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The May Garden

SchneiderPeeps - The May Garden

Our garden is full and green and lush right now. I’m trying to enjoy it, knowing that sometime in the next 8 weeks it will become dry and brown and ugly. The pests have been relatively few although my crazy kale has aphids and the pill bugs seem to be multiplying like rabbits. Speaking of rabbits we’ve had to fence off our garden since our neighbors decided to just let their pet rabbits go. They’ve managed to eat all of our stevia and comfrey, most of the mint and even my fig tree. So, I’m having to rethink where I can now plant things.

Cara Cara oranges in the May gardenOur Cara Cara trees are the only citrus with fruit :-(. I’m not sure what happened our lemon tree had lots of blooms but it didn’t hold onto any of the fruit. Good thing we have friends who will let us pick their trees.

May 2014 gardenThis is one view of part of the garden. We have popcorn in the first bed and then repeater onions. In the next bed is our crazy kale that I planted in the fall of 2012 and I’m hoping will seed soon. We have some green beans which, of course, I don’t have enough of. It’s the same thing year after year.

buckwheat bloomsWe planted buckwheat in with some of our tomatoes this year as an experiment. The bees are loving it, it seems to be keeping the weeds down. I could have cut it before it bloomed and used as mulch but decided to let it go to seed and collect the seeds.

green tomatoesWe have some beautiful green tomates on quite a few of our plants. They seem to be ripening slower this year but I think it’s because we’ve had a cooler spring than normal.

pole beansWe also planted some pole beans. And yes, that is part of a futon frame. Carl thinks I’m crazy but once it’s covered with vines it will be beautiful, right?

lemon cucumbersHelp me out here, these are supposed to be lemon cucumbers and according to the package they are supposed to be the size of  a large lemon. These are the size of a softball. I’m hoping we didn’t get our transplants mixed up and now don’t have any cucumbers. Have you ever grown lemon cucumbers?

summer squashOur squash and zucchini bed is quite full. I over planted because last years crop was so pitiful. I may have gone overboard but I have friends who will help us out. I know some of the plants look like they ahve powdery mildew, they don’t. This variety has had those spots since the beginning. I have several varieties as I just mainly used left over seeds this year.

Did you know you can eat the leaves like other greens? You can. I have a friend who is from Kenya and she showed me how to prepare them. I’ll show you soon. onionsI planted these onions by seed in January which is late for us. I’ve also never planted onions by seed. I think in the future I will only do seeds. They look so great, even for being planted late.

ornamental gourdsWhen we bought our house all the windows were covered with rod iron rails. We took them off and I’m using one in my garden to grow ornamental gourds and pumpkins. I think it will be so pretty when it’s covered.

honeydew melonWe have several honeydew melons growing. We also planted cantaloupe and watermelons. I’m hoping for a good melon harvest.

garden viewThis is the veiw from the other side of the garden…

zucchiniMy family was so excited to start harvesting squash and zucchini instead of having kale or Swiss chard for every meal.

rabbit damage on fig tree

fig treeThe bunnies loved my fig tree. This poor tree has been struggling since day one. I was so hopeful this spring when it put out lots of leaves. We’ve surrounded it with some fencing to protect it so hopefully it will come back.

How’s your May garden going? Leave links in the comments so we can all visit.

 

Thanks for sharing with your friends!

lisa M

Thursday 29th of May 2014

Your garden looks amazing! Unfortunately here in the cold north our plants are all still much smaller. At least it quit snowing though! lol Try grating some Irish Spring soap around the veggies the rabbits are eating....it works to keep the wild rabbits away, it should work for those too. Good luck!

Thanks for linking up with Green Thumb Thursday. I hope you'll link up again this week.

~L

Angi Schneider

Thursday 29th of May 2014

Lisa, Thanks for the tip. I had no idea that Irish Spring soap would keep rabbits away. You guys up north have a had a rough winter but summer is going to be great. Thanks for hosting Green Thumb Thursday!

malka Essock

Wednesday 21st of May 2014

i'm so sorry to say those "lemon cukes" look like gourds ;( lemon cukes are usually light green to yellow and round or roundish with sort of a crown on one end. i tried to look at your gourd bed and see if i saw any lemon cukes, but it was too hard to see…. now i want to grow buckwheat, it is pretty! your garden looks good!

Angi Schneider

Thursday 22nd of May 2014

That seems to be the consensus. I hope I have cucumbers somewhere in my garden. I'll have to go looking for it this morning. I'm really loving the buckwheat. I'm actually thinking of just scatter planting it along our fence line just because it's so pretty and hasn't needed any real care.

Cliff Hawley

Wednesday 21st of May 2014

I don't think those are lemon cucumbers. Those looks like some sort of squash. That isn't a cucumber-type vine and the cucumbers should be much smaller than that. There is a lemon squash so perhaps you misread the packet.

Cliff

Angi Schneider

Thursday 22nd of May 2014

ugh...maybe. I thought the vine looked more like squash but I've been keeping my fingers crossed. We had a wind storm that overturned some seedlings but I *thought* I knew which ones were which....apparently not. Is the lemon squash edible?

daizy

Wednesday 21st of May 2014

Your garden looks great! I don't think those are lemon cucumbers, looks more like a hybrid of spaghetti squash and zucchini. You will have to tell us what they taste like! I love a good garden mystery. I just found a local garden facebook page for my area in AZ and it is so much fun to see what people can grow in hot, dry desert.

Angi Schneider

Thursday 22nd of May 2014

It is amazing! We're along the Tx Gulf Coast so while we get hot,not that hot and not that dry. Do you read Five Little Homesteaders or Blue Yonder Urban Farms they are both in AZ. I'll let you know how the mystery turns out.

Anna @ NorthernHomestead

Wednesday 21st of May 2014

I am growing lemon cucumbers for the first time too. No idea what they suppose to look like (except from pictures). Very curious.

Angi Schneider

Thursday 22nd of May 2014

I'm sure yours won't look like mine. The consensus is that they're not lemon cukes. Can't wait to see yours!