January overview

I wish I could capture the whole garden effectively -- but I think I'd have to float over it to get a birds-eye view.

At any rate, I think of the backyard garden as a east-west split, with beds marching north, and then the original garden to the extreme east. That's how I'll deal with it in overviews, at least.

First shot -- east side, south looking north. The front two beds are lettuces and other greens, with a few napkin-spaced carrots overplanted with lettuces. That wasn't intentional. I'd given up on the carrots, or more likely, forgotten that they were there, and then they showed up. Late for the party, but all dressed up. What's a girl to do?


The front bed has been covered with Reemay (you can see it gathered up past it) and so has been very very moist. It's also getting lots of shade. At any rate, this fantastic orange fungus has grown on it. Every day it gets prettier.


The second bed has my pathetic Lacinato kale "crop." The birds have decimated it. Next year I must plant them earlier, and inside, and feed them well. They're going to have to be big boys and girls to make it through the winter, I'm afraid.


The shallots look wonderful. I hope they weren't all planted in clumps, as I see some of them. I know for a fact how many pounds I planted, so it will be easy to tell what the yield is.


And, continuing the "alliums on parade" theme, the garlic -- not as abundant as I'd hoped. I think it needs something.


Last, but not leeks -- I slay myself -- the keeper onions. These are an Italian variety on the left, and "Talon" on the right. We'll see how they go. I have a few more Talon to seed this week in the open spots.


On the left, to the east, are the hardest working girls in the garden. It wasn't sunny today, but apparently warm enough to fly. The left-hand hive was humming, literally. Bees flying in and out very quickly. The right had some activity, but not as much. There were more dead bees in front of that one. It will be interesting to get in there and see what's what on a really sunny day.

Other side!
Front is carrots and kale, then sweet peas, then asian greens, then a mix of all sorts.
On the right of that is what I call the "old garden." It's peas in the left and back bed, broccoli and shallots in the right side. I'm trying to rotate crops sanely. Those peas need strings. Hopefully tomorrow!

And the beds that were to be the kids' beds. Sometimes they announce that they're still in charge of this plot or that, and sometimes they plant things. The front right bed has an entire store-bought garlic bulb split and planted. It's doing pretty well!


In the third bed from the front is that vast planting of True Siberian kale from saved seed. It's going well, but is being visited by that scourge of the summer, powdery mildew. Instead of treating it, I'm feeding affected leaves to the chickens. They seem to be fans.


On the other end of that bed, I think this is some green mache. I've never grown it before and it's very very slow.


The Asian greens bed is doing well, but I'm still fighting weeds. I cleared out the eastern end of it but the tat soi is still awash in oxalis. Bleah.


At the far end of the last bed, here's some Green Beauty snow peas from Michelle. I thought the birds had gotten them, but they look like they'll do fine.


In the very back, the shelling peas are coming along. Here's how big the Alaskas are getting, podwise.


And here's the length of a typical Canoe pod. They're going to be fun.


A surprise in the rasperry bed, over by the chickens.


And this is making me actually pay attention. This tree, which we trimmed, still has a couple of vast branches way high up. They're high, but they are still over the back couple of beds. They're thick enough that they're making a rain shadow over the right part of the onions and some other stuff. I was amazed. I'd been counting on the rain to do all the work -- I'm going to have to monitor those beds and do some supplemental watering, I suppose. And yes, that ivy needs chopping back. The work never ends here at "yard in progress, inc."