New Year, New Garden

*B* is in his last year of graduate school, so the garden is mostly my project this year.

Every year we plant a ton of snap peas.  They grow really well, and they're delicious.  But this year, when we planted them, only three peas out of a whole 7 foot long raised bed sprouted!   And they don't look too healthy either:

So I planted another batch.  Best case, they all sprout and we get some great succession plantings.  Worst case, at least we have three that came up.

In between the rows of snap peas, I broadcast carrot and radish seeds together.  I read about it in this book we bought, Vegetable Gardening the Colonial Williamsburg Way.  The radishes help loosen up the soil, and the carrots fill in when you harvest the radishes.

We did buy two types of seedlings, jalapenos and celery.  The jalapenos went into our brand new beds

and the celery went into our cold frame.

*B* is really into perennial gardening, so we have some plants making a comeback.  We have stinging nettles

parsley on its second year

and mint is a perennial favorite in our house (ba dum sh).

 Thyme might just be my very favorite herb.  It's hard to see here, but it's thriving.

We got eight raspberries last year.  I'm hoping for at least ten this year.

This is scorzonera.  I don't know much about it, but it's one of *B*'s perennials that didn't do well last year.  Now it's three times the size it was last year.  Apparently, the leaves and roots are both edible.

And this little one is my lilac.  *B* bought it for me last year as an (almost) mother's day present. It's so very small that I thought it wouldn't last the year, but it's back!

We're planning on doing pumpkins, muskmelon, popcorn, squash, purple royalty pod beans, and tomatoes in the next few weeks.