raw, fresh peas. Two of them.
That’s right. I had one, tiny, little pod with two peas in it. But they were DELICIOUS!!!
Tomorrow, I’ll plant some green peppers…
On June 14, 2010 at 11:14 pm
One Sunny Acre says:
I was nodding my head, thinking–Yep, I feel your pain… That’s how our weather has been. I am so behind in my garden and the weeds are taking over. Then scrolling down the page I see you are in WV too!
I stumbled across your blog on NetworkedBlogs. I like your theme and header. That’s what compelled me to stop and take a look. (And the chickens too, of course.)
I grew up in Jackson Co. and moved away when I went to college and stayed away for nearly 7 years. Then I moved back for all the same reasons as you mentioned in your About Me post. I am now starting my family and living on a one acre wanna-be farm in Mason County (until I can buy the 50+ acres I dream about.)
Life is slower here and there is more time to stop and smell the roses. All the craziness out there just doesn’t seem to touch this place and that’s what I love about WV. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Great blog you have here. I look forward to reading more!
:snuggle:
On June 15, 2010 at 12:15 pm
farmershae says:
Thank you all sooooo much for making me feel less awful about my garden. I’ve been sinking up to my knees for the last month, and it’s only in the last few days we were able to get it all tilled up. I actually feel so bad about it that I’ve lied to a couple people and said it was going great! Now they are going to expect vegetables! What have I done?!?! 😮
On June 17, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Jennifer Robin says:
Talk about late gardens… I’m not convinced I’ll even be able to have one this year! The Pacific Northwest is experiencing record rainfall, record lows, and a distinct lack of sunshine this spring/summer. The rain is great, but no sunshine means my seedling can’t get past the sprout stage!
On June 17, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Shannon says:
just found your blog =o)
we had to replant jalapenos, red bell peppers and radishes because the tiny little birds got through the chicken wire and ate them! we also just planted the watermelon last Sunday … maybe late gardening will be the next big thing ;o)
On June 20, 2010 at 12:42 pm
Roni says:
Feel your pain too, our garden was late due to weather and a broken hand. BTW, you not tilling is also classified as the “no till” method. I tried this last year and it worked pretty well. The garden held in a lot more moisture and plants didn’t get washed out with heavy rains (common in OK). Only thing I did different was pile masses of leaves from the previous fall on the grass that was in place after the plants had started to sprout. REALLY made a difference in the weed control area. Love your website.
On June 21, 2010 at 1:18 pm