The Garden is Planted

Spring was late this year, and my raised bed garden out back is late this year too. Better late than never though. Hopefully we'll still have a good season. While prepping the beds (weeding, turning the soil, raking, etc.) I found a bunch of alyssum seedlings from all the white alyssum I planted last year in the herb bed. I ended up transplanting them to other spots in the yard that could use some low ground cover - always love free flowers!

Things not done yet... weeding the garden paths and the fence area around it. Please ignore all the weeds, one thing at a time.

Tomatoes

The tomatoes were started indoors from seed. There are sweet millions, yellow pear, plum, big boy, bloody butcher, green zebra and zapotec. I started them later than usual so they are still on the small side, but I think they should really start to take off now that they are in the garden. As always I've added marigolds from the nursery here to this bed to ward off pests.

Herbs, carrots, etc. 

The oregano and thyme are the same plants I've had for years, they are transplanted from last year's bed since every year I do crop rotation. I've added in rosemary and basil from the nursery. In my original plan I was going to do a few radishes, but I changed my mind at the last minute and put in a small row of rainbow swiss chard seeds instead. Then there's a full row of carrots from seed. On the pole tower (yes I used leftover rainbow yarn this year for the win) there's malabar "vine" spinach on one side and green beans on the other, both from seed.

Vines

On the black trellis in back I have cucumber seeds planted. On the new teal obelisk I was going to do just spaghetti squash, but when I realized how big it was in real life, I realized I had room for more than just squash. So on the other side I added in pumpkins just for fun - we have the leftover seeds from the pumpkin experiment a few years ago and I thought it would be fun to do again. Lastly I planted musk melon seeds on a small green wire trellis.

Flowers

In the flower garden it's a mix of zinnia seeds, a heirloom flower seed mix and wildflower seed mix. Half the bed will be zinnias since those always do so well, then the other half will be a fun surprise. Originally I was going to also put a few dahlias in here, but I ended up using them all up in the yard filling in gaps of the garden beds as the new plants and split plants grow to their full size.


Everything Else
Elsewhere the strawberries are blooming happily in their new little bed next to the garage. They are much happier away from the crowded peony bed.

The blueberry bushes are COVERED in blooms this year. I'm hoping for a good harvest.

The rhubarb survived the transplant to a sunnier spot, but it's small. I'll need a couple of years to get it back to size. The raspberries and blackberry bushes all seem to be coming back nicely, though it's too early for them to bloom. The fig trees are juuuust starting to come back - spring was so late this year I'm not sure we'll get figs before an October frost.