It’s been quite a few weeks since I’ve had a garden update. An incredibly rainy spring along with two boys in Little League playing almost any day there hasn’t been rain has foiled many of my gardening plans. But things are progressing. Unfortunately, they aren’t all progressing well.

 

First, the good news. The things that I’ve planted directly into the ground are doing well. I’ve got some green onions, green beans and broccoli plants that are still rather small, but look green and healthy. The one parsley plant that lived all through the winter is doing really well, too, and I’ve begun to snip leaves to use in cooking. The more I snip, the faster it grows.

 

Other plants that are doing well are ones that I transplanted that were fairly mature. I bought four pepper plants (for only 50 cents each) and two eggplants (for only $1.00 each) from a vendor at the farmers market who had them left over from his own plantings. I was also given a large lemon balm plant (picture at right) from a neighbor. Those are doing well.

 

It’s the plants that I started from seed on my windowsills that are hurting. I transplanted several tomato plants, basil plants, and parsley plants a day before we had several days of hard rains. I suppose because the plants weren’t firmly rooted yet, some of them got completely washed away.

 

Those that made it through the storms aren’t looking too happy. They have brown leaves and haven’t grown much (picture at left).  I don't know if they are damaged beyond repair - only time will tell.  I have a feeling I might need to replace them from plants bought at the farmers market, but I'm not ready to give up on them yet.

 

At the bottom of my composter, there are signs of some black gold being created. You can see in the picture that some of it came to the top when I turned it yesterday.

 

I hope to be able to get into the garden and clean up some of the debris that ended up in there from the storms. I also plan on digging a small patch on the side of the house because my six-year-old really wants to try to grow cantaloupe and there is no room in the garden bed for it.