I haven’t posted much about the gardens so far this year, but I have been busy planting.
Here’s what is happening:
I planted million bells in my wall baskets. I love having these here because they attract hummingbirds that I can see from my kitchen window.
The herb garden is growing really well. The cilantro from last summer/fall is blooming and I’ll let it go to seed and drop seeds in the bed and let some of them grow.
I decided to fill the pot between the garage doors with red geraniums this year.
I love my perennial bed on the north side of the house at this time of year. Everything is so fresh and green. The clematis vines are really putting on a show as are the tiarella (foam flower) and columbine. The peonies have just started to open and the astilbe won’t be long.
The cutting garden is a little out of control, but it’s much better now than it was a few weeks ago before I weeded and mulched. The nigella is about to bloom and the lunaria is setting seed heads. The peonies are starting to bloom over here too.
The gladiolus have really multiplied.
I planted Japanese and English style cucumbers on this side of the house. They don’t germinate well, so I only have 5 in the ground right now. I have more started in the cold frame and I hope to transplant them in the next couple of weeks.
I planted a bunch of butternut squash plants.
I’ve got tomatoes (grape and Cherokee purple) and poblano peppers in the cold frame, but I’m not going to plant them until after the new HVAC unit for the basement is installed because I don’t know how much room it will take. If you look closely you can see another cucumber poking up out of the soil.
I started basil seeds in these cans too. I’m going to have to thin these as well.
I have started planting my amaryllis bulbs out here and some of them are blooming.
You might remember that I planted a bunch of asparagus crowns last year, and I have been able to pick 4 or 5 lbs. from that batch.
And I planted 50 more crowns on the other side of the shed. They are coming up but they’re hard to see. The batch this year was not as developed as the ones I got in 2025, so I may not be able to pick from this patch until 2028.
I found these blueberry bushes for 50 percent off at my local Ace store. I am going to plant them up by the persimmons, and hazel nut bushes.
I planted yellow summer squash in this tub. They are growing really well, but it won’t be long before the squash bugs and vine borers come along…sigh.
I planted this tub with arugula. It’s just barely coming up, but once it gets started, it grows FAST.
I have red bibb lettuce and baby romaine lettuce planted in these tubs. The red bibb were really tiny when I transplanted them and you had to look hard to find them. They have really grown, so now they’re easy to see.
I planted pickling cucumbers in this tub. I will harvest enough to make pickles this year, and then I’ll pull them up and replace them with something else.
I am growing white potatoes in the beds that I have been using for sweet potatoes. I’ve planted yukon gold, red French fingerlings, and another variety of red potatoes that I can’t remember the name of. I will let them go a lot longer this year than last year since I am not planting sweet potatoes here. I may start another crop when I harvest these.
My husband built me a garden behind the potatoes in the corner of the fenced area and is going to put up gates to keep the deer out of here because I am going to try to grow sweet potatoes here. We’ll see how it goes. Fortunately sweet potato slips are inexpensive.
And now we’re back at the front of the house where the strawberries are. The bunnies have been VERY busy, but even with competition from them, I have managed to put a gallon of berries in the freezer.
So, we’re off to a really good start to the gardening season. I am optimistic about how things will do this year.
Cathy At Home on the River 