So How Does Your Garden Grow? The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Spring 2013

Early on I promised I'd tell you my goofs as well as my great: warts and all, here's my garden this year. (If you have any suggestions, I'm open for advice.

Rutabega Buggas

I'm not a braggart, so let's start at the bottom

THE UGLY

My biggest boo-boo this spring was my erstwhile cold frame. If you've been following along, you'll recall I broke my arm building it. (Maybe the only man in human history to do that!) But before I didn't finish, I planted turnips and rutabagas in it. 

Well, the guy at the seed store told me I was a month or two late getting getting them in (I think it was January or so.) I thought I'd catch up by having them in a cold frame, but I never did get the top on it.

The veggies struggled from the get go. The seed germinated just fine, but aphids or something took delight in eating the greens. It looked like a mess. Even worse, the result was about as big as ping pong balls or extra large eggs, and after 90 minutes at a hard boil, acted like an old tennis ball. They refused to be mashed, and had a consistency of soggy cardboard. Even butter, salt, pepper and brown sugar couldn't help them. 

Worse, I planted my new tomato seedlings next to the cold frame, and the aphids thought I was putting out a second course for dinner. The poor little Arkansas Traveler (last year's tomato of the year) was first in line next to the root crops/aphid disaster, and the poor little guy just about didn't make it. Even now he's only about a foot or so high, while his neighbors are all topping three feet, and he's just starting to blossom, while we're already eating cherry tomatoes. 

THE BAD

Our lawn. Pathetic.

Last fall we decided to convert about a third of our lawn to flower garden. The broken arm and a few other issues got in the way, and now we have the finest collection of weeds in the county...except where it's bare dirt.

THE GOOD

But when she was good, she was very, very good. The asparagus, snow peas, spinach and arugula was soo good we had plenty to share with neighbors, and I almost got nostalgically weepy when the spinach bolted and the peas gave up the ghost. (I don't have the heart to take out the arugula, and it's rewarded me with some pretty little flowers.

Believe me folks, plant peas, spinach and lettuce. It's easy and tasty. (The early onions are easy and did well too, but the others are so much better than what you get at the store.)

As I said most of my tomatoes are over three feet high, and today we ate our first cherry tomatoes. Most of them have set fruit, and they all have blossoms. But they're all showing some kind of blight or something, so the jury is out til the goods are in. By the by, I love my homemade 60" tall tomato cages.

Zucchini, cukes and peppers are in blossom, so we hope for the best.  

But maybe the best has been the flowers. The bride pointed out today that we really haven't done much with our flowers this year, but here's where planting annuals really pays off.

The Rose o' Sharon, lilies, Passionflower, and so many others are really putting on a show, and the Turk's Cap is looking brawny, and ready to bud any day now. 

So I'll close with a few of our faves below, and to the right.