It was difficult hanging the laundry and bad condition for the garden
The laundry dried quickly, but the wetter is very difficult for the plants. The raised beds where only made this spring with normal soil and do not hold the water very well jet. The soil has very much dried out by now and we need to water the plants. At the moment we need to do so with a water barrel and a garden hose. It takes a lot of time to thoroughly water the beds.
For new made raised beds its doing Ok
When I wrote my last garden update I was not very happy with the results of the garden at that point. Now we are about one month later and a lot has happened. Not all is how I would like to see it, but for new made raised beds with only normal soil in them I think I should not complain.
At least we are harvesting some strawberries, which the children love. Also the raspberries are starting to ripen, so we can start harvesting these soon as well.
Furthermore we have harvested some lettuce. With the sweat peas we could already harvest the shoots, but we ratter have the peas, so we leave the shoots to grow and also have sown some more sweat peas for a later harvest. The green peas are a little bit behind, but are growing well too.
The fist bed I had sown in and covered with a thick layer of straw, some things sprouted, but it is pathetic considering how much I had sown. I have some red cabbage, a little more kale, a few white cabbages; the swede is doing Ok and needs some more space, the oatroot (vegetable oyster) came up well and I am looking forward to trying this vegetable out. I am growing this for the first time.
The onion sets and potatoes are doing great. When the Colorado potato beetle does not make to much damage, we should have a very nice potato harvest.
In between the onion sets I had sown carrots. A number of carrots did sprout by now, but the plantlets do not really want to grow somehow. The bed where I had sown carrots and lettuce later and I hat only covered with a thin layer of straw is looking better. Most of the seeds have sprouted here. I will have to wait and see if these carrots will grow better.
It is looking a lot different with the red beets between the garlic. The red beets that actually sprout also grew, but not many have sprouted. But there are sprouting new red beets al the time and stick there heads above the straw.
The tomato plants have set and are looking good, but are still very small. I hope I can harvest from them before the season is over.
The Paprika plants do not want to grow at all. I think the varieties for outdoors should probably also go in a greenhouse in this area.
The Dill is growing nicely and I should probably start harvesting this some time soon.
The corn and the pole beans sprouted nicely and are looking good.
The cucumbers are still small, but are looking good.
And I had sown some more. Sweat peas, spring onions, white cabbage, Kale and leeks. Beside the leeks everything came up nicely and will need to be replanted some time soon.
I have planted the pumpkins beside the greenhouse roof and in the compost bed which I had mulched with hay in the spring. The pumpkins beside the greenhouse roof have set and are looking fine, but are in a great contrast to the pumpkins I have planted in the compost bed. These are a lot bigger. The conditions in the composting bed must be a lot better. Even the only shortly planted potatoes are sticking there heads out of the straw already.
What I have noticed that there are only little insects and butterfly’s this year. I think we at least need more flowers and maybe we can do something to help insects and butterfly’s over the winter, so we hopefully have more again next year.
Cherished and cared for by my 4-year old daughter
All winter long my daughter had a pot with “weeds” standing beside her raised bed. With the clearing of the garden before winter I actually wanted to throw it away also, but she kept checking upon her plant daily and I was not allowed to. In the spring we also added an extra raised bed for the kinds, so she had some additional space for growing crops. I suggested to her to plant her “weed” in her new raised bed and she found that a good idea. After a wile I realized that this “weed” is a wonderful big Chamomile. By now we harvested flowers of this Chamomile for the third time. Unfortunately the Chamomile has some problems with lice, so we cut out every part that has lice. I do not like to spray any poison.
She is so very proud of her chamomile and the fact that we harvest of it for making tee.
Also the chamomile is a magnet for insects. I got a Bee and, I think it is, a rose chafer for the camera. Unfortunately we have little butterfly’s this year and when I find one it fly’s away immediately.
Beautiful Chaos 