I was up far earlier than any member of my family, so I decided to take a quick early morning check on my garden. Things are coming along nicely, so I thought I’d share a mid-May report with you.
This is the largest of my pea plants – I’ve been working on training the tendrils upward now for the past week or so. Incidentally, did you know you can eat these vines? They are delicious! There’s no way I’m pulling these up, but if you’re interested to try them, you can look for them at the Farmer’s Market. I’ve had them in my green smoothies and also stir fried.
These two friends were born at the same time yesterday morning! Aren’t they sweet? I’ve read you don’t need to thin peas, because they grow well in thick vines, so I’m leaving them be.
Now I’m planting basil by seed, but it’s definitely taking it’s sweet time, so I had no problem buying this healthy basil plant at a plant sale I attended last weekend. I bought this plant stand to help keep the leaves up off the ground and provide some support. My son and I already nibbled a couple of the leaves….oh my, I can’t wait for pesto.
My pal Susan gave me a couple oregano and sage starts last week. Unfortunately, some of them didn’t take so well to the transplant, but I was encouraged to see these healthy top leaves on some of the sage plants this morning!
If I was to suggest something to a new gardener it would be this: grow herbs! I didn’t grow any my first year, and I look back and realize how silly that was. Herbs add so much flavor to your dishes and are easy to grow (well, most of them anyways). This year I’m growing two kinds of basil, sage, oregano, mint, parsley, chives, thyme, and tons of cilantro…
My strawberries are starting to flower, too.
I read over the weekend that strawberries are named “straw” berries because they are often grown with a mulch of straw underneath, to keep them clean. My daughter and I picked up some straw from the local feed store last Friday. What an experience! As soon as we walked in, we heard the chorus of dozens of baby chickens “cheep, cheep, cheep….”
I now have more straw than I know what to do with. I picked up a clean bin and will store it in there to keep it dry. If anyone knows how long I can keep it, let me know.
I’m trying something new à la Pinterest: growing celery from the ends of stalks. Here is one of my stalks, about 10 days after planting:
It is definitely doing something! The top is all new growth and if you look carefully, you can see the beginning of new stalks. I’ll be curious to see if this works.
Susan also gave me this beautiful chive plant. The flowers are edible – wouldn’t they look lovely on a salad?
I have lots of greens coming up, some of which I’ve already started to enjoy.
I seemed to have gotten the pest problem under control with my lettuce! They are growing wonderfully, and I have some seedlings coming up for subsequent lettuce patches to enjoy in a few weeks.
I have about a half dozen healthy rainbow chard plants just starting to take off.
I’m also growing romaine lettuce…
Lacinato (dinosaur) kale…
Red leaf lettuce…
And arugula (because you can never have enough greens!).
My raspberries are looking really fantastic too, and I can see the buds where there will soon be berries. If I was a fly, this would not be a bad place to live…
My onion starts have taken well and are starting to grow. While you might argue that onions are cheap to buy, I have to ask: have you ever tried a garden-grown onion? If you haven’t, your argument is invalid. 
My son is growing radishes. I gave my kids a container to share this year with two caveats: you must care for what you grow and you must eat it!
My daughter and I did an initial planting of rainbow carrots on her side yesterday, too. I’ll be curious to see how this variety works…
This year I’ve decided to grow some tomatoes in containers on my deck, to free up real estate in my garden planters.
Can you believe I paid just $3.50 each for these healthy tomato plants? Oh yes I did! There was an edible plant sale in Tacoma last weekend. Had I known the prices would be that awesome, I would’ve shared it! These are two chocolate cherry tomato plants, and an early girl will be going in the garden Memorial Day weekend, along with a couple miniature bell peppers. I also picked up a Thai pepper, but that may also end up in a container.
I’m growing – you guessed it – more greens on the deck too.
I have a couple volunteer plants I’m letting grow, too…
Pretty sure what I have there is a parsnip. I’m going to let it bolt in hopes of collecting the seeds and planting for a winter crop.
