The Coco Cafe: May Garden Update

Time for the May Garden Update.

This month was cold cold cold. And rainy rainy rainy. My cool weather plants adored it, but they were alone in their opinion. Still, I watched in wonder as my lettuce/spinach/pea bed grew and grew and grew.

God bless cool season plants. I was even able to enjoy a lunch time salad with the thinnings of lettuce and spinach I took and in a week or two I'll plant more lettuce and spinach in the "rows" for a continuous harvest.

I also enjoyed success with my onion plantings.

And by the looks of the strawberry bed, we're going to get quite a harvest of those as well, they are all a-flower.

Elsewhere in the garden I didn't have quite the same luck,

All my herb seedlings died. This happens to me every. time. I attempt start things indoors. They die when I'm trying to harden them off, no matter how careful I am. Bugger. I replanted them outdoors in the corners of the raised beds and most are already sprouted now. I think next year I will either just wait until I can plant outdoors, or I will purchase grow lights for indoors. We dont get a ton of direct sun in the house, which might be why my plants are so weak.

I also gave up on my potatoes in frustration. And then a week later 2 of the 9 popped several sprouts out of the soil.

Does this mean the rest will come up as well? I have no idea. Well, I have an idea about 4 of them, which rotted in the overabundance of rain. The other 5 seemed fine when I checked them, and obviously 2 were more then fine since they are now little potato plants. So the remaining 3 are the mystery. I will say that what isn't a mystery is if I am planting potatoes in the same spot next year: I will not. It's a bit shady and cold I've realized, and the deck pours rain directly onto that bed. I'm thinking lettuces and spinach for next year in that spot. They like the cold and dont mind compacted soil. Sprouts or no, I'm not expecting many potatoes this year :(

And the raspberries Josh has named "his stick garden". Nary a green shoot on those suckers. We will see. We're giving them until the fall to grow something, a leaf, anything, and then we will decide whether to try again next year or not.

But I don't let it get me down too much and I purchased and transplanted tomato starts into the garden, despite the cold weather.

(cherry tomatoes)

(big tomatoes, and those are sprouted carrots you can sort of see in the back. I'll be planting more carrots when...um...when I finally get out there and do it.)