Well, I think I’ve been hesitant to post, in part because I’ve been very occupied with taking pics, printing pics, and posting them on flickr (it’s easy to get VERY sucked into it), but also because it’s been such an up and down spring garden season for me. I’m declaring a change, now that the solstice has hit and the heat is finally coming on. The spring brought major house projects, that took what otherwise would’ve been solid gardening time away from me, as I was distracted by installing 10 new windows in my house (and the garden beds right outside of them suffered a bit with the foot traffic and such), and then painting the whole exterior– terra cotta colored (of course!). The windows, mostly thanks to my handy architect-woodworker father, are in place, though trim still needs to completed. The painting is done, minus trim that I’m waiting for.

So, the garden progress was not what I’d hoped it to be this year. Last year, when I first built all the beds, I had a remarkable season, despite late planting… So this year I had very high hopes. I inaccurately predicted the amount of sun during pre-leaf early spring in a new bed I built and put mostly sunny perennials into. Guess those will move next year– they’re doing okay, but not flourishing as I’d hoped. I did build a new wooden fence around the veggie garden, and moved that 6 loads of compost among all the garden beds, expanded the middle of the yard bed, started the perennial herb bed along the walkway up to my house, and put in a salad garden i’ve been eating from in the front. Okay, sounds like a lot of progress, but I’m an ambitious person, and while that seems to be a lot, honestly, the plants just haven’t gotten the attention they’ve needed. For the first time, I’ve had pest problems in a major way, and finally last week determined slugs were eating their way through almost all of my veggies and herbs. Using cocoa shell bean mulch dissuaded them, I think, and many look to be pulling through past the susceptible seedling stage. I invested in some organic pest controls (although I know how to make my own, I just figured I wouldn’t wait around until I got around to that), which has been educational. Tomatoes and tomatillos are coming along well. I gave up on cabbage/collards, as the woodchuck and the slugs and maybe other things have eaten them to the ground 3 times (hence moving the salad garden to the front, which has been HIGHLY successful– cats, dogs, and people are dissuading all other pests). I did plant some Martha Stewart seeds of those giant pumpkins– really giant ones– and the seedlings were unbelievably huge– the cotyledons alone the size of my hand practically. I am excited– and a little scared– to see where this leads. I should start doing week by week progression pictures.

In other news, we’ve had three weeks of the new farmer’s market we’re running– and 19 vendors and 190 customers last week!!!! All is going well, and we think it’ll just get better!