Getting the Garden Going 2021

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Pretty casual post for the day. It’s finally mid-May, which means the danger of frost is more or less over. There’s still a chance we’ll get a night with temps that low, but for now it seems like high 40s and 50s is where it’s at.

A month or so ago, we started some seeds in the basement. Specifically, we tried to start some tomatoes and some lavender. The lavender didn’t germinate, but the tomatoes did.

A seed starter kit
Tiny baby plants!

Today (well, yesterday, but I’m writing this yesterday, so take my word for it) we did a bunch of garden work.

First up, the back garden. This patch was mostly ivy last year, but we dug it out and planted some stuff. Strawberries took root, and the melons did well, but the actual melons that we harvested were mostly tasteless, and the other veg all died. So, we’re trying again this year.

A patch of ground with some plants and strawberries.
It’s going to be a constant battle to keep this clear.

To the left, the strawberries are still having a great time. We had to transplant a couple of off-shoots, but it’s fine. To the right is one of our three tomatoes, and two freshly-planted zucchinis. The rest of the space will be dedicated to broccoli and cabbage, once those germinate in the basement.

Then there’s the front garden.

A raised planter with stakes and a few plants
This was the first garden we set up.

This planter is what we did for years before deciding to dig up the ivy for the back garden. Lavender (we bought some, since ours never germinated), a very sad forget-me-not, and one of our tomatoes.

What’s with all the stakes? Sunflowers! I got a new fancy kind of sunflower to try out, hopefully they’ll look pretty.

Then… there’s this.

A long oval-shaped garden
Brand new side garden.

Last year, we dug a couple of holes here and planted a couple of giant sunflowers. They turned out alright, but the lawn care people accidentally chopped one down and a couple never got very large, so we ended up with just two.

This year, we decided to make it larger, put in edging to make it clearer where they can and can’t put those pesky weedwhackers, and plant more.

The plant that’s already there is a black raspberry bush. My partner has been asking for one constantly. There’s a patch on public land a block from our house where he harvests some every year, but I won’t let him just dig up one of those plants. So, he found them at a local nursery and I let him get one.

The rest of the patch has something like 20 more sunflower seeds planted and ready to go. Two giants, and the rest are a mix of red and yellow sunflowers of various sizes. Hopefully they’ll mostly all germinate and be very pretty in a few months.

Three pots; one with a kalanchoe, one with a celosia, and one with a tomato plant.
Pots!

Here we have a Kalanchoe from last year, which has been getting quite large but has not yet started to bloom. The middle is a Celosia we got from the nursery. And, finally, the third of three tomatoes. We’re experimenting to see which one works best this year.

A maidenhair fern in a green pot
Maidenhair fern!

I love ferns, so, I got a fern. This one will live inside, most likely, but it will certainly look pretty on the windowsill.

Stay tuned for updates throughout the year, assuming things survive!

Join the Conversation

  1. Joyce Wierzbicki says:

    Are you going to try any Topsy-Turvy tomatoes this year, too? Looks like you have a nice variety going.

    1. Not this year. The upside down pots have been deteriorating so we decided to do more traditional plants this year. We’re still deciding what we want to hang, if anything, this year.

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