The edible section of Garden Consultant HQ

Last year's vegetable gardening foray was pretty bleak with cool temperatures and loads of rain. This year is a completely different story and the veggies show it. I've rearranged some things this year to maximize light for those who need it and those who don't as well as rotating crops. Here's a basic view of the raised beds. The one on the far right is filled with strawberries. We had a great and early crop this season. Eric was able to get the nets out there early enough that we didn't lose much at all to birds and squirrels. I even made strawberry shortcake with our bountiful crop!

The bed to the left of the strawberries are green and yellow squash and onions. I really have to look up when to harvest onions because I have no clue. They are setting these fantastically tall white Allium flower buds and I'm eagerly awaiting what they will look like. Always thinking like a landscape designer I am! I took these photos a couple of weeks ago and the plants are much further along than they look here. We have several green squash coming and a couple of yellow ones developing. Again, things are a little early. I have also been fertilizing like crazy with fish emulsion and bat guano fertilizers just to see what would happen. I'm very pleased at the results to be completely honest.



In the far back bed which is getting shaded now from the neighbor's oak tree, I thought I would try to place some things that need it to be cooler. I have three types of lettuce there - bibb, red leaf and green leaf. The lettuces are thriving in their new box and I think that's where they will stay from now on. I have broccoli, cauliflower and pickling cukes in the front part of the bed. I'm wondering if the cukes will have enough light, but hey, this whole garden is one big yearly experiment on what will work and what won't.


The bed in front of the onions and squash house our beans, eggplant, and peppers. Something is really going after the peppers and I need to investigate who the culprit it. I think they will recover from the damage and I am seeing some flowers now.


In the last bed, I have the tomatoes. I have finally resigned to the fact 4 plants are enough for us because we end up throwing out piles of tomatoes that go bad before we can eat them. We actually did get sick of tomatoes after having mounds of them show up in the kitchen. So, this year, I have a red cherry, a yellow pear, a beefsteak, and romas. It's enough of a variety that I can make salads, cook, and eat fresh with.

Last but not least, one of our oddities this season - I purchased a banana tree from The Farmer's Daughter. Eric likes them and since I really don't have a place just yet for a hardy Banana, I thought one in a pot is the next best thing. I'm going to have to research this a little bit more and see if it will indeed fruit. I also just now realized, I am missing a couple of photos of the other edible oddities I have this year. I have a fig tree and a fruit bearing passion flower I bought this winter from Logee's. The fig is much more impressive than the passion flower is at the moment. I'll have to take some pictures of that and the new location of my herb pot ghetto for next time.