Gardening Update

Well, it has been raining here on and off for three days, so I thought I would post some pictures I took this past weekend to show what the gardens are looking like. Of course, since we have been in the middle of a "drought" and now we are getting load of rain, everything will probably twice the size by the end of this weekend if we get a little help from the sun. Above are my wild raspberries, that are well on their way to becoming jam (our first try will be documented!)

Spinach is already up as can be evidenced by the fact that Brooke and I have posted no less than three spinach salads in the past month. After taking the picture I pulled out all the mature stuff and got my third round of planting seeded. My family gets bags of spinach given to them fresh all summer!

I have a good bounty of herbs finally. The chives have been up since before the snow was even done, the oregano I bought at Superstore rather than growing it from seeds, both the basil and the parsley had bits come up from the first round of seeds, but I supplemented the planting a couple of weeks ago when I realized that a few really cold nights through the last month had killed off some of the first round. The rosemary was bought already started since our season isn't long enough for it to get like this, and the thyme was the same as the rest - needed some additional seeding. The dill grew like crazy (no surprise given that it is a "weed").


Onions grown from bulbs are all up and growing well:
I am glad I got some carrots seeded prior to the snow, they are decent sized now and should be good to eat later this summer. A second round followed, and depending on the weather, they may only get to baby carrot size before the season is done:
My zucchini is coming up gang busters! This is more than one plant. Maybe I will try doing something with the blossoms this year if I catch them in time. I find that they sneak up on you and all of a sudden you have a giant one foot long veggie!
The squash came up later than the zucchini, and aren't getting quite as much light, so they aren't getting quite as big. Their season is pretty long, so given how late they started, I may just get to enjoy their greenery as we might not make it long enough for actual squash.
Rhubarb is doing what rhubarb does: growing like mad where nothing else will. It's in a shady damp area and producing like crazy. I haven't posted any recipes with it because I don't like rhubarb, but I will push some on Brooke (yes, I am a rhubarb pusher), and she will make something one of these days.
Lettuce was really just thrown in a pot mostly as an after thought. I had some seeds from last year and an extra pot so in it went. I planted romain, and just pick it as baby greens or to throw on a sandwich when I want a break from spinach.
Here is the "big garden" at Brooke's parent's house. I have called dibs on some of the potatoes and peas, and had called beans, but surprisingly our beans didn't come up this year. Aren't they supposed to be an easy grow? Anyway, Brooke and my father in law put in lots of potatoes, radishes, peas, onions, leeks, spinach, and gave broccoli a go this year since there were some cheap seedlings at Superstore. I can see they are starting to produce a little floret, so maybe something will come of them. Also, there is what may be a cucumber or a zucchini coming up in a mound where both accidentally got planted. That will be a fun mystery surprise for later in the summer.
The first round of potatoes - looking good!!!
Peas, peas, so many peas: