mountainsteading in rural appalachia: state of the garden: may 26, 2013

It's been a lot of fun so far figuring out what has worked so far in our garden. I feel like I've planted practically everything under the sun as this is somewhat of a trial spring/summer garden for us since we've never gardened in this climate before.

(Apologies in advance for bogging down your bandwidth with a multitude of pictures.)

Second lettuce planting. I had originally made seed tapes during winter that were a fail, for the most part
-- the tapes wouldn't stay anchored and the germination was very spotty so this bed was direct seeded instead.

L to R: Bronze Arrow looseleaf, Winter Density butterhead, Forellenschluss romaine,
Schweitzer's Mescher bibb, and Rouge d'Hiver romaine. All these have been thinned as they get more crowded
as well as cut-and-come-agained, which has kept us in daily lettuce pickings for weeks straight.

This is the seed tape lettuce, which looks good now but filled in very slowly
and frustratingly and is a method that I won't repeat.

Ching Chang bok choy on the left and two types of beets on the right: Golden and Chioggia.
I picked 2/3 of the bok choy yesterday to make pesto, so this bed looks a lot more barren now.

I knew that oilseed radishes were a fall crop, but I had enough on hand to try seeding a spring crop
and see what happens. Plus, this way it chokes out the weeds in this bare spot and makes for an easy experiment.

Tondo Scuro di Piacenza summer squash.

Tennessee Red Valencia peanuts (green) and more Rouge d'Hiver romaine lettuce
(as a weed suppressing companion crop).

Front left: Rossa di Treviso Precoce radicchio; back left: Cour di Bue and Red Acre cabbages; upper right:
Benning's Green Tint Scallop, Gray Zucchini, and Lemon squashes; top left: more radicchio and cabbage.

Left: Michihili cabbage; right: Ebenezer, Stuttgarter, Texas Early Grano
and Whethersfield onions (onion plantings extend way beyond the picture).

L to R: Catskill Long Island Improved Brussels sprouts; Winter Bloomsdale spinach;
De Cicco and Early Purple Sprouting broccolis; Sugar Ann, Little Marvel and Desiree Dwarf Blauwschokkers peas;
more (somewhat) failed seed tape lettuce; and Jacob's Cattle, Snow Cap, Lanco Edamame and Dean's Purple beans.
Note: I mistakenly seeded the Brussels sprouts much too early, but we'll just have to see what happens.

Desiree Dwarf Blauwschokkers pea flowers.

Beans interplanted with another round of lettuces. The idea is to see whether
the lettuces shaded by the beans withstand rising temperatures better than the non-shaded ones.

Overview.

Highly disappointed in the germination rate of the Red Giant mustard greens,
but maybe it just wasn't warm enough yet for them.

The saddest looking bed yet, but by mid-summer, this SHOULD be overflowing:
marigolds, nasturtiums, Swiss chard, mustard greens, and cucumbers.

Upper L to R: marigolds and a hodgepodge of flower starts, nasturtiums, Danvers carrots;
Lower row: Chocolate Stripes, Great White, Dad's Sunset, Green Zebra,
and Egg Yolk tomatoes (I had an Eva Purple Ball tomato, but it bit the dust).