Whew!

Well, the garden is finally in. This is the first time in my life that I've gotten a vegetable garden completely planted before the 1st of June. I'll update the side bar later but here's what's going on:

• radishes are in and being eaten. I've let a couple go to seed and we'll see what I can save.
• carrots are starting to get big and I need to thin them some. Hopefully we'll be eating them in a couple weeks.
• sugar peas are in, but they were hit hard by the late frost and are not producing well.
• beets still haven't come up. I replanted them, but nothing so far. They take a while, so I'm hoping to see something soon.
• lettuce is doing well. We've been plucking and eating the outer leaves on the heads that are starting to form. The patch is very weedy, and there's really not much I can do about it. I'm pulling what I can, but I'd loose a lot of lettuce if I tried to get it all.
• I thought I'd lost the leeks. They died back after I transplanted them, but they seem to be doing okay now.
• Onions and garlic are doing well. I've been thining the onions and we've been eating them green.
• English peas are doing terrific. I should have plenty to freeze and can to last the year.
• Potatoes are growing well, as well. The plants are getting to be about calf high.
• Broccoli looks like it should start forming heads soon, lots of new leaves starting in the middle.
• The pickling onions (Bianca D'Maggio) I transplanted have taken well.
• The celery I transplanted seems to have died off completely. I don't think anything has been eating it, seeing as it is right next to the onions, so I'm not sure what is up there. I did plant more from seed and expect to see sprouts soon, but it may be too late in the season to get much.
• The cabbage transplants have gotten established and are putting on new growth. The others that I direct seeded are starting to sprout.
• The pepper transplants seem to be doing well, but there's no new growth yet.
• I lost every single tomato seed I planted was killed by the late frost we had about 2 weeks ago. I had them outside to get acclimated and forgot to bring them in. I did buy some at the garden center. Hillbilly is a red heirloom with orange stripes, I got two varietys of yellow, one of cherry, and one of grape. Total of 36 plants.
• My pickling cukes were hit by the same frost, so I've direct seeded some in. I just checked the cupboard the other day and I had thought we had enough pickles to last the year, but we are getting low on dill chips and bread and butter chips, and we have no spears at all.
• I planted two varieties of corn, yellow cross bantam, and early sunglow. I planted them last week, and they are already sprouting.
• I planted beans about a week ago as well and they are sprouting too. Always soak your beans overnight before you plant!
• I have watermelons, spaghetti squash, carving pumpkins, and sugar pumpkins that haven't come up yet, but I only planted them this week.
• I picked the first strawberry today. The new ones I planted this year have started to send of runners, so I may not have to buy any more next year, we will see.
• All the raspberry bushes but one died (okay, I only planted four and they were from Walmart, so that's not too bad). The one left is vigorous and putting on lots of new growth. Maybe we'll see some raspberries this year.

So, the last things we have left to do are to plant one more maple tree (we were blessed with 3 for free) and put down grass seed in the front yard (we were blessed with it as well) and we will have all the planting for the year accomplished. Then we can get on to finishing the woodshed and starting the stone front steps. After that, we have to build a duck house and put up pasture fencing. We're going to try to get the ducks next month, so we need to be ready for them to be outside in about 2 months.

(As an aside, I'm working on a post about our plans for school next year, I'll try to have it up this evening.)

[Update: I also have two lilacs I need to put in up by the porch. There that's really it. I promise.]