Happenings in My Gardens

This spring has been rather an interesting one with above average temperature and below average rainfall followed by cooler temperatures, frost threatening and a fair amount of rain.  I'm glad to see the rain after a rather dry winter but soon it will be interfering with local farmers' planting.  In many ways it seems we are heading back to the old adage here to plant the corn by May 24 to have it knee high for July 1.

I admit to being a bit envious of my neighbours as I watch them plant their gardens but I know frost is still just waiting to pop up and zap those plants so I'm holding off aiming for the May 24 timing of old.  I've planted as late as mid-June and still had a descent harvest so this year with the unpredictable weather waiting seems rather prudent.  I have however bought a few plants and have been planting in containers indoors where I know my plants won't suffer a frost.  Some of these plants will remain as part of my continuous harvest indoor  garden where really the only things I have to worry about is lighting and spacing.  Oh sure there are the occasional problems but for the most part most of the headaches of growing outdoors are eliminated.

A couple of days ago we did a major rip-out.  Well actually it was started in the fall then the weather turned nasty so there were all the stumps, lava rock, a couple of shrubs, one tree and a bit of miscellaneous stuff to remove.  We got smart and hired this job out.  I will post more on this but I will say hiring it out was one of the best things we did.  The rip-out looked amazing when they were finished about 2 hours later!  We are still waiting on the 8 cubic yards of top soil to be delivered which likely won't happen until next week as they are calling for rain the rest of this week. 

We are planning on putting in a couple of new raised beds depending on whether we are moving or not.  That whole thing is still up in the air with us actually now considering taking our house off the market.  In the meantime garden plans are moving forward.  At this late date anything we plant as far as vegetables we will see some type of harvest if we move.  I did buy another strawberry plant and a grape plant (more on that) and will be buying raspberry canes this year so they will remain in pots until we make a final decision on moving.  The gnomes have had their biannual bath so the garden is in full swing, ready for the season!

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
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