What’s in My Garden in May?
Veggies Are Coming Up—Can’t Wait for Harvest!
Seattle’s growing season starts earlier than Syracuse, NY (where I grew up), and later than San Antonio, TX (where I lived for 15 years). Our growing season is relatively short, but our summer days are long. With a bit of effort, we’ll be eating fresh from the garden well into September!
We start most of our own seedlings or direct sow seed—expect for tomato plants (our season is so short it’s best to begin with larger plants). Our worm bins provide rich, organic compost, and we use only organic fertilizers and never any chemical pesticides or herbicides.
Since I need to spend my time out nurturing our emerging crops, I’ll leave you with this photo gallery today:
Baby Sweet William apples are beginning to form. We seem to have less than last year. Sadly, I think it was too cold for our pollinators at the proper time.
My hubby got 99 baby basil plants in the ground this weekend. I’ll be mass-producing pesto come August to last us all year long. Some will end up in holiday gift baskets too.
This pretty ceramic slug trap helps protect my baby lettuce from annihilation by the slimy critters.
Direct-seeded cilantro will grow well until the summer heat takes its toll.
Native Pacific Huckleberries attract a variety of bees, and feed the birds in the Fall.
This kale plant overwintered. I’ll be able to harvest it while waiting for our direct-seeded ones to grow.
We’ll be harvesting strawberries next week—if we can get to them before the squirrels do!
Nine tomato plants went in this weekend. There’s three varieties—all for making sauce!
We started placing plastic creatures in our garden when my daughter was a toddler. She’s in college now, but they still add a bit of whimsy to the garden.
An apatosaurus seems ready to chow down on our potato plants.
This snow leopard hopes to catch a slug among the spinach plants.
Nothing beats a Walla Walla onion from Walla Walla, Washington, guarded by a fierce tiger!
What’s growing in your garden? Comment here and let me know!
- Words by Andrea Leigh Ptak
- May 13, 2014
- 8 Comments
A die, I need you to come help me garden!
Whoops, was supposed to ANDIE!
Oh what wonderful looking gardens. I have learned to blenderize basil with olive oil and cover it with a layer of oil-place in fridge in a closed container and the center stays bright green and fresh for months- delicious in seafood dishes and with tomatoes.You are the true Green Queen.
I do that too! I also whir up basil, oil and garlic, and freeze it in the little containers that salsa comes in with Mexican take-out food. I use them all winter long in sauces, soups, and other cooking.
I love your photos! Do you just own a regular sized city plot of land? We do too and I run out of space every year, I wish I could grow more food. What do you have under your strawberries, is that sawdust? Where did you get your slug trap and how does it work? Thanks.
Hi Lindsey! Thanks for the comment. Here’s some answers:
– Our yard is approximately 1 1/2 city lots—about 8,000 sg. ft. It’s level and on the top of a hill without too many trees in and around, so it gets lots of sun. When we bought it, it was almost all grass—not anymore!
– We mulch the strawberries with wood shavings—essentially bunny bedding. You can get it at feed stores and some hardware stores cheaper than a pet supply place.
– The slug trap is a ceramic “bowl” with little slots and a removable cover. You add beer, which they love. They crawl in, drink up and get trapped and die! Can’t remember where I got it. Wish the potters at Seward Park would make some!
I love your little animals mixed in with the veggies! What fun! Lovely looking plants.
Thanks! They were a great enticement to get our daughter into the garden when she was little. She grew up grazing on strawberries, raspberries, snow peas, and carrots.