May's Garden (2026)

It is raining! The sky is gray, gloomy and I am taking pictures as it is sprinkling! It is wonderful. We shifted from severe drought to a week of slow drizzling rainfall. The everything has been revitalized. The old timers call this a "season rain" meaning it makes the garden successful and there will be plenty to eat come winter. 

Earlier this month was focused on getting the front (southern) part of the garden tilled. 

A few areas have been done but since this was originally the yard, the ground is rocky, weedy, and the dirt is hard clay. It is quite difficult. 

This is May's garden last year when we were installing the fence. It shows how much area has been added. Even though it is bigger, we still seem to be running out of planting space. 

This is Bermuda grass. It has runners that are deep and snap when you pull. Any remaining root will regrow. The ground is like concrete and the tiller won't fit in this tight spot. We plan on removing all we can then covering it with cardboard and mulch.

The soil is being built up at the base of the fence with leaves and compost. Closing the gap under the fence has stopped the rabbits, groundhogs, skunks, and armadillos from entering. They still can dig under but nothing has tried yet. Keeping them out has made a noticeable improvement.

The row beside the fence is being planted with a mixture of whatever is ready to transplant at that moment. This year's garden hasn't had much planning. Everything depends on getting the soil prepared. When a spot is ready, something is planted. 

The compost pile is being emptied to build the new rows and amend the soil. The left side was dug out and then we switched to the right. Weeds are being discarded on the left now. Never do I turn it over because it is too much work - waiting accomplishes the same result. Sometimes we fill it high and the next morning everything it is gone. There maybe a few thieves in the neighborhood. 

An army of fire ants are back in the garden. The colony hides under plants, swarms if you step too close, and it hurts when bitten! They are probably looking for moisture due to the drought so we give them all they want. Bill digs up their hills, drowns them along with their eggs in a bucket of water, and if they try to rebuild, he dumps the all the water back in the hole.

Usually, they will move to another area but this colony tried to rebuild in the bottom of the water hole. After another douse, the queen moved under the tomato plants. We will continue to chase them until they are away from the garden.

Anyone who has followed me for a long time will know growing summer squash in my area is impossible. Squash vine borers kill them yet for twenty years now every season I try something different to out smart them.This year they are under a new hoop house net (no holes anywhere) which is removed when the squash begins to bloom. 

These were bought at a local nursery and immediately placed under cover since the borers have attacked my starter plants on the front porch. The extra leaves have been stripped away, the vine tied up a stake to make it easier to spray the stem with mineral oil, and then it was sprinkled with wood ash. Soil has been mounded high over the stem for extra protection. Mulch won't be added so the soil can be regularly raked to not allow any hiding places. A local gardener said her grandfather always sprinkled wood ash as a repellent. She didn't know how much to use, or where to put it, or how often it was to be sprinkled so all of this is a guess. Wood ash changes the PH level of the soil so coffee grounds will be added to hopefully, restore balance.

 

The poor plant at the end of the row seems to have gotten a bit too much wood ash. It will be sacrificed as the control plant and will receive no help other than a cup of coffee to see if anything I am doing makes a difference. Perhaps all the borers will attack it and leave the others alone? Time will tell.

Maybe wood ash is squash vine borers' kryptonite? If it works, I can patent it and make a fortune!

Overall, the garden is doing fantastic now that it has rained. 

As for me, I'm drinking all the coffee I want without feeling guilty - it is to save the squash! They need the grounds. Seconds please. 

Last Month's April Garden (2026)

Last Year's May Garden (2025)

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)

March's Garden (2026)

This month's garden tour begins in the yard. Notice the mowed path in the tall grass and the missing trailer. The zero turn mower broke, followed by the death of the push mower as Bill was trying to cut this path to the garden. These breakdowns followed the dishwasher croaking right after we replaced the entire heating/air unit. The manure trailer is gone never to return because the two special sized tires which are needed to replace the flats cost more than the trailer is worth. The tiller is limping and in need of repair but at least for now, it is working.

We are tilling the whole garden this year and changing the directions of the rows from north/south to east/west. We have wondered if the different sun angle would improve the crops. Wide center aisles will be added to accommodate a man sized wheelbarrow (which is fine with me as long as a man is pushing it). The goal is to standardize the row sizes to make the hoop houses interchangeable. We are working ourselves to death trying to make life easier.

There will be a row along the edge of the fence going around the whole garden for tall things that need support. It is piled high with dirt at the base to dissuade anything from digging underneath. The aisles will be filled with raked leaves, pulled weeds, and hopefully, eventually grass clippings (when the mowers are repaired). Everything decomposed from past aisles is now mixed into the new planting beds and should make them better. We are hoping for a spectacular garden this year since some areas will be like new again.

The new design isn't exact due to winter crops that are still growing. There is a walk path between the winter onions and the fence. It will be planted with vegetables but it throws the spacing off for this the whole section. After the onions are harvested it might be rearranged now or sometime later. This is definitely a work in progress.

The beds must be raised because the garden is located on the side of a long sloping hill. The first year the garden was planted a hard rain washed everything away. A massive amount of stormwater runs through the garden forming streams. As long as the beds stay raised they are safe. The paths are the same level as the soil in the yard which has made us realize how much organic matter has been added over twenty-two years of gardening.

The upper half of the garden has been tilled once just to knock down the weeds. It has the newly built strawberry bed on the left which is beside the winter spinach in the middle and the fence corner holds the last of the now precious manure. All of this will be dealt with later.

What will absolutely, positively not be planted this year will be wax melons. Nine melons were produced on two plants last year and they either dropped unripe off the vine or rotted. This was the last one stored in the basement and it also molded. It was dumped with a vengeance in the compost pile where it can mold and rot all it wants.

A big success was achieved by my son Dustin. He has never grown anything so since his apartment has a balcony, last year I sent (forced) him to take a potted tomato. The balcony was too shady so the tomato languished. He couldn't bare to let the spindly vine freeze come winter so he brought it inside, balanced a grow light on buckets and boxes in the middle of his living room, and the grateful tomato thrived.  

Last week he sent it home to me and Bill has been dragging the heavy pot out on the sunny porch on warm days.

It even came with tomatoes.

I, the greedy gardener that I am, immediately began snipping the suckers and rooting them. They will be put in the garden as soon as it is warm. The original tomato will be planted after it has been trimmed back so it can recover from transplant shock. 

This is going to be the best garden year EVER! I'm the first person in my neighborhood to have ripe tomatoes in March! I'm so going to brag.

Last Month's February Garden (2026) 

Last Year's March Garden (2025)