Garden time!

The time has finally come to get to working in the garden!! We are so excited about the all the possibilities of good things to grow and eat! So far we have planted red potatoes (we want some Yukon Golds still), corn, zucchni, patty pan squash, carrots, bok choy and radishes. There is a lot of space left for more things like beets, broccoli, cukes and other things I can't think of right now. You might notice that I didn't say anything about tomatoes or peppers. Well, our climate is a bit cool for those crops, but I still might try a couple of plants of each yet again and hope for a warmer than normal summer!


Our garden shed/pumphouse has a lovely southwest facing side that is nice and warm. I've always wanted to plant something up against it and this turned out to be the year to do it. I found a type of bean that is called Yard Long Bean, which is a Chinese variety and it sounded like a lot of fun to try, but it's a big climber. So Frank so nicely dug up about 5 feet of sod up against the shed to make a little bed for these beans.


Here is the finished bed. I had some concrete edging that I found in the dirt under the cedar and had it in the pile to go to the dump, but it turned out to be exactly enough to edge this bed so it will be easier to weed and Frank can weed-whack up against it nicely. I've got the beans planted in there already although I had to lay some tomato cages on it until they come up well so those darn chickens don't go digging in there. They do love a good patch of dirt to look for worms and bugs in, but not my garden!!


I like this shot because it shows a little bit of everything. The camera is facing northwest, looking past the corner of the garden and at the shed with the new little bean bed. To the right of the shed and before the house you can see one of our nice blueberry plants. There are 4 of these in a row between the two buildings, as well as another row of young raspberry plants. To the left of the shed and further back you can see some red boards with a little white fence (to keep the darn peckers out!) that is what we call our salad/herb garden. It's only 8x8, but it's one we can work earlier than the big garden, so we can put in lettuce and peas nice and early. We also have our herbs in there up against the house: thyme, oregano, rosemary (my favorite) and I'll put the basil out in there once the tender starts are big enough.


Here is Frank filling his bird feeder. This picture was taken facing west-southwest and you can see the previous picture from another angle. He fills that bird feeder every day, and the little birds eat quite a bit of it, but also spill quite a bit of seed, too. Hmmm, guess who runs like maniacs when they're let out of the coop to see if there are any good treats under there? Boy are those hens entertaining!!


This property came with a number of wonderful rhododendron plants that are just now beginning to bloom. They are so beautiful and really are the signal of spring here in the western parts of Washington and Oregon. I need to cut some and bring them into the house.

So there's what we've been up to lately. We're having a lovely spring rain tonight that is watering all those new seeds into the garden. We're supposed to have at least a five day sunny streak when this is over, so things should be popping up all over the garden soon! Of course I'll blog about that, too! Hope you can stand the anticipation!!