el jardin

So, I had hoped to give a really nice garden update, with beautiful detailed photos of all my little babies who are growing so nicely out there in the dirt (and who are at the moment getting a nice long drink). But, some things were just not meant to be. Well, for now at least. I realize that polaroid is not necessarily the best way to view someone's garden. But the more I look at these shots, the more I find myself really liking them (I'm falling deeper and deeper into the hole). So here you go. My gardens as of June 10.
Salad greens, ready to be thinned out a bit, but already growing like mad. That's always the hardest part for me (Jared calls me the bad mommy when I have to "thin").

Tomatoes. Last year I had five tomato plants- romas and an heirloom variety called big rainbow (which I've been kicking myself for not replanting this year- they were so delicious, what was I thinking!?). I decided this year that I wanted more tomatoes. One of the main things I learned after my first garden last year was that I could have fit a lot more into the space I have. Last year, being a virgin gardener, I followed the seed packet instructions pretty darn closely regarding how far away to plant everything, and I think that wasn't really necessary. You definitely have to give things their space to grow, but they don't need to be quite as far apart as the seed companies say they do. So this year, I went a little overboard with the tomatoes: I planted 8 romas, 3 brandywines (another heirloom variety), and 3 cherry tomatoes (I think these will be a mix of yellow and red, I hope). I think I actually have room for one more, so I'm going to put in another brandywine as soon as the rain stops. I'm hoping to do a little bit of canning come August!
Oh the beans! I planted two varieties of beans this year: snap pole beans (which I did last year and were super delicious) and royal burgundy beans (the seeds were sent to me from Canada by the lovely Claudia- thank you!!). These are planted in my backyard and I've got about four rows altogether. I'm going to have to construct some kind of trellis so they have something to climb on, and maybe even a little fence since the rabbits do tend to hang out in the backyard.
Herbs: this is my mint and parsley. I've also got sage, cilantro, rosemary, basil, and thyme. The sage, mint, and thyme are back from last year (who knew those were perennials? Not me, what a lovely surprise!). The basil and rosemary I started from seed this year, so they're still kind of tiny. But I'm hoping to get enough basil to make some pesto to freeze. I also bought two each of cilantro and parsley plants, those are both herbs that I don't use frequently, and when I do I never need very much of it, so I hate buying them because I never use up the entire bunch and it's such a waste. The cilantro, however, I think I will use a lot since I planted four jalapeño plants and I'm hoping to make a bunch of salsa as well!

In addition to what's in these photos, I have much much more planted. Including: garlic chives, zucchini (green and yellow, although the yellow didn't come up so I'll have to redo that one), broccoli, golden beets, carrots, spinach, chard, and bell peppers. I also planted kale, but those seeds didn't come up either. I'll have to try those again. And this isn't even including the tons and tons of raspberries in the backyard as well. I'm keeping a garden journal (as I did last year), but I'll be keeping a record here as well. I've already found myself looking back at blog entries and flickr posts of my garden last summer and it's reminded me of when I planted and harvested stuff and how much, etc (I've re-read last year's journal as well, but I think the photos are more helpful). I hope you enjoy my gardening ramblings, but this is also my reference for next year as well. Phew. This is going to be a delicious summer.