Garden Progress Report

Tiny apple

There's so much happening in the garden right now ... time for a progress report. First, let's start with the big picture. On the left is a full map of the orchard and on the right, vegetable garden detail (click to enlarge):

Apples are just starting to take shape. We removed the fence surrounding each individual tree, and the fence around the veggies, and put a single high fence around the entire orchard / garden area. The fence is critical to protect from deer, but the trees had outgrown their original fences. One big fence also makes it a lot easier to access everything. The fence has really made a difference with the strawberries this year ... In fact, just this morning I found two nearly-ripe berries so we should be picking by next weekend !!

Berries forming

The potatoes, planted just over a month ago, are coming along nicely. The mounds of dirt, left over from digging trenches for planting, were used for "hilling" this weekend. The extra dirt around each plant provides lots of room for potatoes to form. We'll need to hill once or twice more during the season.

Potatoes @ 5 weeks, after hilling

The snap peas are a little sparse:

Snap peas

But the shelling peas are thriving:

Peas in bloom ... nice full rows

We also have raspberries, lettuce, tomatoes and zucchini all moving along, but nothing photo-worthy yet! Stay tuned ...