Well, last year turned out to be a total bust. Turns out a heart attack doesn't mix well with gardening, even if it's a recovery garden. At least not until AFTER the bypass surgery (which wasn't until October). This year, I can garden. Carefully.
So I'm starting with just a few plants. A six-pack of grape tomatoes, a six-pack of banana peppers (what is it with fruity veg?), a basil plant (or three, can't tell if it's one with three stems or three with one stem each), plus radishes and greens and strawberries growing in planters on the deck. And a new rosemary plant to replace the one that I'd had for a decade or more but was crushed by a falling branch last fall.
Spent about $50 on the plants plus compost. (Compost has gone up in price by 50%, probably due to transportation costs, so it was $30 for three bags instead of $20). ETA: just ordered floating row cover to protect the strawberries from birds, so add $10 to the total.
Last year's alpine strawberry plants are doing well, although I'd better get some bird netting soon if I want to have a harvest. Rhubarb plants are bigger and more productive than ever before, although I couldn't find the third plant when I was out checking on the garden this evening.
I never got around to planting garlic last fall (see above, heart attack and bypass surgery), but fortunately there are at least a dozen plants growing from bulbs that didn't get harvested during the summer. I did pull a few last summer (from planting in 2020), but with not feeling well, apparently I didn't get all of them, and they'll be this year's crop. They're even nicely spaced, since I must have harvested all around them.
The plan for this summer is to focus mainly on yard work, dealing with overgrown areas, more than the garden itself. Things have been let go for too long, and it's time to deal with them. Plus, I need the light exercise as part of my post-surgical rehab. I don't have high expectations for the harvest, just taking a no-stress approach, with gratitude for whatever the plants produce without worrying about maximizing productivity.
Weather has been insane -- colder than normal (but frost-free from an early date) and then suddenly in the 80s, so the tatsoi, that I planted nice and early, didn't grow much in the cold, and then pretty much gave up after a week of August-like weather, and sent up seed stalks. The lettuces and radishes seem less troubled by the crazy weather.
