Turkey Tracks: The Garden is In–June 2011

Turkey Tracks:  June Turkey Tracks:  June 15, 2011

The Garden is In–June 2011

The gardens are all planted.  Several days of rain has been terrific for all the seeds and little seedlings.  Since I took these pictures about a week ago, the beans (dragon’s tongue, haricot verte, and a dry climbing bean) and–hold on to your hats since they produce SO much–the zucchini are up.  So are the kale, the lettuce, the beets, and the radish.  I don’t see the Hubbard squash I planted next to the zukes in the front bed yet though.  And I forgot to check for the winter squashes along the driveway now that the sun is out.  The potatoes are sprouting in their tubs.  No sign yet of the carrots or the cukes.  Here are some pictures of what is now an early garden, but one that is GROWING hourly.

The asparagus, there on the left, has doubled in size now.  We got about 5 meals this year–its third year.  The peas on the trellis are now halfway up.  Way in the back you can see the very healthy garlic–planted last fall–fronted by La Ratte fingerling potatoes, which I planted in late April and am hoping to “grabble” (sneak some out early) when my children are here this summer and early fall.  La Rattes are beyond delicious!

I planted four kinds of onions.  Two kinds are a bedding onions which should get big and round.  I planted scallions, which are all up.  And the onion sets I put out last year did nothing-it was too dry last year–and when that happens we can’t water a lot or we’ll run out the well, especially if the house if full of family.  I put the sets out again–you can see some in front of the peas–and they’re doing really well.

The raspberries are starting their third year and are making a lovely border fronting rugosa roses and some struggling bayberry that lines the steep hill to the left.  (We were afraid of grandchildren falling off our hill.)  The raspberries are FULL of blossoms!  As are the strawberries, which are on a hill at the side of the house.

Our big experiment this year is planting potatoes in tubs–which we got at our local Renys (a terrific Maine store) for, I think, $4 each.  We’ll keep the dirt in them over the winter , augment it, and plant something else next year.  Maybe squash?  The potatoes are sprouting as of this morning.  There’s a selection of 5 kinds.  I put the extras in the front bed, behind the brassicas.  The dried bean vines are planted beneath the new white fencing John upgraded and painted this spring.  Doesn’t it look nice?

The front bed is planted with cabbage, Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts, zucchini, a Hubbard squash, leeks, extra potatoes, and, at the far end, I threw in some sunflower seeds.   In the foreground, peeking out from a daylily, are some white flowers–Star of Bethlehem–a flower my grandmother in Georgia brought up from the swamp, planted in her front hard–when I was a baby or earlier.  They now cover the front yard in the spring.   The daylilies are setting buds, and the wind chimes along the porch sing so sweetly in a soft breeze.   Beyond you can see how dense and dark the Maine woods get in the summer.  They are full of mystery and beckon one inside.  There’s an intermittent creek at the edge of the woods, and by now, Jack in the Pulpit will be blooming all along its edges.

So, there you have it, the 2011 garden.