Spring - a post mortem

Well the 21st was the Summer Solstice, and with that Spring has sprung.  It was a great season of learning, a few hiccups, some unexpected failures, and unexpected success.  Everything that didn't work out to plan yielded some knowledge. Although plant selection and timing will need to be improved, many good meals were had (several I've shown, but there have been several quick lunches and just garden browsing) - I'd give a generous estimate of between 1/4 and 1/3 veg was fresh grown from the garden. A respectable amount - but a quite a long way to go.

Garden costs for the new bed were easily met thanks to the addition of the herb garden - putting it well into the black with very little effort.

The garden itself as it faces Summer certainly looks a lot different than the initial pictures from Spring.  Some plants, like the beans, are yellowing and putting out what may be the last harvest from those plants.  The 2nd square of carrots are coming in, and those turnip greens have long since departed.
And yet EVERY square has something in it growing. So it's actually MORE productive right now than Spring.
New beans are popping up around the corn, a second planting of carrots are starting to sprout.  Peppers and some late planted tomatoes are in there too.  Possibly too late, but worth trying out.  There is going to be some dead time between the seasons, but hopefully that will be reduced next year.  There are some things to work out when it comes to optimal planting due to sun and rain - but as a whole things have turned out ok.  I'll break it down in sections.

The original garden bed.

 The first bed I put in and dug over.  Originally planted with (in order) turnip greens, a pepper from last year, lettuce, beets, carrots and radishes.
Currently holding beans, eggplant, peppers, kale and carrots.
The turnip greens were a good grow for spring, and something I'd do again - perhaps doing collards later in the year.  Last years pepper is putting up a couple of nice early peppers that are nearly ready to pick. The placement of those was spot on, and I wouldn't change a thing - apart from maybe the amounts.
Radishes were abundant - and I think I picked the right time to cut back to one square. With some adjustments to the planting of other things, I think the goal of fresh picked salads will work out better next year.  Carrots turned out well - some nice sized carrots, and the staggering of the two squares time wise is just about perfect - as the last of the first are due for pulling, the next batch are coming into their own.  The only thing I'd change here would be volume.  You can grow 16 carrots in a square and have them nearly all work out - but 32 is not enough.  64 will be the goal for next year with a 2 week staggering between them.
Beets was just a stupid mistake.  I saw some sprout that had been left in the germination container and decided to go for it. Yes they sprouted, then struggled, then eventually died.   Just boneheaded stupidity on my  part.  So long as the lesson is learned, and not repeated, then all is well.

The lettuce looks quite 'bolty' doesn't it?

Lettuce in both beds was a real letdown. I devoted an entire post to it early in the spring - and it all comes down to timing and variety.  2 things this blog is supposed to help me with.
The Black Seeded Simpson was the variety, and as you can see peeking between the beans and kale, it looks like it's about to bolt to seed at any moment - the leaves were quite prone to being burnt up as well.  By the time I tracked down what I'd grown last Autumn it was too late to plant.  In the future, as far as the garden beds are concerned, I'll be trying other varieties such as the Salad Bowl, and I might try Iceberg - the classic sandwich and salad lettuce.

As you can see though all is not lost. It seems the Black Seeded Simpson rather likes my germination containers - so next Spring I might set a long box aside and try growing 6 - 10 plants in there.
Regardless I will be sticking more to a proven method of growing lettuce when it comes time to plant again - sprouting and growing it in the boxes and transplanting it to the garden squares as space becomes available. This should cut down on wasted space anxiety.

2nd Bed.

The second bed didn't produce so well this spring, but that was due to both mistakes on my end and overall timing.  Originally it was planted with tomatoes, corn, spinach, cabbage, and swiss chard from Autumn.
The chard should have been pulled at the start of spring and replanted. Spinach was planted both too early and too late. A late Autumn planting had been holding on and I was convinced it would come good - rather, half died and the other bolted straight to seed.
By this stage it was too late and replacement plantings sprouted and immediately were burnt up in the increasing temps.
Cabbage did well apart from something nomming on it. I can't find traces of the critters that are doing it (no slug trails, no bugs to find), the second planting was staggered a bit too late and has been disappointing. 2 plants dead and the other 2 showing little to no progress past seedlings.  The corn came up, but I think I will need to rethink my soil strategy and placement for it. Still it is doing better than garden #2 corn - so I'll stick with it and learn. Currently I've planted some beans around it as an experiment in companion planting.  Other squares have been planted out with carrots and a couple of Queen of Hearts tomatoes, which I am now 98% certain are determinate (or bush) tomatoes.
I ended up putting down plants from the overflow, and as you can see the broccoli loves it there. This is doing better than my container broccoli, so next year I think we've found a home for it.
The cherry tomato up the back has vined and is running around the pine straw behind the beds, which is good as it takes up little garden space - however I've yet to see a single tomato appear on it.

