spring gardening woes

I got a late start on my garden this year.

Actually, I got an early start on my garden this year and put in many of my seeds too early, only to have a resurgence of cold weather torpedo many of the plants.  And then we got sick with a hell of a virus that knocked us all out for many weeks, so weeding and getting my garden started again was the very last of my priorities.  We're only just now getting around to a lot of it and are paying the price.

My peas did manage to survive the cold snap, as peas usually do.  My garlic experiment from last fall is looking very good, and I have chives coming out my ears. We also had some broccoli and spinach overwinter this year, so we've had quite a few veggies from that.  That was a nice surprise.

But my carrots have been a total dud this year so far; I just planted some more seeds this week so I'm crossing my fingers those will finally take off....but no early carrots for me this year.  Most of the onions I planted also were duds so I'll have to restart those too.  And my poor blueberries are almost completely overgrown with some extra-hellacious weeds.....ugh.  Not sure I"ll be able to save them. 

I did manage to squeeze in time to plan some green beans a few weeks ago and those are up now and looking okay. I also have some lettuce and new spinach taking off just fine. I got a few cuke seedlings in last week and planted a few more seeds this week.  I also put in some more raspberries recently and plan a few more as I have time.  And of course, I have all my existing fruit trees percolating away.....yummmm.

I have some Seascape strawberries on order and will get those in as soon as they arrive.  Can't wait for those!  They are everbearers so I'll be able to harvest strawberries from them all summer long.  YUMMM.

Also have some asparagus coming; it's a little late to plant them but I hope it will work out anyhow.  I love fresh asparagus and it's one of the few veggies my littlest will eat on a regular basis, so I have high hopes for it in future years. Gotta love a veggie you don't have to replant every year!

Got some tomotoes started in the raised beds this week but need to go get more.  I want to experiment with some different types of tomatoes this year; I tried some little orange tomatoes last year and we loved them so I am determined to see what other jewels are out there beyond the ones we usually plant.  I got hooked on my homemade spaghetti sauce experiment last year and am determined to make more this year.  I think a wide variety of tomatoes in the sauce make it more flavorful.

The next few weeks before the end of school are so incredibly busy that I don't know how I'm going to get the rest of the garden in.  Thank goodness for teenaged slave labor to help with some of the weeding.  The rest of it I'll just try to shoehorn in between other commitments. In raised beds the work is really not very hard, it just takes a certain amount of time and I'm not good at squeezing that in, especially when life gets really busy.  But if I want the yummies later this summer, I gotta do the work for it ASAP, so I'm just going to have to suck it up and find the time. 

How are your gardens going so far this year?