While building the raised beds this spring, I also wanted to make the garden a place of beauty and maybe have some things for the grandchildren. I have often read Annabelle the poem “Fairies,” by Rose Fyleman, and some of the references there have shown up in the garden. So here’s a bit of a picture gallery.

I have a weathervane and a few more items to install. Hopefully soon!

It started a couple of days ago with the tops of my Zucchini plants chewed off and a couple of tomatoes-on-the-vine half eaten. The incisor marks on these zucchinis point to a large rodent, likely the infamous groundhog. He must not have liked the zucchini, as he bit through the skin and stopped.

I bought a Trail Cam but haven’t set it up, yet as I will need to install a post to mount it on. Did I really expect to get by just by foiling the rabbits.

I tool the first batch of tomatoes over to the Food Pantry at St. Anne’s today. I let Annabelle pick them this weekend and I told her the story of how they go to feed people that don’t have enough to eat. I planted a bed of tomatoes just for the food pantry. Produce from other gardeners in the parish is starting to arrive, too.

The garden is exploding with the heat…

We’ve had temperatures i the 90s for the past couple of weeks and it has pushed the garden along. I picked the firs of the Early Girl II tomatoes on July 3 and had tomato toast for breakfast. This is almost two weeks later than last year, and I think due to the cold weather through May and into the first couple of weeks of June. The difference this year is that the plants are loaded with larger tomatoes and there will be a large number ripening soon, but the container garden is slow. I was behind on fertilizing but got that done over the weekend.

I picked a variety of vegetables and made a 4th of July Fritatta.

The first tomato ripened around July 1st. Because of all the chaos of trying to get the garden finished, Natalie returning from Europe, and 4th of July festivities, I did not record when the first tomato ripened. I think it was a Champion, not an Early Girl II. That’s about a week later than last year. I think the cool May and early June slowed down the ripening process.

The plants are vigorous and loaded with Tomatoes. The cherry tomatoes aren’t doing as well as I haven’t fertilized yet.

The crops are starting to come in. I picked a bunch of snow peas today, as well as harvesting all of my broccoli heads that were starting to bolt. I should have cut them yesterday. The heads were small, but a week of weather in the high 90s was too much for them. The peas and broccoli went in on April 30. It should have been at least a couple of weeks earlier. I probably should fertilize them next year.

I picked enough Shishito peppers earlier in the week to have with my dinner. I picked more Gypsy peppers today and have at least a dozen in the refrigerator, now.

I was sidetracked today by having to deal with a yellowjacket nest forming under the screened in porch. I called a pest control company, and they will be out on Monday afternoon to eliminate it.

I have many tennis ball sized tomatoes, but they are not ripening. I would have thought this extremely hot weather would have moved them along. When they ripen it will be a deluge of tomatoes.

I am considering the garden essentially done. I have a few odds and ends to do with lighting and putting up the weathervane. But is looks good and all of the plantings are done except for me to transplant some Hosta in front of Bed #1. I also have a fair-trade metal sculpture of the Tree of Life made by Haitian artisans from old oil barrels that will be arriving on Monday. I’ll hang it on the side of the barn as a focal point when looking down the garden path. It will also be a Laudato Si’ talking point for the grandkids.

Now that the mulch is installed, the garden is almost complete. I finished it up by planting some Japanese cucumber plants in the bed with the four plastic towers. I planted Crystal Apple cucumber seeds by the second tower, True Lemon cucumber seeds by the third tower and Lebanese cucumber seeds by the fourth tower. I planted green beans along the east side of that bed.

I replanted three rows of radishes as an experiment, although I am likely several weeks too late. I planted another pot of basil and another pot of slow-bolting cilantro from two packs of several year-old seeds in the container garden. I mixed and old package and new package of parsley seeds and planted them in the herb garden. I repotted a new large basil plant that I bought and set it on the lower deck, as the first plant died because of the cool weather and too much water retention in the pot. So, I am essentially done.

So how is the garden doing? First of all, there has been no rabbit or other animal damage so far. That was my intent in creating the raised beds and it seems to have worked. I might still need to deal with squirrels, groundhogs and raccoons. I can wrap the beds in 36-inch fencing if I need to.

Because of the construction, the cucumbers got planted almost a month late, and the zucchini was at least a couple of weeks late. The larger zucchini plants have blossoms already. It remains to be seen if they have enough of a root system to bear fruit. The rest of the important crops got in on time.

The radishes did extremely well, and I harvested the rest of them a couple of days ago. The Pak Choy bolted this week, and I had to pull out the remaining plants. Natalie and I used at least four plants earlier. The red lettuce is bitter and was mislabeled by Goebbert’s. It was supposed to be Red Romaine. It is bitter and I will probably compost it. The arugula bolted without producing any large leaves. Maybe I planted it too tight. The green onions are doing well, and the beets are growing okay, but the bulbs aren’t large.

I picked cilantro a few days ago and will have to figure out my timing on re-seeding.

There are a few gypsy peppers that can be picked, and I see some small Shishito peppers that might be ready withing the week, especially since it will be hot over the next week. I have one cherry tomato that is starting to ripen, and many of the Early Girl II and Champion tomato plants have golf ball sized fruit. I would expect my first tomato in a week or so.

Green peppers and eggplant went in a few weeks late and are not starting to fruit yet.

Maintenance is easy with the soft soil and higher beds. It takes me about an hour to water the whole garden. I am expecting to do more watering tan I had in the past.

All in all, I am extremely happy with the project. Planting was kind of a hodge podge as I was still building while planting. I might vary the location of plantings next year, but I think what I have done this year is quite workable.

Yesterday marked the completion of this long project to convert my entire garden to raised beds. The initial idea for this project came last August after voracious rabbits and other creatures destroyed my entire garden. I was inspired by an article in Better Homes and Gardens that showed a whole garden of raised beds.

There were three parts to the project. On March 31, I acquired and installed 6 raised planters from Lee Murdock’s brother. He was getting rid of them and I paid his landscaper to move them over. New Raised Planters | Mark’s Garden Blog

The next phase was to install a water spigot and hose rack in the garden. I ran a hose out to the garden and attached it to the new spigot, installed a lightweight hose to it and now I had water in the garden without having to drag a heavy hose across the lawn every time I wanted to water. New Water System | Mark’s Garden Blog

The third phase was to buy and assemble 15 metal raised beds, fill them with garden soil and finally to cover the paths between them with mulch.