The April Garden

So, I know it’s a few days into May but I took these photos about a week ago and just couldn’t get the post written before April ended. But I wanted to share them with you and what’s going on right now in our garden. Our April garden is doing great! We’ve had enough rain that I’ve only had to water a few times. Last year we had tons of rain and the weeds totally took over our garden, especially the back area where we grow melons and winter squash. 

Our satsuma orange tree has quite a few little fruits on them. It’s so exciting to see these trees that we planted a few years ago finally start producing something. 

This is a wide view of one side of our garden. Yep, it needs to be mowed! We’re trying to gather cardboard to lay down and cover with wood chips for the walkways. 

Our herb bed is coming along! The sage flowered and died  back but a small part rerooted and that plant is growing. The comfrey is getting quite large and is flowering. I also have a small patch of calendula and fennel. There’s also a rogue watermelon vine that I’m thinking about leaving. I have such a hard time pulling plants!

This is the volunteer tomato plant that we over wintered. We pick a large handful of tomatoes each day. 

Our large tomatoes are producing and well and should be ripening soon. 

Our carrot patch is so unruly. Next year I think I’ll make some seed mats instead of just tossing seeds in the ground. But the carrots taste great so no one is complaining. 

We’ve picked a few cucumbers. I only planted 4 plants and probably won’t make any pickles this year. We still have some from last year because most of my family doesn’t like pickles. 

The summer squash is going go good! We’ve been enjoying the change from eating swiss chard and kale each evening to having some squash some night. Although  Esther keeps asking when we can make zucchini brownies as that is her favorite use of zucchini. 🙂 

I planted six scarlet runner bean seeds a few months ago. All six germinated but the plants are not making it. This is the best looking plant and I don’t think it’s actually going to produce but the flowers are so pretty. I’m going to try again in the fall and see what happens. 

Last year we has so much rain that our melon and winter squash area got drowned in weeds before it would really produce anything. This year I don’t expect as much rain but I also laid some cardboard and put straw around the plant to help keep the weeds away from the plant as much as possible. I know it will be harder as the vines grow but hopefully this will help. 

Our chard is still doing great but our lettuce has all gone to seed and is bitter. I’m leaving it up for the bees but will soon clean it out and give it to the chickens. 

These are our tomato cages. Each cage has four tomato plants in it and we have sixteen cages. Here’s to hoping for a good harvest. 

The moringa is growing and leafing out. We’ve had more rain than this tree likes so some of the leaves are yellowed. 

This is our new nectarine tree. It’s short enough that the chickens have decided to help us eat  the nectarine {ahem}. I’m hoping we get to try the one that is just out of their reach but it is still to hard to pick. 

Last year we lost all of our peach trees (four of them) to the massive amounts of spring rain we had. We planted this one in January. Yes, I know I’m supposed of take the fruit off the first year, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. 

The pomegranate tree is covered in blooms. We’ve never had one make a fruit but hopefully this will be the year!

Two of our four grapevines have small clusters of grapes. We’ve never had homegrown grapes and we’re excited to try them. 

This is what I brought in for dinner one night last week. This is what makes it all worth it. 

In case you missed it last week or the announcement in the newsletter, there is an essential oils round table going on this week. Each day is available for free for that day. My talk on easy body care products was Monday so unless you purchase the talks that one isn’t available. However, there are so talks that so very good. I listened to two of them this morning while I was tidying up the house. And learned from people who have been using and studying essential oils a lot longer than I have. 

If you choose to purchase the talks, today (May 3rd) is the last day of early bird pricing. You not only get the talks but you’ll get bonuses from the speakers – one of the bonuses is my ebook, The Gardening Notebook. If you choose to purchase the talks through one of the links on my site (or facebook page), you can email me and let me know (schneiderpeeps@juno.com) and I’ll send you an additional bonus of our newly released ebook, The Wellness Notebook.  

What’s going on in your garden? Share with us in the comments

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