This week was all about gardening. The artichokes have exceeded my expectations! We have been enjoying them and there are many more to come.
Rob spent a few sessions tilling. He has to break up big jobs to accommodate his bad hip. He finished Saturday morning. We bought some plants and also planted the small peppers we grew in the greenhouse. They’ve already grown since we planted them, so who knows! They didn’t get as big as we’d like, but we thought they were worth a shot. His tomatoes came out beautifully, and he saw ones smaller than his for around $3/plant. Since he grew way over 25 plants, he grew a worth of more than $75, minus the cost of seeds.
I worked many mornings, planting beefsteak, Glacier, Ultra Early, Sungold, Black Cherry, Striped German, Black Japanese, Roma and Willamette tomatoes, head and leaf lettuces, snow peas, beets, carrots, Anaheim, Jalapeño, green, yellow, banana and lunchbox peppers, spinach, SO many little onions, potatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, 3 small groupings of green beans, yellow beans, pickling and slicing cucumbers, butternut squash, acorn squash, pumpkins, basil, cilantro, dill and watermelon. I may have planted more, but that’s what I can remember. The garden area has one more spot for corn, and a few places to fill in with transplants of head lettuce I’m growing in another spot, plus succession plantings of lettuce, basil and cilantro all summer.
I also worked on my flowerbeds quite a bit. Rob bought me this lobelia to add to a pot that I had overwintered a geranium in. It’s not blooming yet, but there’s a bud:). I planted a lot of flower seeds that had been around for a long time. Some have not come up. Some have.
I finished cleaning out the old strawberry patch, and added a lot of compost to top-dress the plants.
I have some more edging to do in front of the house but the back yard is pretty much finished. Because I’m doing some extra landscaping, it’s taking a while in each area.
We got the sprinklers set up so the garden will be watered when the system does it’s rounds, saving me hours. I was hand-watering until I got the garden all planted.
I did do a few other things this week, but sadly they didn’t include much laundry, cleaning in the house, or cooking beyond what absolutely needed to be done:). Oh, well. I was pretty happy to be outside and the dirt will still be there inside when I get to cleaning! Hope I don’t need a shovel:) 🙂
My sister took us all out to lunch for Mother’s Day. We had a really good time, and it was nice to not have to cook.
Alissa and I have been working for hours and hours to complete her schooling. We just finished the rest of the bookwork a little while ago. Now, she is happily watching “The Hobbit” while I type this. I have some correcting to do, and scores to add up, then I’ll take it all to the Homeschool Satellite School we use on Friday–she will get a high school diploma, graduate in a cap and gown, etc. once they get the final credits recorded. What a weight off my mind to know we have completed all the requirements! We are both pretty happy today:)
Rob took Patsy and they got 4 garbage cans full of free sawdust to use as mulch on the front of the house where she planted her bulbs. She trimmed the leaves of the spent bulbs and put down the sawdust. It looks great.
Your garden looks amazing. I hope you get bushels of food. I know you will put it to good use. Congrats on Alyssa being done with school. You must be relieved that it is done. We have had rain, rain and more rain. Saturday was the only nice day. Wednesday is supposed to be nice this week and then more rain. Hard to get stuff done. I turned the heat back on Sunday.
I am super excited about school being done. I’ve been homeschooling for about 30 years. It will be a big change, but I’m ready. There are always other families I know that I can do a little lesson for now and then if I get bored:)
We are supposed to get a little rain this week, which we actually need pretty badly. I hope you guys dry out a bit!
What an amazing color the lobelia is! Just beautiful. We also had some big gardening days the past week. I guess it’s that time. We planted our first 4 artichoke plants last year, but something dug up and killed the smaller 3. We bought another plant at Monticello last week, and hope the 2 plants might eventually give us artichokes. Hoping all that needs to happen before Alissa can graduate flows with ease.
How fun to have an artichoke from Monticello! A couple of years ago, when we visited George Washington’s estate, I bought a couple packets of seeds–it’s just fun! I hope your plant grows really well this time.
Congratulations on the high school graduation. What a milestone for her and for you.
Honestly, I have a wee bit of garden envy going on. I know you think it’s a small garden compared to your house, but, wow, look at how much you’ve got planted. Love the artichoke. Remind me, did you start from seed or a plant? And it over wintered, right?
I thought you might be really busy when I hadn’t seen a post in a while. My community garden plots have all been started but I’m saving space for some warm weather plants. It was warm here last week but today is cool and drizzly. Temps will be lower for the next week as well.
Cheers, SJ
S.J., I’ve been so busy, there are some days where I just go around the kitchen in circles while I decided which thing to do first! (That’s what I do when Im overwhelmed, sad to say!) However, things are slowing down slightly, since the garden is planted for the most part, and Alissa is done with school, except for a few events like the actual graduation, etc., and my meeting up at the place where I turn in the work.
2 years ago, I planted the artichoke in the picture from a plant. I planted 2. Then, last spring, I started 5 more from seeds, and at this point, there is one artichoke on one of those plants. However, the plants are growing nicely, so I will likely get a lot next year from these. I didn’t get much last year from the older plants. Yes, they overwintered just fine.
I added 2 raised beds this year, in a flowerbed–for strawberries and herbs and a few extra veggies to fill in the spaces. I’m glad you got your plots going. I know I would do the same if there wasn’t as much room here as there is. There is a community garden only about 4-5 blocks from here.
We had rain today for the first time in a long time. It was sure needed!
Another busy week in the garden for you. So many tomatoes planted. Get those canning jars ready.
We emptied SO many jars this winter, so I’m excited to get things growing to fill them up again.
Your garden looks great! Such a contrast to here! Congratulations on finishing Alissa’s high school! That’s a huge accomplishment.
The weather has turned cooler and rainy these past couple of days. I see the cool-weather crops like broccoli and cabbage just relaxing, and starting to grow. There’s always a plant that likes the weather, whatever it is! Now, hopefully, the warm-weather ones will grow slowly until the next warm spell and then take off like crazy!
I do know I’m growing a great crop of slugs this week!!! They are all over my plants:(
Congratulations to Alissa on her graduation! And congratulations to Auntie on getting her to this point in her life! A great reward for a lot of hard work.
Thank you! I’m super excited for her, and for me, both!
Oh your garden looks great!! I have never tried growing artichokes before but you have lovely plants, and I know you will enjoy the fruits of your labors. Rob sure saved a lot of money growing all the tomatoes from seed, and what a variety you will have to eat.
Congratulations to Alissa!
Hope things get a little calmer after all the schooling and garden planting. Any camping trips planned? Have a great week.
I’m excited about how the recent rain has really made the garden pop! So fun to watch.
Yes, we made several camping reservations at various times during the summer vacation, so we had spaces available this summer. However, at least one of those times is already full of something else, so it remains to be seen which times we actually get to go! But, I know we will try to go as soon as we can, since we love camping:). We will have to pay a small fee to cancel, but it’s better than not having a space. Jake sure wants to go with us, so we will take him at least once.