Finally got the garden going

[mdtreehugger]

Finally buckled down this weekend and got a decent start planting this summers garden. Thanks Farmer for the rota-tilling, it saved us a lot of hours doing it by hand. Already had a small section in various spring time greens, and beets planted that are thriving, but needed a serious weeding session. Got that done first thin Sunday morning. Once the garden was tilled then it was time to install 16 tomatoe plants. Didn't get anything started on time this year, so I bought plants from a local farmer at the farmers market. They look great and some already have flowers, so hopefully tomatoes will be here soon. After that planted 20 hills of summer squash. These will get thinned down to 2-3 plants per hill in about 10 days. Planted 6 hills of pickling cucumbers, and a few hills of some odd ball specialty cucumbers, lemons and mexican sour gherkins. I grew the sour gherkins before, they are cool, like like little bitty bite size water melons but taste kind of like a sour cucumber. Also planted the first 50 feet of green beans, only 75 feet more to go and that chore will be finished. Still need to acquire around 20 pepper plants of a bunch of variety's and a few eggplants. Basil will get planted this coming week as well, probably around 10 plants. 50 sweet potato slips will finish out the food side for the early planting. Then I fill in dead space with marigolds, sunflowers, and nasturtiums. That will be it for planting until around the 4th of July when it will be time for some more summer squash, fall brasiccas like broccoli, brussel sprouts and cabbage, winter squash and pumpkins. I will post pictures one it is starting to look good, right now looks like a whole lot of dirt. 

[Brad H.]

And as usual you are putting the rest of us to shame. My garden looks like a horrible mess of weeds and leftover plants from last year. My goal is to get working on that in the next week or so. Need a part for my tiller first, and that should be here in the next coupe of days, and for it to stop raining. We have gotten 5 inches here in the last week, which is about half what we expect for the entire summer here in Northern WI. To say things are soggy is an understatement.

[mdtreehugger]

Mine looked like a giant tumble of weeds and dead plants until Saturday as well. I feel like I am really behind the game this year, as I try to have most things in Mother's Day weekend. Now I am also waiting for things to dry out a little so I can finish planting. 

[mdtreehugger]

The rain finally let up for a few days and the garden dried up enough to get most of the remaining stuff planted. Put a long day in yesterday and am finally feeling good about it, even have a nice sunburn to prove it. 75 more feet of beans, 50 sweet potato slips, 24 pepper plants, 4 egg plants, a tomatilo, pumpkins and winter squash. 
In another week or two things should really start looking nice. Now just need to finish planting a couple more things, primarly okra, basil, sunflowers, nasturtiums, and marigolds. Next big planting will be around the 4th of july when I plant more summer squash, rutabagas and parsnips. Gardening never seems to end.