April 4, 2016
Garden at the beginning of March
Garden at the beginning of April
Sooooo much has changed already! As we walk through the garden, you can see to the right, the fencing has been taken down and in its place is a big mound of mulch. That mound of mulch is one of our many potato patches. Behind it are some brassicas I transplanted from the greenhouses. 
To the left of that are some winter squash and nasturtiums that were transplanted from the greenhouses.
As we continue, there is another patch of brassicas. 
Sorry for the blurr…These were transplanted from the brassicas that overwintered on accident (brassicas I planted and had planned on transplanting last fall but never got around to it). I am definitely doing this every year! I put a shade cloth over them to protect them from bugs but nothing to protect them from the cold. It seemed as though they died but they came back this spring! I thinned them out and planted them in the cover to the left. I am going to transplant the rest this week. 
Between the two covered areas, I planted peas. they are just starting to push through the mulch. 
And the purple sprouting broccoli under the cover to the right are doing well (as well as some cilantro that overwintered). The next section has some more potato patches, some lettuce I transplanted from the greenhouses, and boxes. 
In the boxes, I have some eggplant and tomatoes, transplanted from the greenhouses, some overwintered spinach and carrots, and more potatoes! 
We moved the old chicken tractor (we grew tomatoes on this last year) past the boxes and are going to grow different types of melons over it this year. 
To the right of the chicken tractor is another patch of brassicas aaaaaaaaaand…another potato patch! This is the first one I planted and it has started sprouting!
As far as our perennial vegetables and fruits, more raspberries are popping up in our raspberry patch (we need to go ahead and put up supports), 
strawberries are popping through the mulch (and flowering!), 
the blueberries are being polinated, 
the new strawberry plants (June bearing) are becoming established, 
the asparagus are popping up (newly planted bed!), 
and the trees are setting fruit!
(peaches) 
(apples – can’t tell if it has really set fruit or not…) 
(pears)
I finished most of my TO DO list for March (plant potatoes, plant all of the greenhouses, plant cool weather seeds). All we lack to do is expand the chicken runs. For April, the TO DO list is pretty straight forward. PLANT, PLANT, PLANT and then plant some more! Our last frost date is April 21st. I have planted everything early because we have had an incredibly warm spring so far. Of course this week, some of our nights are dropping below freezing. Wonderful. I am going to cover the transplants with tops of milk jugs and hope for the best!
What are you doing in your garden? Are you harvesting already? We are harvesting some PSB and spinach here and there but mainly just waiting. 
There is SOOOO much work to be done! Always. Happy Gardening! 🙂
Check out what others are harvesting at Our Happy Acres today!
(Pear) 
(Peach not mulched. Just starting to bloom.) 
(Peach tree mulched. Bloomed several weeks earlier than the other.) 
(Blueberries with a carpenter?mason?bumble?bee. I don’t know but those fat bees that never sting are our main pollinators this time of year. LOVE them!) 
(Apple Tree)
The raspberry patch is newly mulched, keeping the weeds at bay. The raspberries are popping through the mulch.
As are the strawberries. They are a little yellow when they first pop through from being sun deprived all winter but they green up really quickly. We already have a couple of flowers.
This is also the first year I’ve grown ground cherries. They are looking good so far 🙂 
carrots & celery…and the 4yo 🙂 
Root vegetable hash w/carrots, beets, and potatoes 
Loving all the green! At first glance, the peas that I was worried about (yellow) greened up on their own, the peas surpassed the cabbage hoops, the fruit bushes and trees have really filled out! A lot more green altogether. Love it! 🙂
Lettuce 
Peas 
Beans 
More lettuce (maybe if I harvest them small (rather than heads), they won’t be as bitter?) 
Pretty pitiful patch of spinach 
another sowing of lettuce 
Kale 
and some carrots
the section by the driveway is doing much better (see pic below) 
(green and beautiful above, yellow and pitiful below – same patch) 
I threw some chicken manure on the yellow corn. This week has been really rainy so I am hoping all of the compost tea will help with the color and growth.
We are harvesting LARGE amounts of peas every other day.
Cabbages are not ready to be harvested but they are sizing up nicely. I am going to uncover them and see if they are healthy enough to withstand ‘the elements’ (ie. bugs). 
Here is a recently weeded and mulched section. So pretty 🙂 
These are the smaller of the tomatoes. The larger ones are setting fruit but I found horn worm droppings on them yesterday so I’m going to have to keep my eye out! 
Our summer and winter squash seem to be doing well (though I’ve already found 4 squash bugs – HATE those things!!!). The cucumber plant in the pic above actually has baby cucs on it now 🙂
Looking healthy! See the fencing falling down to the right of the picture? I didn’t notice and that night, something got in there and ate most of the berries 😦 The fence is back up and hopefully the strawberries are, once again, protected. 
Greener, and growing bigger, faster.
Gardening Without... 