And pretty sure what I have here is a dandelion. Heck no I’m throwing it out! Dandelion greens are some of the most nutritious things you can eat! I’m going to let it get nice and big then it’s going in a green smoothie. (For more on weeds you can eat, check out the foraging class I attended recently).
I also wanted to share that I successfully dried mint!
I’ve been doing a lot of contemplating and reading as of late. My garden up until this point has largely been a hobby. I want to slowly transform it into a sustainable source of food. To me, this means determining how to grow and store food we use, how to save seeds and plants, extend the season, and maximize our growing space. As we work to complete the landscaping of our backyard, I’ve got my mind wondering about where we could fit more edibles! My husband had a fabulous idea of building a long running planter alongside the bottom part of our deck, and I’m still trying to determine where we could add in some fruit trees (a big dream of mine!).
If you’re growing anything, I’d love to hear about it – and if you’ve blogged about it somewhere, please leave a link!
For more gardening, check out my last garden update along with Erica’s Urban Gardening post.
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My husband loves having greens on hand and he built a little greenhouse last year. We’ve had greens since March growing in it! So fun to have lettuce on hand…besides that,we’re trying artichokes, red beets, cabbage, broccoli, pickling cucumbers (a must!) and of course, dill! We have more, but I’m afraid that I’d take up too much room here….
Beyond veggies, we have a pear tree (hasn’t produced yet in 3 years, we’re trying to figure that one out!), and my husband trellised dwarf apple trees along a fence in the back yard. We had apples for the first time last year, and have more set this year! We also have a fig tree (always a mystery what I’m gonna do with them) blueberry bushes, strawberries and grapes. Can you believe we live in town, on a “normal” sized lot?
Oh man – I’ve been thinking about a fig tree! Can you dry the fruit? Your garden sounds lovely – and can I ask, how did your husband build a greenhouse? We are thinking of building one using old windows. I’m curious how you did that!
I have a fig tree in my front yard and last year made a TON of fig jam, I’m thinking that this year I will probably combine it with some other fruit and do like a fig-strawberry mix. Last year was the first year that I didn’t let the figs just fall off the tree and rot (the tree was already there when we moved in 4 years ago); I’m glad that I finally found a use for them.
How big do fig trees get? I’ve half a mind to plant one…
Mine is probably about 7-8 feet tall, I don’t know how big it will get but it definitely has grown a lot this past year. I posted a picture of my tree here: http://bkdarr.blogspot.com/2012/05/garden-update.html
The tree is really low maintenance which is nice, we water it every once in a while and tie up the branches to keep it growing up instead of out.
Wow Christie, that sounds great! I might be slightly jealous
Have you checked the type of pear tree you have? Some fruit trees will not self-pollinate, so you would have to grow two for them to bear fruit. If it’s supposed to self-polinate then it sounds like you DO have quite a mystery on your hands 
i can not highly recommend watching back to eden (free online) just go to backtoeden.com. It is the most simple, no poisons, gardening technique ever seen, totally kids freindly. Not exagerating. Worth the time. Our church is putting in a garden, to teach others. It requires almost no watering. Really!!!! It sounds to good to be true, but I swear by it. We saw the garden first hand on a visit, and took home tons of produce (free), the best i’ve ever tasted.
Oh thank you – I will definitely check that out!
My mom grows just about everything and has 3 plum trees, 3 apple, and 2 pear. They are fantastic. They require less work than other plants and provide you with more than enough fruit. We’ve done it all to the fruit; dried it (whole and in fruit rolls), froze it, and made it into wine. Just wish I could grow more here in FL.
Thanks, Wendi! I think we’re looking at some small varieties – probably a year or better off, but it’s good to know that we wouldn’t need a ton to produce a decent crop of fruit!
Those chive blossoms would be good for a chive blossom vinegar…
Angela,
If you haven’t already, you should take a look at onehundreddollarsamonth . com. Mavis is attempting to grow 2,000 lbs. of food in her garden this year and her blog is full of tips and tricks!
I appreciate that in addition to documenting her progress with her huge personal goal, she regularly gives advice to those of us with much smaller gardens.
Yes, I am familiar with her blog and I’ve shared it here before! Thanks.
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