may in the garden: fruits of our labor

after the spring equinox, and now after beltane as well, the energy in the garden is rising quickly. see photos above - a difference from april 1 (left) and may 1 (right) shows clearly how quickly growth is coming on all around us. the gardens and the critters are really getting about and enjoying the warm, sunny, temperate -- albeit very dry -- weather we have been enjoying.

and with it the first fruits of the season! mangetout and snow peas from peaceful seedlings have shot up and are producing pods by the bucketful. greenhouse tomatoes have given us the first fresh tomatoes of the year. i harvested a few pounds of baby carrots (little finger and paris market).

first tomato was harvested on 23 april, 'washington cherry' from territorial seeds i believe. honestly, mealy and dry, scott gave it a 0/10 and spit it out into the compost. but they have been great for cooking with and topping foccacia, great flavor there! just not recommended for fresh eating i don't think. 'gold nugget' has been second to start fruiting, juicy yellow cherry tomatoes that just started ripening at the beginning of the month.

instead of relying on the super sweet snap peas from johnny's this year, i went through the process of ordering by mail from peaceful seedlings, and have tried several varieties of both mangetout and snow peas - 'spring blush' (right) is definitely my favorite. absolutely gorgeous, and much more complex flavor than standard breeding. 'ruby beauty' and 'blushing beauty' snow peas are deep red and purple - also beautiful. 'opal crescent' and 'ruby crescent' round out the colors on snap peas with lovely yellow and crimson pods. will definitely be saving seed from these for next year.

it's not just the veg garden that's putting in work, the ornamental beds are all looking great. the moon garden, especially our climbing rose 'iceberg' (david austin roses) have been lovely to see in the evening as the sun sets on the back garden. we added a few smaller hydrangeas to this border this year, and they are all looking gorgeous. sad to see the irises have already finished, but we have summer bulbs coming up in their place soon, along with the shasta daisies, gardenia, and annual cut flowers. and from the photos at least, you can't even tell we've had a drought. in drier times i use terracotta spikes to keep precious plants like the roses hydrated.

our native borders are dealing with the drought fairly well too. aquilegia and fringetree came and went as usual, irises again unbothered by the severe rain deficit - we need 15" in order to recover from how dry the spring has been. another unusual weather pattern for this year after an unseasonably warm early winter (january) and a surprisingly cold late winter (late february) have killed most of the plum blossoms off our tree. the amsonia died back a bit early but there have overall been very few plant losses in this part of the garden. these plants are now three years old and well filling in the space finally.

the wildlife have been feeling the drought as well. we have had many very friendly birds come by to drink from our stream, including an early season rose-breasted grosbeak. lizards abound and one has befriended my tomato plant as a good hiding spot from all the predators!

overall, it's shaping up to be a very enjoyable month in the garden before the heat of summer starts setting in. by the end of may, we should have our garlic harvested and lots of tomatoes. hoping a good bit of rain accompanies all that goodness.