April's Garden (2026)

This month has been spent getting the garden rows created. The soil has been raked up to form raised beds going east to west and then grass has been placed on the walkways. It has been backbreaking work; but hopefully, it will be an improvement.

The last bit of edible spinach is being harvested and the rest allowed to go to seed for fall planting. Saving spinach seeds is something I haven't gotten the hang of.  In the past, I always forgot them until it was too late. The spring spinach is now ready and it is the first time I have ever been able to overlap the harvests. A successful first!

Some of the Unzen Early Flat winter onions that were in areas needing to be plowed were transplanted to empty spots in this bed; surprisingly, they lived even though they are maturing late. I guess that ruined their earliness. 

This front (south) area will be plowed and planted eventually. We haven't decided how to arrange the rows or what we want to do. The new strawberry bed is doing great except that the birds and squirrels have found them. A net will be covering them from now on.

They must be harvested daily which is a labor of love. We finally have more than you can eat while picking so a few have made it to the freezer.

The middle section of the back (north) garden has seeds that mostly haven't sprouted yet. They are in the ground just waiting for the right moment to pop out.

As each row is planted the edges are raised to form a dam so the water will not run off.  After the plants are established a mulch will be added. We are expecting a drought this year...as always, so some new things are being tried. The onions will stand up straight after their roots are stronger.

Everything that needed to be planted early was placed against the perimeter fence.  

This bed is stuffed full. Snow peas are running up the back, onions will shade the spinach plants, and in the tiny space on the right beside the post will soon hold one pole Lima bean. It should vine up the fence and trail along the top. It looks crowded but one sizeable salad harvest will thin it out quite well. The snow pea leaves are also delicious in green salads.

The potatoes are thriving in the back corner. We planted more this year because canning fries in the air fryer has become a favorite winter dish.

These are the onions behind the potatoes that were planted last fall. Nothing could be moved and it threw off the new spacing of the beds. Spinach was squeezed in the thin space against the back fence. The tree leaves haven't completely come out yet so there is still plenty of sun. Hopefully the onions will be almost finished when it becomes shady and the spinach should appreciate the shadows.

Lettuce was tossed into the back corner because there was nowhere else available at the time.

The rest of the garden is sitting on the front porch waiting to be planted. 

Historically this season is known as the "starving time" when the past year's food has been consumed but the new garden isn't producing yet. My pantry inventory revealed we have eaten much of our food, way more than ever before. The shelves are bare enough to make me nervous. It has been a combination of learning new recipes and focusing on rotating the stock to avoid any waste that has emptied it out. We have improved our eating habits by relying less on the supermarket and more on the garden. However, it has shifted more work and responsibility to us and it has changed from a hobby to a necessity. I think my next hobby will be something easier like sitting on a couch deciding which movie to watch.

Last Month's March Garden (2026)

Last Year's April Garden (2025)