On to the update! Now that Michigan's average last frost date has FINALLY passed, I decided it was time to plant a lot of the garden last week. I had already planted my leafy veggies (lettuce, arugula, and spinach) as well as some potatoes & carrot seeds a couple of weeks prior. But I felt like it was time to go to the market to get some other vegetable plants for the rest of the garden.
I got my plants at the Wednesday Ann Arbor Farmer's Market. I love this market! I used to go on Saturdays, but since they started offering it on Wednesdays in the summer, it's so much more convenient for me. I work races most Saturdays, and so I can't get over there. When I don't have a race, it's very hard to get motivated to fight traffic & find a flippin' parking spot at the market on a Saturday morning. On Wednesdays, I can just walk over there on my walk to work or go over there during my lunch break. Easy! I love it! So I went last Wednesday before work & picked up all of my plants. They sat on my desk all day.
Then they got planted. My garden is complete! I shall rule the vegetable world!!! Ok, I wont, I only have this tiny little 4x4 garden that I built a month & a half or so ago, but still. This is 100% more veggies planted than I've ever had. AND I'm already eating out of it. My arugula is trying to eat the rest of the garden, so I'm constantly trimming it down & having salads. Like, daily. And look at it still! That stuff doesn't quit. Granted, I did just water it before I took these pictures, so it's a little more flattened than usual, but still.
What's planted? Well I'll tell you.
From the back left we have broccoli, broccoli, green pepper, tomato.
Then the next row is carrot (which hasn't come up too much yet... hum...) overflow of arugula, another green pepper & another tomato.
Then there is potatoes, green leaf lettuce, cucumbers & then baby tomato.
And for front row is more potatoes, spinach, zucchini, and pole beans. The pole beans haven't come up at all yet. I planted their seeds last week too when I planted everything else. How long should these take to come up? I guess if they don't grow soon I'll just buy some bean plants at the market to put there.
I read somewhere on someone's blog the other day that they are getting tomatoes in already. WHAT?!? Lucky bums. I want some tomatoes! Oh to live in the south...
It's been over a week now since I planted everything & things are looking good except for the no-show on the beans thus far. I am a little nervous about one of the zucchini plants, who looks a little wimpy, but we'll try to nurse it back to life. The lettuce & spinach didn't take nearly as well as the arugula, but that's ok. Also, the carrots are kind of sparse... plus I can't tell what's a carrot & what's a weed in that square yet. Hopefully the carrot plants will start growing more so that I can figure out what greens in there I need to pull 'cause they are weeds. I think I know, but I'm scared to pull in case I'm wrong.
This year will be an experiment for my garden. I'm planting a lot of different things so that I can learn what works well here & what doesn't. So if something turns out to be a complete dud, I wont be too heartbroken. As long as I get some tomatoes out of this deal at least then I'll be happy.
How is your garden doing lately?
I will be linking this post up to these awesome sites.
