Wednesday, March 30, 2016

The First Garden Tour of the Year!

I took a few pictures early yesterday morning to give you an overview of the current state of our garden.  I know most of you are just going to shake your head while looking at these pictures, but I wanted to start documenting this year of gardening.  (Okay, at this point in time it's still non-gardening, but it is the start of our season.)


Here's part of the asparagus patch we planted last year.  Even with good growing conditions, I know we won't be able to harvest much this first year, but we hope it will be a start to many years of having delicious asparagus from our own garden.  As you can see, the plants are still covered with the light mulch recommended for the plants over winter.


Our three 45' long rows of new strawberry plants put in last year are about two-thirds free of snow.  We mulched them on a really windy day late last fall so we laid cattle panels over the straw to keep it from blowing into the next county.


The raised beds are free of snow.  (For the most part.)  Yaayyyy!


The field garden still has to lose the last lower one-third of its snow covering.


This is my bed of garlic.  Can you see those little green shoots poking up through the heavy mulch?  No, me neither.


Lastly, our blueberry bushes and haskap bushes in the foreground and raspberry patch in the background.  Unfortunately, we originally planted these down on the lower slope of the garden too close to the tree line.  The sun doesn't hit that area until almost noon time each day.  We're just lucky that they all have done so well in that location.  We've never lacked for raspberries and until last year when those *&%! robins wiped out most of our blueberries, we've always gotten as many of them as we needed.  I'm planning on relocating the raspberries (starting some new varieties) in the next year or two but the blueberry bushes and haskaps will stay where they are.

Looks quite different than the garden plots of most of the rest of you, doesn't it?  We get a (much) later start to our gardening season up here, but our long days of light help to make up for it.

Maybe next garden tour, I'll even have something green and growing to show you!

24 comments:

DFW said...

Everything will be green before you know it. All I have growing are weeds at the moment & will most likely continue that way this season. Hopefully I'll get a few things planted this fall.

Sandy Livesay said...

Mama Pea,

I see those little green sprouts, yes.....I do.....in my brain :P
Before you know it, they will be popping up through the straw.

Even though your growing season is a little different than ours, you still get a really nice end of season harvest.

Planting seeds will be there before you know it. I see you're getting ANTSY!!!

Hugs,
Sandy

Laurie said...

Well finally. Those raised beds gives me goosebumps!

Susan said...

Well, at least the snow is leaving! Thank goodness for our hope-full imaginations! We didn't get a covering of snow, but we sure did get some might cold temps. Looking forward to all the tours to come!

Sue said...

We got that 8 inches last week and that's almost gone now--but I see in the forecast that Saturday is another storm. I know that's typical here, but after a taste of 50 degrees, who wants to go back to winter????

Rain said...

I love all the signs of spring! I hope your winter is over!

Mama Pea said...

DFW - When you have a "new" place as you do, you just can't do everything at once. Your garden will come . . . but I know it's hard to wait. :o]

Mama Pea said...

Sandy - Yep, I have to admit to a little "antsyness." You're always so encouraging. Hey, maybe I DO see some green sprouts out there! (If I do, you know they're weed sprouts!)

Mama Pea said...

Laurie - You are so silly! How are your raised beds coming along? A blog post update soon?

Mama Pea said...

Susan - We had rain all day today, and I wish more snow had disappeared than did. Must be patient, must be patient, must be patient . . .

Mama Pea said...

Sue - It really is not fair the way that old gal Mother Nature teases us! We have no accumulation of snow in the forecast . . . but no warm weather either. Drat!

Mama Pea said...

Rain - I'm not putting away my winter boots yet! (I'm still wearing them for all the MUD we have around!)

Rain said...

The mud....the horror....everything is melting here slowly and we're on a slope. I'm renting and the landlord isn't too serious about drainage in the driveway. My car has shrunk a few inches in the mud the last few days, I may need CAA to tow me out tomorrow morning! Our neighbour across the street offered me a cushy little spot in his PAVED driveway until the thaw is over, what an angel! Aaaah...pavement... ;)

Leigh said...

Yes, well, it certainly doesn't look like my garden - it looks like a clean slate! My gripe about our mild climate is that the weeds never stop growing all winter and then have a head start over the garden crops.

Michelle said...

What are haskaps?

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

My garlic is going nuts with all this rain we are getting, but I do home the sun and wind dry it up this season. Your garden always looks so tidy. I need to figure out where to plant my raspberry trees next.

Mama Pea said...

Rain - Your driveway situation sounds AWFUL! Mud season. Ugh. It's the only time of year I long for paved driveway, paved yard, paved everything!

Mama Pea said...

Leigh - Yes, I can understand your particular difficulties with those dratted weeds! And how to remedy that? Ugh, such a challenge. I find that if I get all the weeds out of the raised beds and field garden in the fall, they don't seem to pop back up so early in the spring. But I know with your wire grass that's nearly an impossibility.

Mama Pea said...

Michelle - They are much like blueberries except have way more antioxidants even! Developed originally in Japan, they are quite popular in Canada and now really catching on in the U.S. Also known as honeyberries.

Mama Pea said...

Kristina - Ha! My garden looks tidy . . . and barren right now! :o} You definitely have a head start on me!

Dawn said...

It looks so well organised, I hope you can get out there soon

Mama Pea said...

Thanks, Dawn. Organized only because nuthin' is happening out there! I'm starting the first of my seeds inside this weekend. Yay!

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Mama Pea said...

Gamer - Thank you.