Planting Day Turned Into Planting Weeks
There’s so much going on during planting season! It’s the end of the school year, kids are graduating, end of school activities are taking up time. I had a minor surgery. Life is crazy and it’s hard to get all the garden prep and planting done.
So exactly how much did I get done in the garden?
About half. Almost. Here’s a peek at a few of the items that went into the dirt over the last two weeks.
Tomatoes of course!
This is my top priority every year. I grow all our tomatoes. These are large slicing tomatoes for fresh eating, small salad tomatoes for fresh eating, and paste tomatoes that I use to make all our canned tomatoes, ketchup, salsa, spaghetti sauce, etc… This year I have 58 tomato plants in the ground.
If you watched my planting day video on YouTube then you know my amish paste tomatoes struggled as seedlings. I am happy to announce that after two weeks in the garden dirt they are looking normal again and starting to grow and thrive!
Tomatillos!
I only planted 5 this year. That seems to be enough for us for salsa verde for the year.
Peppers!
I planted 37 hot peppers of various sorts and 60 sweet peppers, also of various sorts. I put them in raised beds this year. I can’t wait to pickle pepperoncinis, eat fresh sweet peppers from the veggie tray, make pimento cheese, and try freeze drying them for winter use. I’ve dehydrated and frozen them before but this year I want to try freeze drying.
Excuse the silage tarp, the weeds between boxes, and the chicken fence that is about to be moved. I was just trying to get stuff in the ground and put blinders on to everything else.
39 Herb Plants Went in!
I had to split these between smaller raised beds because the bed I planned on putting them in disintegrated and broke this year. And I’ll be honest with myself and say it probably won’t get fixed this season.
I planted basil, parsley, bergamot, sage, cilantro, and a bunch of other herbs I can’t seem to remember right now. I’ve already made pesto once from topping the basil. Yay! I can’t express how good it feels to grab something from the garden while in the process of making dinner and eating it right then.
Onions
I wanted to plant 3 rows of onions but only got 1 in the ground. Oh well. They are doing well and that’s just life some times.
I added to the fruit orchard too!
I’ve got baby grapes growing on my concord vines but I added three more vines this year too (different types). I also added 6 more blackberries. Last year most of my blackberries were lost to some sort of root disease.
I’ll have to go back later and make sure all my new fruits get weeded a bit better. Again, just trying to get stuff in the ground!
I didn’t add any new fruit trees or raspberries this year. Our three current rows of raspberries seem to suit us fine.
And a bunch of other items!
I also managed to plant the following, not pictured, items somewhere on the property:
-celery
-jicama
-ground cherries
-flowers of various sorts
-potatoes
-4 more blueberries
-and lots of weeds (Ok, I didn’t plant those. They just keep showing up.)
Last fall I also planted garlic again and I just harvested scapes. I made some delicious garlic scape compound butter. I will, however, have a smaller garlic harvest this year because my neighbor’s chickens got into my garlic and destroyed more than half of them. 😖
Still to Plant:
I still need to get the cucumbers, dry beans, fresh beans, corn, watermelon, and pumpkins in the ground. Working on it. Not only is there only so much time, but my body can only do so much in a day. I’m also working on a large flower bed in the front of the house.
What are you guys planting this year? Let me know in the comments!