The other tomato plants are doing well, and again in hindsight These would have been perfect for planting one-a-square and staggered them by about a week - optimally where the first 4 stalks of corn are currently planted.
If I manage to procure more seeds of this variety, it's the strategy I'll try next year.
If not I will be going back to looking for that ideal variety of tomato - preferably an heirloom that I can generate my own seeds from.

The 'bottom' bed

I still have rain wash issues to work out with the bottom bed, but for the most part it's doing ok. Corn and beans are growing, although I think more fertilizer will be required if I do corn again here. Peppers are all doing well - apart from a square at the end that sees the most rain wash and the most sun. The pepper there has remained a seedling size while others are taking off.
In Autumn/Winter I grew beans and peas here, something I'll be doing again this Autumn as part of a bigger strategy to finally get some healthy corn going.

The 'new bed'

This raised bed I started this spring and it's done quite well for itself. It was planted with peas, beans, lettuce, and kale. I don't have to say much on this as it's been in nearly every post this spring.
Peas did fairly well but died out early - the beans here are coming to their last harvest - and I'll let them go out and replant the squares in July.  In Autumn at the 'bottom bed' beans did ok and died out early while peas produced well.  In the future I'll only plant peas in Autumn and beans all the way through spring.  This should ensure some good nitrogen for whatever crops follow them.  Peas lasted me all Winter last year, and I hope to reproduce this in a different bed this year.

Squash in a pot

Squash I haven't made my mind up on.  The plants seem to be doing ok, but the squash aren't really developing to an edible size. This could be simply due to the maturity of the plant - or it could simply need more space, in which case next year could see me starting up a squash patch.
The butternut squash put out a single squash - but the plant seems to be needing some more love. I'll be seeing if some more fertilizer brings it around, or if it's simply run its course.
Time will tell on this idea.

The Herb Garden

A couple of non-starters and a couple of die-offs. But all in all the herb garden is doing well. Sage is on the way to being ready for picking, parsley is there in abundance and more basil than you can poke a stick at. The two plants of cilantro that survived are enough to be useful too.
Lessons learned here were to plant less basil, and that 4 plants per square seems to me to be an optimal amount.  After this photo was taken I cut the tops off several of the basil plants and trimmed the leaves for drying. If it all makes it through the process it will probably amount to $20 worth of dried herbs if bought at the supermarket.  Fresh - you don't want to know. A lot.  The availability of fresh herbs is what made the new garden additions pay for themselves, and is still the most cost effective thing you can do with a garden space.

An honorable mention has to go out to the potatoes.  I think I learned enough about them to try and make more serious run at them come late Summer.

On the composting front - the new bin is still half full, and will slowly break down (hopefully) in time for next spring - To harvest it I'll probably add a trap door to the bottom and make the design a 'flow through' box.
Vermicomposting was not without it's hiccups either - my own desire to take care of a surplus of paper goods from the move led me to make an error that will probably take a couple more months to sort out entirely. Also the rising temps and a lack of AC in the workshop are causing problems with them as well. Currently a box fan is being put on them, and ice blocks put in on the predicted hotter days.  In a few weeks I hope to move them to a better location in the workshop and take some steps to lowering the general temperature of the area.  Right nowt he entire house needs a new AC system, but that is a long term thing I need to work on - so it won't get solved this summer.

I'll be making plans over the next few days between farmwork and housework to outline my Summer garden plan.  The summer plant for this zone starts in July, so I have a week or so to think and adjust.  This also coincides with my end of month worm bin cleanouts - so I'll have a bunch of fresh worm castings to put in the soil when I plant.  The beans will be ready to be cleared out just in time to make way for new plantings as well - in time I hope to have this overlap of seasons at a point where it's a near constant production of veg with very little down time, and this first season seems to have turned out as a much better start point than I thought it would.

Cheers!