This month’s garden update is perhaps not as impressive as I would like. It turned out that many of my seedlings from last month’s update did not fair well, although I am not sure why. They were already looking a little sad before I set them out on the porch to harden off. And many did not survive the hardening off precess very well. Aside from the zucchini squash and kabocha squash, I am not sure any of the seedlings will survive now that they have been transplanted out. But it’s not the end of the world. At this time of year it is still early enough that I can go out and buy starts at the store if my own homegrown ones don’t make it. But I wanted to get the ones I have in the pots/ground now because the second half of May will be very busy, and I wanted to get them acclimatized now before things get too crazy for me and I sometimes don’t make it out to the “garden” every day.
In the pots pictured here, you can see I have purchases 2 tomato plants, one container variety that is a small slicing/cooking tomato and one container cherry tomato variety. The sugar snap peas are going great, as they usually do for me, and we have a whole bunch of cute little baby radishes coming up. Hopefully they will grow quickly so we have some radishes before it gets hot! You probably can’t see them here, but I also have pole beans coming up in the pots in between the peas. I may need to get some additional supports for them later because I don’t think the pea trellises will be able to take both. But I am not ready to do that just yet.
I also was able to get some sweet snacking pepper seedlings to come up, and I am hoping that I will have success with them. I rarely have luck with peppers, but maybe this will be the year! The zucchini and kabocha squash plants look a little wilted today, but I think they are still just adjusting to being in the sun so much and do perk up every evening. I will need to get supports for them, too, as well as the cucumbers I planted with the zucchini, if those actually survive, that is. I also have a couple pots with lettuce, kale and spinach, which you can’t really see here. I have a couple of empty planters that I don’t have any plans for, so I am thinking about buying some strawberries to put in those.
My daughter sowed a couple patches of perennial wildflower blend seeds, and we can finally see a few of them coming up. I don’t know what these cute little leaves are going to turn out to be, but they sure are cute! The irises I brought with me from West Virginia, which were once in my grandmother’s iris beds, are finally growing well in their little spot. I don’t know if any of them will bloom this year. In my experience it takes a year or two for them to really take off after being transplanted. But I am glad I at least was able to save some of them! (And there is a cute little volunteer sunflower seed, likely from the nearby bird feeder, coming up right smack in the middle of the irises!)
Also, if you noticed the big, white flowers in the header image for this post, those are from the “snowball bush” or Guelder Rose Viburnum Opulus that is in our side yard. The lilacs are just about done blooming, and these pretty blooms are at their peak now. Sadly, this shrub is not healthy. I am guessing it has been here for many decades and has not been cared for well any time recently. Some of the branches are completely dead, and as I tried to clean them out last week, I noticed that the base of the shrub seems to be rotting. It is likely that the whole thing is just nearing the end of its lifespan. So I guess we will just try to take care of it and enjoy it for as long as we are here!
Well, that’s all I have to say about the garden for this month’s update. What do you have growing in your garden right now? I would love to hear about it! Until next time, happy gardening, friends!
Kiel
