Things are coming along in the Kitchen Garden, but not coming along quite as well as I'd hoped. The parsley, lettuce and mesclun are up. The arugula is large enough to begin harvesting. I'm seeing some wisply little leaves telling me the carrots have germinated. I also have a few cucumber seedlings to accompany the plants I purchased. What I don't have is green beans and the delicata squash I planted. No germination. Zero. I don't know what's up with that. Last year the green beans almost leaped out of the ground. Maybe it's been too cool. Maybe I need to replant. But that will have to wait for another day. It rained most of the night, and the ground is soggy.
Here's how it's looking so far.
The two little trees by the hose bib are Bloodgood and Laceleaf Japanese maples I bought from my neighbor who propagates and grows things. This photo was taken Friday, and Garden Man planted these little trees yesteday in the Azalea bed. Because it's been cool, most of the plants in the Kitchen Garden are growing, but they are growing slowly. My basil still looks anemic - it doesn't like cool temps. Once a few more things are up and growing, I'll be covering the ground with mulch to help with weed control and keeping moisture in.
What worries me most about this scene are all the green leaves on the ground. They are from our ash trees which seem to be losing all their spring leaves. The leaves seem to have some kind of fungus because they have dark areas and spots on them. Most of our large trees are ash, so I hope they will be OK.
Could some critters have munched your bean and squash seeds? Maybe you could poke around and see if they are still in the ground or not. Did you sprout them indoors first? I am not a big seed starter but sometimes that give them an extra boost - a few days in a pan with moist paper towels above and below, topped with plastic wrap and put in a sunny spot. Not sure if that would solve the problem, but that worked great for my snap peas this year.
Posted by: Karen | May 17, 2009 at 04:46 PM
I love the garden's proximity to your house! I wonder what is going on with the ash trees? I've noticed that all the magnolias in the neighborhood look stressed ...maybe the strange weather is messing with their growth? Now I am going to check out the azalea bed and see how the japanese maples look! gail
Posted by: Gail | May 18, 2009 at 07:05 PM