GrowCookEat

Over on the Goodlife (Eats) blog, Katie has started a weekly 'GrowCookEat' post- which every kitchen gardener, might just want to participate in :).

I started my garden a few weeks back- back when it was cold and I thought the weather would never warm up ;)  It has warmed since, and promises to stay pretty much that way, although they have changed our forecast since this morning :)
So I thought I would do a last minute post about my garden, and then try to keep up with weekly posts.  It is always interesting to see what is happening where anyway!


On to the garden!

FRUIT:  I have plenty of fruit in the garden growing, whether or not I get to eat it is another matter entirely!  Closest to the house, and housed in a pot, is my fig tree.

Right now it is little more than twig-stems and these tiny leaves.  I was thrilled, because last year I had a cold snap that just sent it back to the ground.  I can't say that I have had any decent fruit yet- this will be my third year, but I do indeed get figs :)  Tiny figs!  I am hoping for something better this year...

I have two blueberry bushes.  It is debatable whether I will get much out of them this year as I JUST bought one and the other has yet to flower much.  But I live in hope :)  You met the pawpaw (again) in my previous post, so next up are the raspberries...

Just getting ready to flower!  These were a delightful gift from my friend Molly- and now they are going wild!  I must have dozens of new canes shooting up just these past few weeks!  I love that (shame the ants like the raspberries too!).

As a companion, there are my (or the kids' rather) new strawberry plants...

They share a bed with my chives (also seen in a previous post) and the future herbs I hope to host in this same bed.  I am waiting for our herbs galore festival, but I already have a list!  The kids are quite excited to see these berries already!

Further over on the hill, the Trifoliate Orange is beginning to show its fruit.  I showed the flowers from just last week, the heat made them last just a few days!

And now on to the vegetables!  I showed the broccoli and potatoes earlier- nothing spectacular about the broccoli, but the potatoes are really doing well!  I hope I get lots of potatoes- I get very mixed luck with them!  (It is dependant on weather).

But there is almost a bed full of them and I am always hopeful!

Here is one of the onions... well shallots actually :)  These are pretty experimental for me... a new thing to my garden (at least in that I managed to plant them on time, I think I might have tried them once before...)  They are tiny, taking up a very small portion of the square foot they were in.

You can see how big it is :)  There are several shallots in each square, I think 4, so they should all be coming up soon!

Swiss chard seedlings.  I have 4 squares, each with 1 allocated plant.  This one of course is waiting to be thinned :)

Carrots.  Also waiting to be thinned ;)  I am waiting for the second set of leaves on my seedlings, by the way, before I thin much!

 Spinach.  Three squares with spinach.  I am hoping these do well, I love fresh spinach!  especially with strawberries!

 Lettuce- another three squares with lettuce.  In both cases there are about 4 plants to each square, and I have planted them in a spot which will eventually have shade as the weather warms and the pawpaw grows leaves :)  This is important to these cool weather crops which get bitter with heat and tend to bolt.  You can see this lettuce mix is one with a red tint- heirloom variety!

Beet seedlings.  They look almost identical to Swiss Chard seedlings (so I might have my pictures mixed up LOL) because chard is essentially beet leaves!  I thinned these after taking the photo!

In the next couple of weeks I will be getting ready to plant corn, beans and limas... and of course, my herbs :)
I also hope to pick up 2 tomato plants, indeterminate, one cherry and one large!  Keep watching!