Hello and welcome to my small corner of the internet. I love gardening and these Garden Journals have been so fun to share what I’m growing and document the ups and downs as well as my goals and harvests. I grow food and flowers in zone 4 in Maine. This year my goal is to larger quantities of fewer crops so I am able to put up food for the year for my family. It is now June at the time of this publishing so let’s go walk the garden together and see what’s happening!
Onions
I started two varieties of onions back in February. This is the first time I have started onions from seed and I’m so glad I did. I keep reading to plant onions around the perimeter of the garden to repel pests. I think I’m going to try it this year because even after planting two rows of these seedlings I have many left so I might as well pop them in the ground.
Seedlings
I started my seedlings in Mid March and they are doing so well! Crops like tomatoes, peppers and flowers follow the Maine rule of thumb to not go in the ground until Memorial Day. About two weeks ago I started bringing the trays of seedlings out to begin hardening off and getting ready to plant next weekend hopefully. We have a second floor deck so I put the seedling trays under the deck and gradually move them closer to being fully out in the sun every few days to help them prior to being put in the ground. I have a reminder on repeat for the next week on my phone so I don’t forget to bring them inside at night.
Cabbage and Kale
I grew these crops from seed in Mid March and since they can handle cooler temps than tender crops I put them in the ground this weekend.
Radish, spinach, and lettuce
I planted these about 4 weeks ago as they can handle a some light frosts. They were coming up nicely until an animal enjoyed them all! I put onions all around a second planting and hope this helps.
Beets and Carrots
These seeds went in the ground about 10 days ago. The beet seeds I bought are good for storage so I’m excited to see how they store over winter. I love beets! I like to put a piece of wood over my carrot seeds to help keep them damp enough to germinate.
Sugar snap peas
For the last 2 seasons I planted these too late and they never did well. I made sure to plant earlier as these seeds germinate when the soil is cool. The seeds I had were quite old so it was a toss up if they’d germinate and they did! They also fell victim to whatever rodent munched on my radish and spinach so hopefully I’ll get that issue under control and we’ll have sugar snap peas for snacking.
Dahlias
My tubers made it through the winter! I acquired some tubers from a friend so it’ll be a surprise what variety they are. I think they are a dinner plate variety so I am very excited. I potted up about 10 in March and they are flourishing so I cant wait to see what they’ll do once they are in the ground and can really take off.
Tomatoes
I planted about 20 plants in two raised beds. I”m trying two rows of them along the edges to maximize space. I have T bars on each end to trellis them.
Shishito Peppers
I’m not a super fan of hot peppers but I wanted to take a stab at something different. I grew these from seed so we’ll see what happens!
Garlic
I planted these last fall and they are growing great. I do need to weed this bed!
Raspberries
I transplanted these last year and they certainly enjoy the spot on our farm. They are full of lush leaves, very excited for some berries this year!
Asparagus and Strawberries
This bed is growing really well. The frost hit some of the asparagus and shocked them into some very funny growth patterns. Overall I’ve harvested a bit but often I was too late to pick it and the spears were simply too big to be tasty. I’ll let them go to re seed for next year! Strawberries are growing well with lots of beautiful blooms, we are excited to see some berries soon.
Well, this wraps up the first installment of this year’s Garden Journal. I need to get out there and get some time in today! I hope your growing season is off to a great start, thanks for stopping by.
