Mid-Spring In the Garden …

Last month I took you on a quick tour of the garden in my post Early Spring In the Garden.

So much has happened in just a few short weeks!  Some plants are doing so much better than I expected.  Others … total fail.  The biggest obstacle we have been faced with is the weather.  It seems we jumped from a cold, late-white winter straight to summer, and then to spring … well more like a spring/summer blend.

Warning:  If you happen to see a bug or two or ten or a hundred in these pics, just ignore them.  They are our new summer residents.  You’ll be meeting them later this week.

Our first stop is the mini-orchard …
Our fruit trees were hit the hardest with our crazy weather.  The only tree that flowered was the green apple.  All the others “skipped” that class this year and went straight to Leaves 101.  Since our trees are still young, maybe that’s not such a bad thing … not that I have any control over it.

Green Apple Tree … smelled heavenly!

 Might just have some apples if the wildlife doesn’t get to them first!

The berries all seem to be doing well …

    

Blackberries …

 Blueberries …

If you remember, I thought for sure all the grapes were a goner.  Nope!  They are all doing fabulously!  I even see the beginnings of grape clusters!

By this time last year, my vegetable garden had already been planted for probably close to 5-6 weeks and all of the plants were well on their way to producing a great harvest.  This year?  Let’s just say that if it could go wrong … it has.

Early in February I planted trays and trays and trays of seeds for my glorious garden.  Tomatoes of four different varieties, peppers, corn, cantaloupe, sugar snap peas, watermelon, and a few more that I can’t think of off the top of my head..  The ONLY, literally the ONLY seeds that did anything were the sugar snap peas.

Nothing else even remotely popped it’s head out.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zero.
Now that we’re in the middle of May, I’m beginning to think that all those seeds knew something that I didn’t know.

A very dear friend came to the rescue and gifted me with 15 tomato plants that she had grown from seed.  Why hers worked and mine didn’t?  Who knows!  I knew that we weren’t quite out of the water yet with the overnight temps, so I waited a few weeks to plant them.
All was good for about a week.

And then it started to sprinkle.
And then it started to rain.
And then it started to pour.
And it rained … and it poured … and it rained … and it poured … and it rained … and it poured.

I’ve never seen that much rain in a four-day period in my life.  After day three I thought we would be okay.  But no, oh no … those clouds weren’t quite done yet!

The rains came down and the puddles came up!
And my tomatoes … they were no more.

Onions/Garlic (left) … the back of the property (middle) … tomatoes (right)

 So what’s a poor girl to do?  Head to “Big Blue.”

     

I’m thinking I’ll plant the tomatoes in pots and put them on the screened porch. That’ll keep them safe from all four-legged creatures and severe weather. Peppers will go in a raised bed … the one that didn’t get buried in water.

Surprisingly, it seems that I have some leftover cucumbers from last year.  Once it dries up a little, I’ll get in there and thin them out a bit.

The other vegetable that’s done really well are my potatoes.  Now that I’ve learned that you need to continue to pack the dirt up the stalk as they grow, I’m hoping I’ll have more luck than I did last year.

 

Do you remember the long strip of wildflower seeds I planted last year?  They’ve slowly been growing and just this week a few of them started blooming.  I can’t wait until they all burst forth.  It’s going to be so pretty!

And Grandma’s Bleeding Hearts … HUGE!  and GORGEOUS!

One other change we made was in the front yard.  We’ve moved a few things around, purchased and planted some color.

Whenever I go to “Big Blue,” I always check the clearance section in the garden department.  On this particular trip, I hit the jackpot!  They had Azaleas for $5 each (previously priced at $25).  Did I care that the flowers were already spent?  For five bucks each?  Nope!  I can wait until next year.

I also picked up seven Burgundy Queen Lilacs and planted them around the side porch. Can’t wait for them to bloom next year!

Thank you for stopping by for our mid-Spring Garden Tour.  There are a whole bunch of pictures on Flickr that I didn’t include in the post. I hope you’re as excited to see what the next month holds as I am!

How about you?
Have you planted a vegetable garden this year?  Have you had “weather” issues like me?

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