Welcome to the Kronenberg's Blog: Our Garden

Our neighbors and friends are always asking, "How's the garden doing this year"?? Last week, I took a few photos and thought I'd bring everyone up to date:

This is the 2nd year for our strawberries and they are doing pretty good. I keep them covered with netting so we don't have to share them with the birds. Last year we lost most of the crop to the birds.

About twice a week we get a handful of strawberries from our patch. We are using them on our morning cereal and in smoothies.

The lettuce is doing very well this year. Last year we didn't get any lettuce. The cabbage and broccoli is also doing much better. Dave added soil amendment to all the beds which was a BIG help.

The cucumbers are just now starting to sprout. I started most everything from seed, so my garden is about a month behind everyone else's. I waited until I was absolutely sure the frost season was over before planting my seeds. A couple of times I still had to cover the beds the last week of May to save my plants.

The peas are doing fabulous. They are taller than me. And this morning when I went out to check the garden, looks like I will need to harvest fresh peas this week. Dave will love this - his favorite is fresh peas. I picked one and popped it in my mouth, it was so sweet and delicious.

This year I decided to try growing tomatillos. The plants are doing very well and this morning I have little tomatillos on the plants. Can we say yummy green salsa in about a month?!!

The tomatoes are also doing so much better this year, and I noticed this morning that I now have baby tomatoes. We will also have some fresh garden tomatoes in about a month, if all goes well. My favorite is to pick a tomato out of the garden, sprinkle some salt on it and eat it while it's still sunshine warm. mmm so good.

The green peppers are still small and struggling, but I noticed that they have blooms. So there is still hope for them. Maybe a shot of Miracle Grow if they continue to struggle much longer. I try my best to be organic, but sometimes the little guys need a shot in the arm to get growing.

The darn birds got to my green beans and dug up most of them, so a couple days ago I had to replant 2/3 of the section again. The good thing is green beans are pretty quick to sprout. The first planting of corn did not come up at all. I think my seed was just too old and the weather was too cold. I purchased new seeds and replanted this week. It takes 63 days till harvest, so that will put me at mid September with corn, if I'm lucky.

Now my potatoes are just going WILD this year!! In fact 1/3 of the planter box was volunteer plants from last year!!! I thought we dug up all those potatoes, but I guess we missed a couple. I planted just a few carrots, but they are covered over by the potato plants. Once I harvest a few potatoes, the carrots will really take off. When I looked this morning both potatoes and carrots were doing very well. I will probably do a test dig next week to see how the potatoes are doing and harvest a few new potatoes for dinner.

All in all I think my garden is doing much better than last year. And as with all gardens, they are a work in progress. It took about 5 years at the other house before we had our garden producing the way we wanted. We are already far ahead with this garden.

Of course where would I be without my trusty little pot of basil. My old basil plant finally gave out and went to "basil heaven" after more than 4 years. So I am now starting a new one. I always keep this on the patio just by the door, so I can always step outside and snip a handful for cooking. I can't think of anything that taste more wonderful than fresh tomatoes, basil, mozzarella cheese with just a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar... oh my gosh!!

Dave and I purchased a couple of raspberry bushes and planted them this spring. We have already gotten a few berries to taste, very yummy. In a couple of years when these grow and really start producing, we will have some good tasting treats.