It’s May, and June is around the corner. I have been busy, almost too busy to write. I am still homeschooling our boys and after school time we work on the homestead, often till dinner time, then we come back till sunset. I find time though to take photos when I think about it, to keep for seeing how the beds grow.
This week though it has been cool and rainy. I’ll take it. Sunny weather is right behind it, and it will jump into the low 70’s by Memorial Day Weekend. The plants will take off with all the deep watering. But today I spent writing and cleaning.
The reason we have beds comes down to deer and rabbits. Our property is not fenced (though someday it will be), which allows the deer to travel. So each growing area is fenced independently. This allows us to keep the rabbits suppressed as well, using chicken wire aprons around the beds.
The start of planting.
Our original bed. Ready for putting in the first plants of the season in late April.
Filling in more of the rows.
Plants growing.
Into the second week of May.
Even the weeds outside are growing.
The onions on the right have really surged.
Yesterday afternoon in the rain. The potatoes in the trash can have surged. We are harvesting lettuce now.
Early in May for the berry bed.
The berry bed has greened out the entire month. The golden and red raspberries, both which are dual crop varieties, are covered in flowers – and native bees. The blueberry bushes are still flowering, and many are putting on berries. The swimming pools are full of bush peas, just flowering. The big metal in front is full of potatoes.
The newest bed had its planting started around Mother’s Day weekend. First the tomato, pepper and pumpkin plants went in.
Getting the rows planted.
Yesterday, the tomatoes have surged this month. All the rows are seeded and planted, and everything is growing.
Side view of the bed.
I carved out a mini area in the main chicken coop run. Before they came to be here this was a strawberry bed, which they promptly destroyed.
It is fenced internally, and home to a peach and a pear tree, and many other plants. With watering many of the destroyed strawberry plants came back in this section. Outside the bed grows a feral potato plant, where a chicken rolled a potato into a hole. Nature grows well by itself.
They all wish they could be in there….not on my watch!
The rest of May…who knows what it will bring. Hoping for a sunny Memorial Day Weekend, when the well watered soil will surge to summer.
~Sarah