About 5 weeks ago, we had snow on the ground. Then we had about a week of temperatures in the 90s...and no rain. Not a great year for peas.

This is how the garden looked on May 25th:

Greenery: garlic on the right, rhubarb in the foreground, and solid weeds on the left. The bare spot on the right is planted in onions and potatoes. The dirt in the middle is where I was beating back the weeds.

I started tomatoes and peppers in early May and got them hardening off on the 25th as well. As I was working on getting the weeds cleared out, Michael was building fortifications.

We fenced out deer about 20 years ago, but left space at the bottom for lawn mowers....and unfortunately, rabbits. We are now saying “no” to lawnmowers, of all stripes.

Once Michael got the bottom fencing secured, he could come help me with the weeds, which were vanquished on May 28th, Memorial Day.

We had our first summer rainstorms soon after we finished turning over the garden, complete with hail. Today was out first sunny day. While Michael was out delivering lawn mowers to be repaired and picking up more firewood, I started planting.

I’m experimenting with leaving a ring of styrofoam cup to see if I can defeat the cutworms. 21 tomatoes and 24 peppers!

In addition to tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, garlic and onions, we now have planted popcorn, winter squash, cucumbers, dill, cabbage, bok choi, kale, beets, carrots, and rutabagas.

Then we have our small gardens:

These are closer to the house and contain lettuce, radishes, chards, more beets, and various herbs. We also have cherry and apricot seeds planted. These gardens already need weeding...as do the garlic and onions.

Dirt. I love dirt. We did dig in compost from the county site late last year and some more earlier this year. It helps to loosen our heavy soil and adds nutrients. We will have our own compost from chicken straw soon, but it is still too straw-like to truly be called “compost” yet.

I can hardly wait until this little sprout is munching fresh carrots from our garden! She started walking this past week. She is a going girl!