The potager is in

The vegetable garden is mostly planted now. I put in sixteen tomato seedlings on Sunday morning. There are nine kale and about eight Swiss chard plants, two zucchini, and a long row of beans, half green and half yellow. I still have two seedlings each of eggplant and jalapeño peppers, gifts from a friend. They'll go in soon. And there are climbing beans and peas planted along two sections of the trellis fence. I have room for two more long rows of beans. One of them will require an extra length of soaker hose.

Wish us luck!

So, the 2021 potager (vegetable garden) is in! Today will be the first day to test how the soaker hose works. Until now, I've watered the garden by hand, filling and lugging watering cans to each plant. Not very efficient. If I spend less time on watering, I will have more time for weeding. That sounds like fun.

The oregano patch

For lack of new photos, here's a close-up of the oregano patch. It formed years ago when some oregano I had planted in the vegetable garden escaped and naturalized itself as part of the "lawn." I let these patches grow without mowing them so I can harvest and dry it for kitchen use. There's a lot more out there that does get mowed down. I guess it likes growing there.

Patches of oregano ready for harvest.

Interestingly, the oregano doesn't taste like much when it's fresh. Only after drying does it get its intense flavor. A few years ago, we got ourselves a dehydrating machine and started drying vegetables and herbs. Tomato wedges dehydrate well for use as "sun-dried" tomatoes. And the oregano works great. It's time now to start harvesting and drying it so that we'll be able to enjoy it throughout the coming year.

Wildflowers

The most common wildflowers in our yard (aside from dandelions) are yellow renoncules (buttercups), blue véroniques (speedwells or veronicas), and white paquerettes (lawn daisies). They grow as part of our "lawn" and get mowed down a lot. But they thrive, especially when I can't cut the grass for a while because of rain.

Wildlowers and grasses make up most of our lawn.

Last weekend I was able to mow and cut all of these away. Since then, the weather has warmed up and the "grass" is growing again. The flowers are starting to reappear. I'll probably mow again in a day or two, but first I want to get the vegetable garden planted. I redid the soaker hose configuration so that it will water where I need it. There's a section that needs some more hose, but that is being reserved for a third crop of green beans later in the season, so it doesn't need water yet.

Soaker hose

This is my first attempt at configuring the soaker hose in the vegetable garden. The good news is that the hose seems to work just fine. The bad news is that I might need more. I'm going to rework the layout today so that I can get things planted, leaving space for future rows of green and yellow beans. I may have to get another shorter length of hose in the coming weeks.

The first layout attempt comes up a little short, but now I know what I'm dealing with.

The hose is fifty meters long. I may need another ten or fifteen meters to do what I originally planned. I'll see how I feel when I lay it out a little differently. I want to plant the kale and chard plants along the edge of plot (that's closest in the photo) so that if we decide to leave them over winter, they won't be in the middle of the plot when it's time to till it up.

The weather has improved as forecast. I should be able to plant out the seedlings on Saturday. I'll also plant the first row of green bean seeds.

The west forty

This is the largest section of our back yard, home to the vegetable garden and the garden shed. On the left is one of the two remaining apple trees. The vegetable garden plot is visible in the middle. And, look! There's Tasha on the right!

Looking westerly. The posts on the right edge of the garden plot support a trellis for climbing beans and flowers.

The green clumps in front are the oregano patch. It's time to start harvesting and drying the oregano.

The vegetable garden plot is now ready for seedlings. I added some amendments to the soil on Monday. Yesterday I put up the tomato supports (not in the photo). The last step before planting is to lay down the new soaker hose and make sure it works. I have a plan for that and I'm anxious to see how it works out.

Then the tomato, zucchini, chard, and kale seedlings can go into the ground. I will also plant a first row of green beans. When they sprout and begin to grow, I'll add a second row, then maybe a third as the summer progresses.

The north forty

This is a view of the section of our yard that I call the "north forty." I'm standing under the Himalayan cedar looking east. Our house is on the right. The three birches are the ones coming down this summer. Behind them is the big round juniper bush that is also coming out. It's hard to see, but it's full of tree saplings and thorny blackberry vines and is a general mess. We'll have a bare patch for a while before the grass and wildflowers fill in.

The birch branches on the ground are what's left of what fell on the fence in December. I cut the bigger branches up with a chainsaw and burned them in the wood stove when we ran out of heating fuel a few weeks ago. That metal contraption is a sawhorse.

There's another dead birch next to the carport that is also coming down this summer. It's sad to have lost so many trees in such a short time, but I understand that birches don't have a very lengthy lifespan and they've been here for close to fifty years. Still, it's nice to open the yard up to more light and better views, so there's an upside. We don't have plans to replace the trees or or the juniper in the north forty.

Tasha Tuesday

Here's Tasha standing in front of the damaged sections of our north-side fence. I did my best to tie the fence to the posts, but the guide wires that support it between the posts were severed when the branches fell on them. The wire fence itself is significantly deformed and actually sliced in two at one spot. Still, I think my patch job will keep deer out until the fence can be repaired.

Tasha "helped" me gather downed branches and twigs. One of us had fun.

I see from the weather forecast that our chilly weather will be gradually warming up through the week. It can't happen soon enough. It's time to get the garden planted. The seedlings are wanting out of their pots and into the ground. Hopefully, I'll be able to get that done by the weekend.

Tasha's going in to see the vet on Thursday for her annual shots. I'm scheduled to see my doctor the same day for my normal checkup and prescription renewal. I'll ask him when he thinks I'll get my second covid shot when I see him. And Tasha's got a (much needed) grooming appointment for a week from Friday. Yippee!