Garden Update – July 2015

First some pics of the early spring action around the yard:

After fertilizing, mulching, and trellising the raspberry patch -- the first sign of life! — After fertilizing, mulching, and trellising the raspberry patch — the first sign of life!

Unless you look near the ground, you're unlikely to spot Wild Ginger's hidden spring blooms. — Unless you look near the ground, you’re unlikely to spot Wild Ginger’s hidden spring blooms.

Ferns are starting to emerge -- these fiddleheads are looking healthy. — Ferns are starting to emerge — these fiddleheads are looking healthy.

A nice surprise -- a Dodecatheon in the backyard! — A nice surprise — a Dodecatheon in the backyard!

Returned from fieldwork on July 4th and came home to a very happy garden:

Woah -- a lot happened in a month and a half! — Woah — a lot happened in a month and a half!

I’ll admit the “blended sowing” method made things a bit chaotic. But I think that’s partly because I was gone for the first half of summer and couldn’t keep as close an eye on everything as would be ideal. Anna did a great job but her heart just isn’t hardened enough for the brutal thinning this garden needed 🙂

Overall things are looking really good, though. Dating a Swede, I knew I had to plant lots of dill — but I now know why they call it “dill weed.” It’s EVERYWHERE. Also, the poppy seeds Mom gave me had a spectacular bout of germination and had to be thinned heavily — very attractive, though:

All the tomato varieties (a few large heirloom slicing tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, and sungold hybrids) are doing great, and the sungolds are already ripening. Plains Coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria) is doing really well and attracting lots of pollinators.

The kale and lettuce in the back are getting shaded out by the mulberry tree, so I moved a few into the main south beds. We’ll see how they do there. Raspberry patch is flourishing — Anna’s already made a delicious raspberry / rhubarb cobbler and we’re having raspberry smoothies every day now.

Our tomatoes and pole beans are attracting lots of pollinators, which is great for us! Wildflowers are helping, I’m sure — I’m especially keen to compile the visitor list for our milkweeds, which are getting a huge variety of pollinators flocking to their impressive blooms.