What's happening in the vegetable garden

After nearly 2 weeks, I resowed the corn last Thursday (May 21), and covered the whole section with clear plastic. I've been taking up the plastic every other day to water. If I leave the plastic up for 5 minutes, the birds get right into the bed.

The peas are doing well. The carrots are doing well. The second seeding is starting to emerge.

A little bit from the second sowing of mache, but not much.

The lettuces are coming in well now. Looking forward to a garden salad one night soon.

The cucumbers are suddenly ailing. The seed leaves have mostly fallen off, and the second leaves are emerging, but the stalks are weak. Several of the plants have fallen over. I think we may have lost about half, and those remaining do not look strong.

The beans are doing a little bit better, but they don't seem to really be thriving. The seedlings haven't grown much since being planted out. Some of the leaves are getting brown and papery. No sign yet of the beans directed sown.

I fed everything this weekend. Did I mention the $40 spent on fish gut fertilizer? It stinks, but I've had success with it in the past. Vegetables need a lot of nutrients, especially in a densly planted urban garden. The leeks, especially, should benefit from some additional nutrients.

Sunlight is looking good this time of year. The tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and basil get 10 hours of sunlight. The lettuces, leeks, carrots and peas get 8 hours. The strawberries and herbs get 8. The cucumbers get 6.

Vegetable garden in May

The garden at 9am in early May.

Preparing the beds

March 21-22
Layout and dig the central bed.
Double dig the soil and mix spaghum moss and composted cow manure with the last of a bag of chicken poo.
It was 28F this morning and never topped 32.
There are no leaves yet on any of the trees and the sun is still low in the southern sky.
Central bed gets full sun from 9:30am-5pm, with some dappled sun in the early morning. In the evening a pine tree provides a shadow.
The western bed gets full sun from 9:30-4:30pm.
The eastern bed gets full fun from 12pm-5:15pm, with some dappled sun in the morning through the hedges which aren't grown in. There's also a large oak tree next door that provides shade here in the summer.