Ups and Downs in the Garden, May 2025

 Here is what is growing in my garden and my house:

This is the spinach I planted last fall that has completely gone to seed with the warm weather. I need to pull it out and plant something else. I got some good spinach over the season but should have picked more. 

I have about 17 tomato plants in the ground. I used Walls of Water at first which helped them. When the plant starts outgrowing it, I take it off. Some of my walls are too old and if it's too windy, that can be a little rough on the plant. A lot of them are paste tomato plants.

Here is my cold frame bed that I kept covered over the winter. I planted kale and lettuce in early March. I have some cilantro in there as well. I had Tat Soi in it but it went to seed so I planted Bell peppers in their place. The weather is a little cool for the peppers still so I'm trying to keep them happy with the Walls of Water and milk jugs but I'm not sure how well it's working. I also cover it with the green row cover that is lying on the ground to the left when it gets colder at night (below 50 degrees). I planted my peppers too early in the house so they were getting really root-bound in their little pots and I felt like I had to plant them outside.

Here's my two little pepper plants crowded inside the Walls of Water. The stakes help them not get crushed by falling walls.

I picked some lettuce yesterday for our dinner today.

Here are my green beans. The ones you see I started in the house. There should also be some seeds sprouting soon. We planted seeds in the ground that are supposed to be better at germinating in cold soil. We'll see how they do. 

Here is my asparagus bed. We got a little asparagus harvest--I was not that impressed with how little it was. It probably needs more water throughout the summer than I give it. I planted a few more plants but it takes three years to mature so it's a slow crop.

My garlic plants are doing well. I planted those in November. We've used up most of the garlic we harvested last summer so I guess I didn't plant too much.

This bed has a few onions and beets. I planted some more beets and lettuce here yesterday.

I planted cucumbers and zucchini in this bed. They're struggling along. The milk jug is supposed to be protecting a tender basil plant. Basil plants get sunburned really easily so you have to adjust them to the outdoors slowly. Mine got pretty sunburnt but hopefully it will recover.

Here are my snow peas. I started some of those inside this year and planted some seeds outside too, around the middle of March. I have yet to pick any but I'm hoping for this week.

Here are the onions I started from seeds in January. I planted them outside in March.

Here are my strawberries. I'm not going to get an amazing harvest but we have gotten a few so far this spring. Growing strawberries is definitely not my strength but they are way sweeter (and smaller) than the ones in the store.

I'm excited about my grape vines which we planted two years ago. They haven't produced any grapes yet but this year they have a lot of little tiny grapes on them so hopefully we'll get some--in September when we'll have a lot of other produce to deal with! I hope to juice them and can them.

Here's what's inside. I have a few pepper plants and some zinnias, marigolds, and a basil plant. I also have quite a few tomatoes, pumpkins, cantaloupe, watermelons, and winter squash. Those vining plants seem the most susceptible to bugs so we will see how they do. If you want a tomato plant, let me know because I will not be planting all those in my garden. Some of these plants REALLY need to be planted outside but I'm waiting a few days until the weather is a little warmer.

I really prefer planting seeds inside because I have so much more control over the conditions and I have a much better germination rate. However, I did plant about 12 nasturtium seeds and none of them--as in zero--germinated, so they must have been old.

We also planted some corn seeds a week ago (outside, not shown) and those seeds are a little old so I'm not sure how well those are going to come up.