For the past few years, every time it rained, the side yard would fill up like a lake. I didn’t like it. This week we had Lambson Landscaping fix that problem for us. They put in a drain, adjusted the grade, added sod to about half of it, a weed blanket and bark to the rest. We’re still waiting on the finishing touches, such as the curbing, but it’s already looking really good. Now we need to get some more trees.
Although I was starting to wonder if it would ever happen, we have finally moved from Spring into Summer. It was an exceptionally cold spring, and so far it’s an exceptionally cool summer. It’s the middle of July and I’m not sure we’ve hit 90 degrees yet. Many years we’re above 100 by now.
We went out of town for the past two weekends to drive up around the Olympic Peninsula and then ride our bikes from Seattle to Portland. It was nice a sunny in the northwest, but the neighbors tell me it rained here almost every day. It seems the garden really liked all that extra water. I almost didn’t recognize it when we got back. Everything is looking really good now, even the peppers.
We picked the rest of the peas, though most were way overripe, hard, and woody. We also started digging up potatoes. Charmaine has had fresh potatoes for dinner almost every night since we’ve been home from Seattle. We’ve even been able to start picking peppers. So far just banana peppers, but it looks like it’s going to be a good year for peppers.
Really the only thing still lacking is beans. I don’t know what it is, but they just don’t want to grow this year. They have finally sprouted, but they seem to be way behind. Maybe it’s the lack of hot days? We may never know.
We picked peas several times this week, including two bags at a party last night. The peas are still going strong, but it’s really starting to warm up, and that usually means the peas will stop blooming. We also picked almost all the rest of the radishes. They were intermixed in a row of beets, but the beets are still looking quite small. The giant weeds growing alongside the beets probably don’t help at all.
The tomatoes are looking great. Other than the peas, they are the only part of the garden doing well. I keep avoiding adding a second row of string to help hold the plants in place in the wind, but I think they’re getting big enough now that I can’t avoid it anymore. It may even be time for a third row of string. We’ll have to see.
The peppers are finally starting to grow, but they still look far from anything I would call healthy. It will be sad if we don’t end up getting many peppers this year.
The beans have really been the biggest disappointment. We planted more beans this year than in any previous year, but they just don’t want to grow. We’ve even re-planted several of the rows, hoping to get something. We finally have one row of beans that may grow, but it’s so late now that I question if we’ll really get any.
Maybe next year won’t be so cold. Maybe next year won’t be so windy. Maybe next year I’ll let the soil rest instead of doing a garden again.
Although I didn’t manage to take any pictures this week, we did pick a bowl of peas and some radishes for a salad this weekend. It’s been another cold week, but things are finally starting to grow. I’ll try to get some pictures up soon.
We didn’t want to plant everything outside as early as we did, but we didn’t have much choice. We went out of the country for a few weeks. Having the plants outside was the only way they would get watered. Unfortunately, it seems they also got hailed, snowed, and frozen out there. One of these years Mother Nature may actually be kind to us, but this isn’t the year.
We have started planting replacements for some of the plants that died in the cold and the seeds that still haven’t sprouted. Unfortunately, that’s a lot of replacing. It’s been extremely rough, even on the pepper plants that managed to survive the storms. They all look like they went back in time a couple weeks. The tomato plants did a little better than the peppers; most of them seem like they were just on pause for a few weeks. The only plants that really thrived in the winter of May 2011 were the peas. It looks like it’s going to be another great year for peas. I suggested to Charmaine that we just plant the whole yard with peas next year.
