It’s the end of May, which means it’s time to pull the spring veggies out of the square foot garden and replace them with summer crops. So how did my garden do this spring? Well, I’m glad you asked!
I was able to harvest a wee head of broccoli, a cabbage (that I planted last fall!), some Red Russian kale, a few handfuls of peas, Brune d’Hiver Lettuce, and lots of alpine yellow strawberries. Everything else was a big, ginormous failure–the cruciferous veggies didn’t form heads, the snowpeas turned yellow and died, the arugula grew to be an inch high and then stayed that way. I’m thinking I need to start taking note of what works and what doesn’t and stick with winners from now on.
So spring was a little bit disappointing, but I’m moving on. Oh yes I am! I’ve planted all but a few of the summer veggies in the raised beds. Unfortunately, I’m having issues with some mysterious animal coming in every night and uprooting one or two plants–it’s creepy because whatever it is, it’s not leaving a trace. No soil disrupted, no stem left behind. I fear I may have zombie bunnies attacking my garden. It’s the only possible explanation, right? I think I’ll try starting a few plants from seed again and waiting until they’ve grown fairly large before transplanting them, since whatever this is seems to like the little seedlings better than the bigger plants.
This is the second raised bed; the cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and broccoli plants are still in it, although I will probably take them out this week because I’m sure they’ll go to seed in this heat.
Beurre De Rocquencourt Bean plant
Cabbage that never really formed a head. Sigh.
Holstein Cowpeas
Edamame Pod–I’m growing two plants in one square foot of the garden, but I think I could have fit four.
A pepper plant that I bought from HerbFest
Purple of Romagna Artichoke
Corn! This is my first year growing corn, believe it or not.
Brune d’Hiver Lettuce
…and some May flowers! The perennial garden has been out of control. Last year I was worried I didn’t buy enough plants; this year, they’re practically growing on top of each other. I’m a little bit disappointed by this because now I’ve lost my excuse to buy more plants.
Have you gotten your summer veggies planted yet? What are you growing this year?
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Why did I envision a bunny lowering over top of the bed Mission Impossible style and carefully removing plants?
Something like that is happening! Seriously! Because what animal is capable of this? I even had a brief moment of, “Okay, some teenagers in the neighborhood are messing with me.” But then I realized that no teenagers would mess with someone by removing plants one-by-one from their garden every night.
I just harvested a couple of my onions and I think the rest of them are ready, so I will be eating and freezing lots of onions soon. They did ok but my shallots were a bust. I have 3 4×4 garden beds that will be freed up soon, not sure what I’m going to plant next.
I was thinking of growing shallots in the fall, but maybe not if you haven’t had any luck with them–the only thing in the onion family that I’ve had success with is garlic.
I love to see the produce season change, it’s like Christmas
gorgeous photos!
Ha! It is like Christmas.
I get all excited about it too–it’s so satisfying to cook with someone you grew yourself.
I can’t wait til I have a garden of my own so I can do all this
I think that was my biggest reason for wanting a house! I had a community garden plot before, but it’s not the same as being able to walk a few feet out to the yard, harvest some veggies, and then cook with them.
Ummm, ok #1 – I just planted my broccoli and snap peas a couple weeks ago. Am I doing it wrong?!
#2 – maybe you have a mole?
If we have a mole, it’s an incredibly determined one because it must have chewed through the weed barrier to get into the raised beds! But it does almost look like something is taking them from underneath the garden.
Are you in the north or south? If you’re in the north, that’s probably when you should have planted your broccoli and peas.
We are doing a community plot garden this year, our yard does not have a are for a garden. Since this is our first try at it we went full on. We have tomatoes, onions, shallots, red bell pepper, jalapeños, zucchini, cantaloupe, snow peas, radishes, tomatillos, Asian cabbage, and green bean bushes, since we did not get our plot until Earth Day weekend, I do not have much expectations for the spinach and lettuce. But we have had fun so far. We can try the cool weather stuff in the fall hopefully since we had seeds for most of it. My herbs are at home close by.
That must be a big plot–good luck! I used to have a plot in a community garden too and it was so much fun, even if my plot was the size of a postage stamp.
And I’ve grown lettuce twice in the summer and both times, it worked out just fine. It does go to seed a little more quickly, but I think you should be able to get at least some to eat from it!
I’m in NY. You scared me because I’ve never rotated crops before and I thought I knew what I was doing
However, this has been a crazy hot year here so who knows what will happen.
Yeah, growing up in Illinois, we only planted summer crops, so it’s taken me a little bit of trial and error to figure it out too! And then moving to the south has totally thrown me off. Gardening is a learning process!
We ae just getting ready to plant ours hopefully this week. Love all of your great photos!
I hope you’ll write about it–I love seeing what other bloggers are growing!
Nice looking photos! Congrats on the stuff you were able to harvest! I’m having problems with my poor herbs. I was so proud of my cilantro that sprouted a few weeks ago. Now? It’s dead. I think maybe they’re getting too much sun. I might need to move them to the shady part of my porch (I have them in pots spread out on the sunniest part of my front porch). *sigh* I was REALLY looking forward to growing my own herbs. They always seem to die on me.
I’m going to try and plant some pumpkin, winter squash, and cucumber this week. Maybe even some watermelon? But I kill herbs so I’m not so sure these guys stand a chance hahaha.
I’ve always had trouble with cilantro, but this is the first year it’s lasted more than about a week. (Knock on wood! I’m sure I’ve just jinxed myself.) I was told to try putting it in the shade and that really does seem to do the trick. Wish I had done that with my parsley too, because I don’t think that’s liking the sun at all.
I think cucumbers are the easiest thing to grow! Mine did really well last year until they got some kind of fungus. Which was totally my fault because I got the leaves wet when I watered them.
You’re killing me! My cilantro and parsley are in the sun, too. Ok, time to surrender my trowel! lol
The cilantro will probably go to seed pretty quickly then! Unless you have a mild summer. The instructions that come with the plant always say to plant in the sun, but the instructions are lying. Lying! So it’s not really your fault.
I wish I could grow a house garden. My herb plants always die on me
I think herbs do best when neglected. Maybe you were taking care of them too much?
those are some great pictures! I ‘m planting flowers!
Good luck! I want to plant more flowers too.
Everything looks good! Sorry some things didn’t work out, that’s always disappointing. I’ve planted zucchini and eggplants that form dwarf-sized bulbs and never mature, or I get only one mature eggplant. Hopefully summer works better for you!
Also, I’ve never seen yellow strawberries! For a second I thought you plucked them unripe.
I got so many eggplant last summer that I didn’t know what to do with them all. But that’s a good problem to have, because I love eggplant. But zucchini, I had the same issue you had–it would form on the plant and I’d get all excited, only to have it rot off after a week or two. Sad!
Looks wonderful! I’m in the process of thinning out my kale each night for shakes in the morning. I completely over-planted it and should have thinned it out sooner. Sadly, all my seedlings that I started inside didn’t do well once in the garden and the tomatoes that I have all came out of my compost!
I used up all of my kale last week to make room for the summer veggies. It’s so funny that you ended up with so many things growing from your compost–I hope mine gives me some plants too!
I just planted yesterday, I stuck with tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers and basil. My kids wantedmore tomatoes this year, so I planted extra
I’m growing all of those too. Last year my eggplant did better than anything else, so I planted more of that this year.
I have never seen strawberries like the once that you grew. Those are awesome!
I bought the seeds from Baker Creek, although I’m not sure if they still sell them? I’m amazed at how big each plant got and how many berries they’re producing (although the berries are pretty tiny!).