Our Garden March, May, June 2010
March 24th 2010
We started in the garden after the winter rains. We decided to turn the soil with a spade and not roto-till as the ground is now easy to turn... years of composting and use of straw!. We of course visit Roger's Gardens to get the best tomatoes.
It take about two bales of straw to mulch the gardens around out home
Did you know? - A straw bale is a bundle of straw tightly bound with twine or wire. Bales may be square, rectangular, or round, depending on the type of baler used. A baler is a piece of farm machinery used to compress a cut and raked crop (such as hay, straw, or silage) into compact bales that are easy to handle, transport and store. Several different types of balers are commonly used, each producing a different type of bales – rectangular or cylindrical, of various sizes, bound with twine, netting, or wire. Industrial balers are also used in material recycling facilities, primarily for baling metal, plastic, or paper for transport.
It's Now May 2010
It takes a good solid day to go through the gardens and "clean up" which means weeding, putting tomatoes back inside their cages, and other work
Strawberries and herbs are looking good
The tomatoes on the West wall are getting many blossoms and some fruit is forming
The orange tree is almost picked clean
The North wall veggies are starting to grow
Flower approves
Everything out back is doing quite nicely
Check the blue berries!
The South wall has grapes, tomatillos, peppers, string beans
Sue swims... Paul works... Seems fair
These are all different "cherry tomatoes"
Many grapes have already formed
Nectarines are plentiful
North wall grapes are going a little wild
String beans are climbing
Tomatillos and squash
It's Now June (1st) 2010
It has yet to get warm this year!
Tomatillos are doing well and we are beginning to get squash
Blueberries are going nuts
Did you know? - Maine produces 25% of all low bush blueberries in North America, making it the largest producer in the world. Maine's 24,291 hectares (60,020 acres) of blueberry were propagated from native plants that occur naturally in the understorey of its coastal forests. The Maine crop requires about 50,000 beehives for pollination, with most of the hives being trucked in from other states for that purpose. Many towns in Maine lay claim to being the blueberry capital and several festivals are centered around the blueberry. The wild blueberry is the official fruit of Maine and is often as much a symbol of Maine as the lobster.
While Maine is the leader of low bush blueberry production in the United States, Michigan is the leader in high bush production. In 1998, Michigan farms produced 220,000 tones (490,000,000 lb) of blueberries, accounting for 32% of the small, round berries eaten in the United States.
The tomatoes are beginning to wake up
Pole beans are climbing
We have beans down our driveway
Must pick them every couple of days to keep the plant
Did you know? - There are three commonly known types of green beans: string or runner beans, stringless or French beans (depending on whether the pod has a tough, fibrous "string" running along its length), and snap beans, with a thin flat pod that requires less cooking time. Compared to the dry beans, they provide less starch and protein, and more vitamin A and vitamin C. The green beans are often steamed, boiled, stir-fried, or baked in casseroles.
The apple tree is loaded
Swiss chard (we eat all of it)
Our first tomato of the season
Inside the front wall is a busy place these days
We cleaned pumpkins here last year and guess what... We have pumpkins!
We love fresh blackberries and they do NOT get fresher than this
Japanese grapes are forming
The tomato is trying to hide
Lemonade anyone??