Planting 2017

So far, we've got:

80 Russian garlic (planted in 2016)
60 German garlic (planted in 2016)
6 shallots (planted 10 in 2016)
the usual rhubarb and asparagus (perennials)
the usual perennial herbs (sage, rosemary, thyme, chives)
bramble patch for black raspberries (perennial)
6 banana peppers
16 New Ace peppers
5 cherry tomatoes
6 Roma tomatoes
a row of green beans (not up yet)
a row of swiss chard (not up yet)
3 or 4 yellow squash (not up yet)
dill in a bucket (with nasturtiums)


I still need to plant a zucchini or two for zucchini bread and maybe bread & butter pickles.

The spring tatsoi went to seed due to some unusually hot weather.

I'm waiting another week or two before starting the butternut, so it won't get too big before the garlic it shares space with is harvested.

The garlic count above doesn't include some transplanted rounds of Russian, and there are quite a few of those.

I waited too long to plant snap peas due to variable weather. I'm considering planting a fall crop.

No onions this year. The local nursery has changed hands, and they only offered white onions, and I prefer growing the red ones.

Planting all the things

It's Memorial Day weekend, a bit earlier than usual, but the weather forecast looks reasonable, so I went ahead and planted all the things.

Already doing well are 400+  onions, a couple hundred garlic plants (not counting the thousands of volunteers, but including the 6 Russian Red that seem to be thriving), the asparagus, a few snap peas that the bunnies  haven't found, and the previous years' rhubarb plants. The jury's still out on whether the new variety's last plant standing is going to survive. Next door, the tatsoi plants are hitting their stride.

This weekend, I got and planted:

• 24 New Ace peppers (a little anxious that "New" Ace won't be as good as plain old Ace, but I'm trusting my local nursery for now)
• 6 yellow bell peppers (just in case the New Ace aren't as good as the plain old Ace, and also because they looked good and I can never have too many peppers)
• 6 JetStar (Except I think there were only 5 in the pack, which is okay)
• 6 grape tomatoes (not sure of the variety, 4 of them planted in containers)
• 6 broccoli
• 6 marigolds

The seeds that were planted include:

• Butternut squash (throughout the allium bed)
• yellow zucchini (leftover seeds from last year)
• Scarlet Kabocha winter squash (var: Sunshine), because they looked interesting
• Bush beans (var: Provider)
• Swiss chard (Northern Lights)

I'm still waiting to see if the yellow squash (basic crookneck) will germinate. The weather was colder than I'd expected this past week. I may need to re-plant them.

There's a small colony of feral cats living somewhere near my house, and I spot them in my garden frequently. They seem to be doing a good job of scaring away the bunnies. Far less nibbling on greens, at least so far.