I said this was going to be a learning season, but there is still a slight twinge of disappointment with some of the plants so far. The lettuce & greens never did much and the Spring veggies, broc, cabbage & brussel sprouts, the same. I think a couple of things were involved with that. Don’t think we got the early stuff in the ground as soon as we should have and I think that more watering was needed than I anticipated with the raised beds. We got a 3-4 day stretch of rain a couple of weeks ago and the plants started making more progress.

Now I am watering every other evening unless we get rain.

The good news is the tomato bed is doing quite well, as there is fruit on almost all the plants so far.

Peas and okra are coming up nicely as well.

This little guy was helping me water last evening.

Kitty nursed a curry plant inside through the winter that she found at the Indian market in Cary. She finally moved it’s pot outside when it was looking sort of yellow, but it didn’t make it. Fortunately it came back as volunteer purslane.

Thursday night, we went out to admire the beds and move the sprinkler and realized that the cherries were ripe enough to pick and that the net bag had kept the birds off the fruit so there were actually fruit available to pick.

I got the tree two years ago in my fruit tree planting frenzy and this is the first time we’ve really gotten to taste the produce.  They are sour cherries, which means better (in my opinion) in something rather than just good to snack on.

So, will it be cobbler or a very small batch of jam?  Decisions; decisions.

The Women’s Resource Center in Burlington, NC has a fundraising Herb Festival every Spring.

Left to right, they are Creeping Lemon, English, Foxley (which I”d gotten at the Carrboro Farmers’ Market a month ago.), Red Mother of and Transparent Yellow.

It cracks me up that the tall one is Creeping Thyme and that one is really, truly named Red Mother of (thyme).  It doesn’t look particularly red right now.  I’m hoping the sun will inspire it.  I had English thyme in the kitchen garden by the house until the lavender overwhelmed it, so it it the one I’m most familiar with.  I’m looking forward to using these because I really do love the flavor.

Installed critter netting today using standard 1″ PVC pipe and netting found online specifically designed for farming purposes. The pipe will allow us to use clear plastic in the winter for greenhouse/cold frame growing. I need to get some tent stakes to help anchor it. The wind today is blowing it around a bit.

From the house this is the back left bed.  Full of tomatoes.  Romas, Sweet 100s and some “heirloom slicing tomatoes” that Liane gave us when they had as many as they could use for Vimala’s Curryblossom Café.  I planted “French Double Dwarf Mixed Colors” marigold seeds in the holes on the outside edge.

This is the back right bed.  Chuck started “Little Marvel” peas, “Red Burgundy” okra and eggplants in the bed from seeds.  He also started “Ruby Red” Swiss chard and (mixed, orange yellow and white) carrots in pots and they have been transplanted, today.   Carrots in the left side holes (from this angle) and chard in the bed and in most of the other holes.

I, also, put marigold seeds in between the strawberries in the bed in front of this one.

Also, please note the outside of the blocks have been stained “Tuscan Sunset.”