One of the greatest things we did this fall was to fill one of the raised vegetable beds with tulip and garlic bulbs. Garlic bulbs are a no-brainer because you get garlic scapes in late spring with which to make pesto and the heads to store come late July. And the tulips were hugely successful and provided bouquets of cut flowers for the first few weeks of May. Once we hit the last frost date (May 15 for our area) we pulled the bulbs to make room for our main season crops. Since this is my daughter’s vegetable bed we had thought she would sell the flowers in bouquets to our CSA members but we bought mixed varieties at our local Agway. It worked well for flowers for the home but did not produce enough at any one time to make it worthwhile to sell. So, if you are looking to sell your flowers I would recommend choosing a single variety and harvest them all at once. If you want them for your own use and small gifts the mixed varieties was very charming.
The sweet peas went in the ground around May 1. Due to our late winter it is the latest I have ever gotten the sweet pea seedlings in the ground. Normally they go in around mid-March. Sweet peas (like snap peas) do not like the extreme heat so they really should be in full swing growing by mid-May to get to full flowering before the high heat of summer arrives. Let’s cross our fingers!
We sowed lots of Zinnias, Ammi majus, Verbena bonariensis and Snapdragons for cut flowers as well as Pink Swiss Chard which will complement the cut flower beds aesthetically and can be harvested for food. In a small homestead I think food should be for beauty as much as function.
72 Kale Scotch Blue seedlings ready for planting
Here are 72 Kale seedlings potted on by our high school intern Jacky a couple weeks ago. They are ready to be planted throughout the perennial borders next week to fill in gaps in planting as well as to provide a copious bounty of kale, that superfood we just can’t get enough of.
Rather than having a dedicated herb bed we intermix our herbs in all the perennial beds. It’s just yet another way to get you walking throughout your garden on a regular basis, observing your plants and the environment around you, seeing those small details you might otherwise miss.
Culinary Sage in full flower is a bright accent on a backdrop of Purple Smoke Bush and Hosta ‘Sum and Substance’
Looks at how great this culinary sage, that overwintered from last year, looks in the flower bed now. These flowers will be a fun garnish on everything from pasta to chicken to a martini!
Early in May we got the bare root red currants, gooseberries and strawberries in the ground. The gooseberries and red currants are being trained in a cordon along a fence to get the most production out of the smallest space as well as providing an elegant focal point. Right now they are rather small to photograph so you’ll have to wait until later in the season for their official unveiling. One row of strawberries is directly in front. And then we have planted a 4’x8’ bed of the cut flowers mentioned above in front bordered by an Arctic Willow hedge. The willow cuttings were purchased from Vermont Willow Nursery and I am modeling the hedge after that at Wethersfield Garden in Amenia, NY.
Arctic Willow Hedge at Wethersfield Garden
The willow provides a formal boundary to the floriferous bed and has a more ‘touchable’ look than boxwood. Furthermore, willow is a robust plant (one of our favorites here on Henny Penny Farm) unlike many of the boxwoods that suffer from blight or other diseases and insects.
And how could I talk about some of our flowers and not mention Dahlias? Those wonderful plants that provide tons of flowers and demand very little other than staking. They are not heavy feeders, insects don’t really bother them, and they provide endless cut flowers right up until the first heavy frosts. The dahlias were started indoors and just went outside this week to their summer homes.
Oh May, what is there not to love? The renewal after the long winter, the optimism of a season to come, the incessant energy of the ecosystem and the gardener as well. Simply bliss.
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