Finally, the garden is coming together

The front flower garden is beginning to look really good, finally. The peonies have opened, some iris are open, others are just beginning, the roses are open, the heliotrope are blooming. The plants are much bigger and the empty space that usually fills with weeds, then bare soil, is beginning to fill up. I am quite pleased with the progress.

Most of the day was spent working on another vegetable garden area. The tiller quit working so it had to be taken to be worked on. This slowed the progress but even so, I am pleased that so much has been planted over the past several days. In the vegetable garden there are plants of sugar snap peas, sugar beets – I am going to try to make our own sugar, brussel sprouts, tomatoes – I have a variegated tomato this year, radish, turnip, mustard, carrots, lettuce, melons, watermelon, spinach, kale, potatoes and cabbage. Not bad so far. The new seeds that have been planted include corn – popcorn, sweet corn and flour corn, more watermelon, green beans – purple, green and yellow, peanuts, cucumbers, soya beans, flax, amaranth, African millet and more lettuce. I also planted basil, zinnia, sunflowers and nasturtiums in the garden area. With any luck all of the plants will grow and I will get a nice harvest. The addition of the flowers was for companion planting and to attract beneficial insects.

 We are slowly moving the herb garden into the vegetable garden area. Jerry is building raised beds for the herbs. Each bed will hold a different herb. This will make picking easy for people who do not know how to identify the plants. It will also mean that I can grow more of each herb which I am really excited about. Some herbs, such as mint, I can’t grow enough of.

The fruit trees and strawberries are looking great. The fruit is maturing quite quickly this year. I noticed the grape vine is going to have a lot of fruit this year as well. I planted mint and chives under some of the fruit trees last year. Today I planted nasturtiums under the apple trees.

Some things just take time and there is no rushing a garden. It develops its own personality over time as the plants mature and grow. The great gardeners of the world know this and the rest of us are learning this. Flowers have their own way of showing up in a garden unexpected. Sometimes flowers disappear or change colors. For example last year I had three pink peonies, this year I have two pink and one white with a yellow center. No kidding. Nature certainly does do her own thing.

Tomorrow will be another exciting day in the garden. It is raining quite hard tonight and so I am not sure what I will get done tomorrow but if nothing else I will marvel at the plants that are opening, admire the colors mixing and invite visitors into the garden so they too can enjoy the bounty of the season.
Sheri