Here in New England, the growing season doesn’t really get started until June so May is a time when gardening is more about anxious anticipation and some very small, special signs of life. So please join us on a photo tour of our Garden in May.
I have tried to capture several shots of all of our plants while they’re still cute and small as well as visitors like a fuzzy spider in our bee and bug hotel, and the kids helping take care of seedlings or prep the raised beds.
We have added several new plants and infrastructure this year. A fence is coming to surround the main garden area, protecting it from dogs, bunnies, and wandering toddlers.
The most exciting new addition is that we got a 5 in 1 apple tree… I could not be more thrilled. It has Gala, Braeburn, Red Macintosh, Fuji, and Honeycrisp. We planted a frozen swordfish carcass under it so that it will slowly fertilize it; we have really great success with this approach 2 years ago with an elderberry bush.
There was a really intense rainstorm in the middle of the month that drastically changed the look and shape of the garden. Peas shot up several inches over night. Carrots got their umbels and 2-3 inches of growth — neither were there the day before. And the strawberries really started popping up. It’s hard to believe our whole strawberry patch started with 3 plants just 2-3 years ago.
Finally, we’ve added about 200 square feet of grow space this year including two herb beds and two big 3-sisters beds. A neighbor found some discount hibiscus plants that we are happy to have to harvest for lemonade! Three of the beds are actually grow bags. I bought them from Bootstrap Farmer because I felt like it was a pretty inexpensive investment for 3 years of beds and it saved Chris the time so he could focus on the fence and other projects.
I had the pleasure of sharing seeds and seedlings with 3 neighbors on our street, several more neighbors in our town, my mom in Oklahoma, a friend in New Hampshire, and a couple of other local-ish friends.
Here are some of the suppliers we used to improve our Garden this May.
Everything mentioned is exactly where and what we purchased. We may earn from qualifying purchases; affiliate links indicated with {*}:
- We got a *set of three 200 gallon Grow bags from Bootstrap Farmer. They have other, smaller sizes too.
- Three separate orders went out to *Botanical Interests for seeds. I am most excited about my Black Popcorn, Tonda di Parigi Carrot seeds, Chief Red Flame Celosia, and Chris is most excited about Ghost peppers!
- We had our first pests of the season. I know it’s caterpillars, but unfortunately I can’t see them or find their eggs. I believe in manual removal first, but we are using *BT which is an organic and all natural method that also doesn’t disrupt pollinators.
- Our 5 in 1 Apple tree came from local Massachusetts nursery, McCue’s Garden Center in Woburn. They are supplied by Monrovia.com
- While we had a ton of seeds we started, we did collect a few plants from McCue’s in Woburn, Mahoney’s in Winchester, and LexFarm in Lexington.
- Back in February, we bought a ton of seeds from Johnny’s like storage carrots, potatoes, squashes, and more.
- Surprisingly, I got several things at the Dollar Tree like pruning shears, *twine, and a couple of nice rain gauges.
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