Willy 2012 Garden

Our garden is coming up roses.
Not really. I don't have any roses.
But I have just about everything else!
Right now, everything is just in the baby stage...except for herbs and broccoli.
We harvested our first few crowns of broccoli yesterday.
On April 11th! I can't believe it, either...there have been years that our garden wasn't even started until after April 11, and this year, we are already enjoying fresh produce. Happy Spring!

I found a little surprise in the corner of my yard today...the nasturstium seeds I threw in the ground a month ago (in a rock hard, acidic, partly shaded, neglected corner of the yard) actually sprouted! If they bloom, our chickens will be feasting on some delicious snackies.

The strawberries and kiwi plants came back from last year, and they have doubled!
We cleared out the rest of the rocky area next to them and hope to expand their play area a bit...because who can have too many strawberries? We can't. We've only eaten one so far, this year, but the plants are full of pink and white blossoms.

Also returning from last year (with a bang) are the grape vines! Yay! We planted them last year and are pleased to see the vines making their way up the pergola. Last year the birds ate the grapes (there were only a few), but this year we'll play it smart and throw a net over the goods and hopefully have a few to eat. The vines are still very young to be depended on for production, so we're pretty pleased with the several tiny bunches we see forming after only 1 year of growth.

In front of the grapes are a couple potted rosemary bushes and a basil plant.

Our ever sterile raspberries (left). It's a mystery. Hundreds of blossoms, dozens of bumble bees and not one dang raspberry. I think they need more direct sunlight. They are planted on the north side of the house and are always shaded by the house.

The blackberries (right) gave us a few pints of berries last year and are back in action this year...hopefully with even more fruit to enjoy. I love that I don't have to do anything to these bad boys, they just come back each year and give us food. Easy. Yummy. And they're thornless, so that's a nice bonus.

Oh tomatoes...I can't ever grow enough. Especially after discovering ina garten's tomato basil soup. My mouth is watering for July. We planted a few heirloom rutabegas this year, some better boys, big boys, celebrity, romas (this is roma's last chance, they used to be our garden tomato of choice, but they never seem to thrive in the Arkansas heat, so we've moved on. I planted a couple with the hope that this summer will be a cool one. hahaha.) and an early girl. 14 tomato bushes in all and not one too few. I can never run out of uses for tomatoes, and even after canning and saucing and souping and roasting and brushetta-ing last year, we still picked every last greenie off the vine in november and wrapped those babies up in paper sacks to be enjoyed until mid december. It was wonderful. Garden tomatoes are gold...especially after the hell-tempered summer that tortured us in 2011. We know very few people had a tomato crop at all last year, so we feel very blessed that ours was plentiful. Hopefully this year will be just as productive with 1/2 the bushes in a new location.

Behind the tomatoes are our traditional zucchini and yellow squash. I love them and sing to them as I water (not really. ok maybe I do.) and look forward to baskets and baskets of squash and am determined to not use any curse words when we inevitably become over run with squash bugs.

More tomatoes (back).
12 lovely bell pepper babies that won't take off until the heat arrives. Fine by me. We love our summer peppers and just ran out of the diced frozen bells from last year.

What's in the empty beds, Meg?

Well reader (yes. you. the only one actually reading this.), on the left we have some baby red potatoes that baaaarely surfaced 2 days ago, so I buried them with more compost. In the other half of the left bed and in all of the right bed we have a newbie to the Willy garden: Asparagus! I finally got around to planting some, and if we aren't around next year to enjoy them here, well...I'll dig them up and take them with us wherever we go. I have almost a dozen spears that crept up above the surface (only to be buried again with compost...poor asparagus, such a trodden down life they live...dumped on for weeks and then blamed for stinky pee when harvested.) and while I am sooooo tempted to just pick a few, I know we will have a better harvest next year if we wait it out and let these little babies do their thing this spring. They are beautiful. Waiting sucks. Next year, asparagus...next year.

By the way...I think I planted at least half of the crowns upside-down. Oops.

Here we have the real wait. Sunflowers in the waaay back, more tomatoes (the early girl is back there), pea vines on the back right, green onions (seeds..just planted), cucumbers (right) just sprouted and will be climbing soon, and kale on the left side, which sprouted a week ago but is taking it's sweet time to not look pathetic. I might re-seed.

A jalapeno plant will go in the front right corner after I get more compost in there.

Spring veggies are thriving!

In the left bed:

the thyme is back from last year and looking lovely (far left front corner)

bush variety green beans galore! (right front and back)

yukon gold potatoes (lots of em, baby) (left).

pettite sweet carrots (back left)

dill (back right)

In the right bed:

romaine lettuce (back left)

bush variety sweet peas (back right)

black seed simpson lettuce (front left)

frog skin melon (just planted the seeds, they haven't sprouted yet) (front right)

when the lettuce is done in a month, we'll plant butternut squash (and lots of it) and maybe acorn or spaghetti squash in the right bed.

And finally, more spring goodness.

in the back bed left to right:

cilantro

pettite sweet carrots

broccoli
beets

more carrots

vidalia onions

yukon gold potatoes

in the front bed left to right:

loads of basil (can't get enough)

kale (just sprouted!)

romaine lettuce (for the spoiled hens)

spinach (some is ready to be picked!)

vidalia onions

carrots
greek oregano (back from last year and out of control!

In front of the house, the mint I planted last year has spread and covers a 2 ft space. I love it.

There ya have it. (are you still here?)

More posts (too many, I'm sure) to come!

What are you growing this year?

Am I forgetting anything?