Gardening - or how to feed the wild birds and beasties!!!!

Ugh - I just came back from my second sojourn in the garden this week.  We've been having monsoon rains and chill weather.  Even so - it would have helped a LOT if I had watered my greenhouse plants (which are ok - but definitely NOT happy with me - understandably!)

Now my strawberries look fine and are berrying up just great!  My horseradish plant is HUGE. And my Asparagus (all 4 plants out of 25 - and I'm NOT counting the first 25 of which 2 survived SOMEPLACE!) was quite good and is now going to seed!  The Rhubarb (one out of 5 - I - um - killed two others - late evening and having a hoe in my hands - BAD combination!)

Let me explain - with pix - sometime eons ago (April???? maybe even March) it was warm and the calendar said for THIS region - go ahead and plant peas.  So I created my bed for peas.  and one for beans as well as 2 for salad crops, coles, greens.

Planted it - watered it maybe twice (it was very dry at this time) - and then we had a cold snap - even a freeze! (which wiped out most of my sweet potatoes - more on that in a bit).  Eventually - somewhere around the last part of April I had ONE pea sprout.  ONE mind you!  Of the gazillion I planted!  A week later I had almost a goodly number - in THAT bed.  Mind you - there are 7 beds devoted to peas - with 2 being planted AFTER frost time is over (and the monsoons stop long enough for me to wade out there)


As for the REST of the beds (there are 6  4x4 beds - but 2 not planted in - so that's four more planted....)

So now - I don't know for sure what to do.  It IS late for planting peas - PLUS I know that if I did - EVERYTHING would come up - from this year and obviously the previous years (despite having planted in different beds the previous years) and it would be a royal mess! 

Now it is time to get the beans in.  Unfortunately beans have a nasty tendency to rot in cold ground (cold snap and monsoon - remember?) so I still have to put up the fence there - which is looking sad at the moment

Same situation for Sweet corn - and I suspect tomatoes/peppers/eggplant this week -= it has just been entirely too cool for them. 

Just like it was really too cool for sweet potatoes (which I knew WHEN I PLANTED THEM!!!!) and the poor dears have a tendency to croak.  I really feel guilty about this!  And royally ticked at myself because I KNOW better!

I planted potatoes and root crops - and don't really expect MOST of the root crops to make their appearance yet - since they like to sleep late.  This includes such things as Hamburg parsley, Parsnip, Salsify, Scorzonera.  However I DO have some beets, and a few radishes (to mark the rows) have appeared!  Also the birds haven't figured out where these plants are yet. 

Re the potatoes - the look great!  Weedy - but great!

And then there's the salad section - or should I say Onion patch?  Re lettuce and such - it is REALLY tiny and virtually non-existent in part because of the weather and in part because of the rabbits!

Finally there are the cabbages and coles.  They looked REALLY nice all planted out - a LOT of everything.  That was up until the birds discovered them - and as per usual played dive bomb the plant - snipping the tops off and dropping them in various other beds.  This is all that I have left - These are mostly cauliflower, a few broccoli.  My brussel sprouts, red cabbage, and all the cabbage and collards are gone!  However I still have some seed left - and will plant out in the garden this weekend and grow them from there for fall plantings.  Still and all - I am NOT a happy camper!

Thoughts for next year - Get the greenhouse going earlier.  Set ALL fences, etc. in place.  Make sure all fertilizers are on the ground at the proper time.  And DEFINITELY get bright and shiny stuff to wave in the wind and to throw the birds' attack patterns off!!  Either that - or resort to the beer can garden again - which is always hard since I don't usually drink beer!