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.

The blogging hasn’t been a priority lately, but the garden is still moving along. Last week we were in San Francisco for the weekend, so we didn’t even take pictures. When we got back, we knew it was time to move things outside. One of the Serrano Pepper plants was 22 inches tall. Not only is that amazing, it’s also too tall to fit on our racks.

This week has been filled with crazy gardening. I start a new job on Monday, so there won’t be much time to play in the garden the way I have been able to the past year or so. I spent a day tilling everything, then a day raking squash hills together, then a day moving copious amounts of dirt to make 12 raised beds in the main garden area, etc. I ran out of steam about half way through making the raised beds, but Charmaine jumped in and finished it up. It looks really good.

Yesterday we transplanted almost all the peppers to the main garden area. We’re working on getting the tomatoes transplanted. After that, we’ll plant a few beds with some fun things like beets, radishes, onions, leeks, etc. We did get a lot of stuff planted this week in addition to the transplanting.

Planted this week:
– Fava Beans
– Soy Beans
– Rattlesnake Beans
– Zucchini
– Crookneck Squash
– Acorn Squash
– Buttercup Squash
– Butternut Squash
– Spaghetti Squash
– Jack-Be-Little Pumpkins
– Connecticut Field Pumpkins
– Atlantic Giant Pumpkin

Of course, today, the day after putting things into the ground, the wind is crazy. We have a “severe wind warning” until 9pm tonight. So far the gusts haven’t been much more than about 40 mph, but that’s way more wind than a newly transplanted pepper wants to have. We’ve already had a tomatillo or two get snapped off. We’re definitely going to need more support poles.