The Garden

I finished planting my garden this weekend.   Here's the broad view:

About 10 weeks ago, I started some Brussels sprouts, cucumbers, Anaheim peppers, and eggplants indoors from seed.  I didn't have enough light on them, and the project pretty much failed, save for a few hot pepper transplants which I got into the garden this weekend.  A month ago I planted broccoli and Brussels sprouts seedlings (bought from the nursery in 6 packs) - and they are looking good right now (that's Catnip in the bottom left corner - a perennial which was there already):

I haven't yet had to deal with large predators eating my plants - so far it's just small predators, as you can see by the holes in these Brussels sprout leaves:

But check this out - BROCCOLI! (baby broccoli, at least) :

Can you see the little crown down in the middle?  Hopefully I'll get to eat it before the worms, badgers, rabbits, or porcupines do.  Regarding insects:  I've been pondering using some sort of insecticide, but I decided that I'll probably wait and try to use nothing this year.  If my crop gets ravaged, I'll proceed to chemicals next year, but I'm going to try to avoid it for now.    The herbivorous animals will be another issue to deal with soon.

I also planted, from left to right below, cucumbers, eggplants, and green peppers from seedlings.  Yep - I put paper cups around the base to try to ward off cutworms:

And between the Brussels sprouts/broccoli patch and the cuke/eggplant/green pepper patch, I have peas:

It's kinda hard to distinguish the peas from the weeds I have in there.  There is a surface weed that is abundant in my garden.  It's tough to remove because it has very shallow roots, so if you try to pull it out, it just rips off and regrows.  On the other hand, perhaps this will mean that the weed won't be competing as much for nutrients and water since the plant roots are much deeper.  Who knows... Here is a picture of the weeds (it's not clover, although it may look like it in this picture):

Then, of course, we planted tomatoes.  Mrs. Dynamite read that asparagus and tomatoes have a symbiotic relationship where they keep each other's insect predators away, so we planted asparagus (which we eat a ton of) around the tomato patch.  If we're lucky, we'll be able to harvest asparagus next year - it's a perennial, but you can't eat it the first year (the stalks are too thin.)  Asparagus is amazing to watch grow though. It literally grows 3 inches or more per day.  I know this, because you plant it (root crowns) in a trench, and cover it with about an inch of dirt. As the stalks break through the surface, you cover them with more dirt until your trench is filled in.  It's easy to see that you can come out in the morning, cover a sprouting stalk with dirt, and then after lunch it's 3 inches higher.

The asparagus is on the top and right borders in the picture above. It looks like this:

I also planted basil and cilantro from seed, to compliment the basil seedlings I planted several weeks ago, which got thrashed by the cool weather. Basil is a total pussy - it can't take temps much below 50 degrees.  I planted one pot of sage, and some arugula, along with the hot pepper seedlings, in the same patch as the perennial lavendar and May Night Meadow Sage that was already in the garden when we arrived.  The Night Meadow Sage doesn't taste like regular sage - although it's supposedly edible - but it has big purple flowers, and attracts a ton of big furry bumblebees.  The arugula is immediately to the left of the purple sage, in the middle, with the traditional sage immediately further left of the arugula.  The pepper seedlings are below the traditional sage.  The big green patch above the plot, behind the metal sap bucket, is mint, which is also a perennial.

Finally, of course, there's the king of the garden - protector of the veggies, and He Who Pees on the herbs:  Oscar:

Oscar will make sure that there are no bunnies out munching on my stuff while he's out there.

-KD