The first beds I planted are so lush and loaded with gorgeously vigorous specimens that it gives me great pleasure just to go outside and pet them. Especially the carrot greens. But we are all just agog at the sugar snap peas. They are outrageous. Seriously, they are as tall as Isaac. See?
Here's the big picture, and you get a view of my Mother's Day present just beyond.
You'll notice the ridiculous number of flowers on my snap and bush peas, as well as my green and beautiful carrot tops. The strawberries have done okay. I'm supposed to pinch off all the flowers this year and just let them spread, but we are far too fond of strawberries (and too impatient) for that. The boys each have eaten two ripe berries so far, and agree that they far exceed store-bought berries in quality. The local birds ate about ten before Daddy and I put a stop to that with some netting. I planted catnip and catgrass in the strawberry bed also to attract natural pedators. Don't mess with my garden, fools.
Anyway, I planted out my second set of beds early last week. Let me give you a tour. I'll step closer.
And here's a view from the back of the house. Daddy insisted on being all architectural. They are very comely, are they not?
In the topmost bed I have five different kinds of tomatoes -- Roma, Early Girl, Better Boy, Supersonic, and Sweet 100 (a cherry tomato). I planted basil seed around all of their bases, just like Martha Stewart told me to.
In the middle bed, I went a little crazy planting peppers.
I blame those nerds at Lowe's for selling me a six-pack of bell pepper plants when all I really wanted was one. In addition to those, I have an Orange Bell, a Poblano, a Jalopeno, a Cayenne, a Hungarian Wax, and a Yellow Hot. If these plants don't get too peeved at me for putting them so close together, we will have a very pretty pepper crop come July or August.
In the perimeter bed I planted two mounds of slicing cucumbers ('Straight Eight'), two mounds of pickling cucumbers ('Picklebush'), a mound of zucchini ('Black Beauty'), and a mound of 'Sugar Baby' watermelon for Daddy. I also planted dill between the cukes to facilitate pickle-making, and cilantro as well.