This has been a warm, then wet, then hot spring. Then cold again. And now probably just hot for a while! Weird for all the plants and their growth cycles. For example, my peppers are only 3 inches tall (too cold!) but still alive! Bell peppers never even sprouted. Yet the lemon balm died in the heat. And the radishes are ready to harvest. Crazy this year! Ugh!
It is so much fun having my bin garden easily accessible right out of my front door. And flatish. Also right outside my back slider is the permanent garden with strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and boysenberries. Also huckleberries which did flower briefly but never made it to actual berries. And red flame grapes (flowering now and growing vines like crazy). And artichokes now going to flower – such beautiful huge purple flowers! The grape kiwis did not flower but are growing finally and very quickly. We’ll need to get those on trellises soon. So… busy out there also. The things growing the best however are the damn morning glories! I swear I pull so many out every day and then they are back. Grrrr… my two trumpet bushes flowered earlier but now are growing vines so hopefully they will truly flower this summer. I was just excited they made it through the heat so soon after we planted them last summer, and then this crazy damp winter with so much fog!
The bins are finally all planted out too. The various squash plants have started flowering. The Lakota squash have started their crazy growth spurts with vines growing 6-8” a day. Also flowering. They are about to clear the side of the bin. The watermelons struggled the last couple of weeks but now are starting to vine out also. The green beans, honeydew melon, pickling cucumbers and butternut squash are starting to climb their various trellises. The carrots have started to also grow quite well. I gave up with the bell peppers sprouting (four tries at planting them from seeds) and finally bought two plants at Green Acres- a red and a purple pepper plant. I killed the sprouted tomatillos so I ended up just throwing a bunch of seeds in the dirt and several have come up. They are only about 2” tall but surviving. And this last week I transplanted Cayenne, Serrano, Poblano and Jalapeño pepper plants at about 3-4” tall. They seem to be hanging in there and thickening up their stems
The herb bins are so-so this year. I gave up and bought rosemary and Zataar oregano plants but the basil and thyme seeds sprouted and are growing slowly. The cilantro are almost ready to pick (some of them) so I planted follow up ones to extend the season. The lemon balm sprouts died and the parsley sprouts are barely hanging in there. So…? If I get to Green Acres I might have to buy plants again. Hopefully next year I’ll have a greenhouse that will work better for all of this!
The orchard is going crazy right now with plums, apricots and pluots galore! We have some very tasty green or English plums (very tiny cuz I don’t think I ever thinned that tree!) on a tree that also has purple plums. Both colors ripening on different branches. We also have two other plum trees and a Pluot tree. And the apricot tree is so full of apricots. Plenty of fresh fruit as the berry production goes down. Except the strawberries seem to be ramping up production in the heat. So glad I chose the Albion variety out of UCDavis since they are incredibly sweet! And should produce all summer long!😛
So all in all, plant life is going to town here. It is nice to not have to worry about the gardening in Shingle Springs anymore and just focus on this. I harvested the first radishes for Jenny this morning (more to come) and my flowers are really enjoying the sun plus water we have here! Have a wonderful sunny day!
