Garden Update: Early-May

Finally got the tomatoes in the ground...
Finally got the tomatoes in the ground…

First of all, let me say that it’s been a long time since I got anything posted up here, but now that school’s out for the summer, I should be able to post stuff more regularly.

Otherwise, it’s that time of year again when I start posting garden-related stuff.  We’ve expanded into another section of the yard, but mostly I wanted to focus on what’s growing and what isn’t.  Up top, we’ve moved the tomatoes to the larger plot this year.  Last year, we went with a similar configuration, but had the two trellises really close to one another, not knowing how well the plants would do.  Well, they did really well.  Almost too well.  To the point where light couldn’t get between the trellises.  Thus, we’ve put them as far apart as possible and will likely not put anything between them.  19 different plants are in there right now, ranging from “slicer” tomatoes to “cherry” tomatoes to “heirloom” tomatoes.

Some carrots, peas...and weeds...
Some carrots, peas…and weeds…

The other plot we planted in turned out pretty good.  The carrots are over-run with weeds and Brooke made a valiant effort (in the right foreground) to de-weed them.  The peas are moving very slowly, but there are some buds on there, so perhaps we’ll get something.  We dug up all the radishes on Tuesday night…

Radishes!
Radishes!

…and ended up with a solid haul.  There are quite a few “heirloom”-type radishes in that mix that I haven’t tried yet, as they sure look awful “root-y” to me, but we’ll see.  It was a mixed back of radish seeds, so we knew we’d end up with some different varieties.  Still, we’ve got a few gallon-sized bags in the crispers to munch on for a bit.

Blackberries and raspberries.
Blackberries and raspberries.

The berry bushes have been doing remarkably well.  We’ve seen some flowers on the blackberries for a few weeks now, while the raspberries are taking it a bit slower.  There are some starts popping up, but compared to their nearby brethren, it may end up later in the season before we get anything from them.

Trees!
Trees!

All of our trees are doing well, too!  We had to water them quite a bit early on, but it’s been rainy these last few weeks, so it hasn’t been quite as essential.  All of the tree varieties have leaves on them, though the pear trees are moving slower than the others.  The almond tree is probably doing “the best,” but the apple trees are close behind.

Back of the house
Back of the house

Lastly, I wanted to mention the back of the house, which is a bit more manicured than it was at this time last year.  I’ve been using some herbicides on the left-hand mulch to prevent stuff from popping up, so that’s making it stay pretty clean.  We were initially going to try and remove all those hostas, but we changed our minds and we’ll just have to remove the weeds from around them by hand.  We’ve also got some concrete bricks lining that bed now, so it looks just a little bit nicer.

I don’t have much going on this summer, so I’m hoping to get a lot more gardening in.  More posts to come!