2013 Garden layout & the Knitting Loom

Due to the late spring we had this year (remember our May snow?), everything in the garden is a bit behind normal, and DEFINITELY way behind from where it was last year with the "early" spring we had.  

Paul and I are hoping we have trained Cassie enough to the hard work of gardening-n-the like, because she starts picking strawberries today for a local berry farm.  She's extremely excited for the possibilities of her first inflow of cash.  LOL.  

Thankfully, it's a perfect day for her first day.  Mostly cloudy and 70s.

Upon returning home from dropping her off, I headed to the garden to do a bit of TLC in the form of mulching the strawberries, and thinning/repotting the green beans.  This is the third year now where I've not simply thinned out the sickly looking green bean seedlings, but I've dug up plants and repositioned plants in order to spread them out for the growing season.  Using a third reserved row that was empty 'til today, I have them spaced about 6-8 inches apart now;  three rows of about 32 plants in each row.  Ummm........I really thought I sized down the green bean section this year, but coming off of a year of 105 plants, I guess I didn't size down afterall.  LOL.  Whoopsies!  We have 5 cases of green bean pints still in the root-cellar;  we really didn't need so many plants this year.  Ah well---that simply means that friends will be invited over again to enjoy our harvest as well.

Here's the layout of the garden this year......

L-R 

Raspberries (in drastic need of a haircut!), 

a small plot of strawberries mulched in the front, 

and some odds-n-ends of peppers that Paul filled in

L-R

left: 45 hills of white potatoes,  12 rows of corn behind the potatoes

middle: 10? pepper plants, 24 hills of red potatoes behind the peppers

right: 16 tomato plants, 3 rows of green beans behind the tomatoes

L-R from water tank...

row1: lettuce, a variety of radishes, dill, basil

row2: Cauliflower, celery

row3: a full row of peas, fenced for climbing vines

row4: carrots, kolarabi (sp?)

on the trellis: 12 cucumber plants, pole beans

cabbage (under the white covering)

last rows: onions

I did end up rescuing (only) 8 Roma tomato plants;  they are housed in the virtually empty upper garden.  With the late planting, we simply didn't bother with our spreading plants this year that need longer growing times (watermelon, squash, pumpkins, gourdes, ...)  Therefore, the upper garden is mostly empty.  Paul purchased a few varieties of berry bushes and planted them up there.  I have a feeling we are going to fill much of the space with berry bushes over the next couple of years and no longer use it for vegetables.

NOW.....
Since I absolutely lazed around yesterday watching Gangs of New York from 9AM - 1PM, cuddled on the couch, I am determined to get some sewing/quilting done today.  Although, I did play with one of Caitlyn's Christmas presents from last year....

When out looking the other day for some Knitting Knobby information, I watched several YouTube videos on the Knitting Loom.  One of them sparked an interest, so I asked Caitlyn to loan me her loom for a short time.  While watching some movies last night with the girls, I loomed away.  It's definitely a beginner's method, but something that any of the girls can take over with as well.  Besides, now I have a project that is readily available next to my glider :)

Alrighty.

Happy Saturday everyone!