The garden is ALIVE! With today being the last day of April, I wanted to get out there and check out what was growing before we go away for a long weekend. The herb garden is really starting to come along, as well as some of the plants in the veggie garden.
We planted some cold weather plants on April 11th which we purchased at a local garden center. Those plants consisted of Blue Curl Kale, Lacinato Kale, Rainbow Chard, Red Cabbage, Cauliflower, Beets, Red Onions and Leeks. So far everything is looking great, considering this spring has been very chilly and we did have some nights where frost threatened us.
The herb garden is looking good! We thought we lost a few plants, including our Rosemary and Sage but I saw green on both today, which made me really happy! We do have a second Sage plant to plant (it's in our kitchen window right now) but I'm just thankful that we will now have TWO!
Some of the other herbs that are thriving are: chives, anise, lemon balm, thyme, tarragon and lavender.
The rhubarb was another plant that I thought we had lost. I checked last week and there was NOTHING coming up...NOTHING. And then this weekend, I saw the red stems and leaves starting to pop through the mulch and I literally started jumping up and down! I was soo excited. I think the rhubarb plant is one of the most beautiful plants there are. And I love the fact that it comes back year, after year. I know we'll be adding some homemade goodies to our recipe section once I start harvesting the stems.
The garlic bed is looking amazing. We counted about 60 garlic plants. Matt planted about 70 cloves in October of 2014 and after a long, cold winter, we are definitely in for a great harvest of garlic early this summer. One clove grows into a bulb, so we'll be all set with garlic for the upcoming fall/winter.
Some of the seeds we planted in the beginning of April are starting to poke through the soil, but nothing too crazy just yet. I think after a few warm, sunny days, and maybe a nice rain storm, we'll start seeing a lot more pop up!
We have a lot of dandelions growing in the garden which will make for a great salad or tea. We only harvest the ones inside the garden as they are not run over with the lawn mower. The ones in the garden are nice and clean and healthy.
Overall, that is the Mayernik Garden for one month! I CANNOT wait until everything is planted and flowers/fruit are starting to grow. Please check back monthly to see how the garden is doing and to follow along on our journey of Northern New Jersey gardeners!